Latest / Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive / April 11, 2021 | True Story - How To Doubt Faithfully

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April 11, 2021 | True Story - How To Doubt Faithfully · Topeka Bible Church Audio Archive

• 0:00
  SPEAKER_00: Good morning, everybody.
• 0:02
  SPEAKER_00: Good to see you.
• 0:03
  SPEAKER_00: My name's Connor, the student pastor here at TBC, and it's great to see you.
• 0:08
  SPEAKER_00: We are continuing our series called True Story This Morning and throughout the month of April, where we are looking at the resurrection accounts of Christ.
• 0:17
  SPEAKER_00: If you didn't know, he rose from the dead, got a late checkout policy, stayed for another 40 days, and appeared to hundreds of different people.
• 0:25
  SPEAKER_00: And so we are going to be looking at some of these different accounts.
• 0:28
  SPEAKER_00: And our story this morning, I'll get to in a second, but hopefully, as a way to illustrate my point, quick story for you.
• 0:37
  SPEAKER_00: When I was in high school, we lived out on the east side of town, and we had a skunk who decided to live next to our house.
• 0:48
  SPEAKER_00: Broden, right next to the foundation, and it decided it was going to make its home there.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: We disagreed, so we called somebody to trap it.
• 0:58
  SPEAKER_00: And over the course, and it didn't just disappear right away.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: It had a family.
• 1:03
  SPEAKER_00: And so it wasn't just one, not two, not three, but four skunks who lived right next to our house for a while.
• 1:12
  SPEAKER_00: And as each one of them was sort of taken off to its new happy little home, it left a parting gift, right?
• 1:21
  SPEAKER_00: And so for a couple weeks, um our for about a week or two, our home smelled like a skunk, right?
• 1:31
  SPEAKER_00: So I go to school one day, and I've got band class, alto saxophone.
• 1:38
  SPEAKER_00: It's not important to the story, but that's what I played.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: And so we are, I'm in band class, it's first hour, and the person sitting right next to me goes, do you smell something?
• 1:53
  SPEAKER_00: And see, by this time, I'm like desensitized to it.
• 1:56
  SPEAKER_00: I've been living with it, and so I'm like, No, I don't.
• 2:00
  SPEAKER_00: What do you smell?
• 2:01
  SPEAKER_00: And she's like, something smells like a skunk.
• 2:03
  SPEAKER_00: I'm like, that's so weird.
• 2:06
  SPEAKER_00: And so then, like, and if you've ever been in band, you know, it's sort of these concentric half circles, and so then the row in front of us and behind us are like, what is that smell?
• 2:16
  SPEAKER_00: And so I'm like, I will help you look for it.
• 2:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's, you know, sort of.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: And then finally, our band, my band teacher catches on and he figures out, basically, sort of is able to narrow it down.
• 2:27
  SPEAKER_00: It's like, everybody around this circle seems to be smelling a skunk.
• 2:31
  SPEAKER_00: And he's like, Connor, you smell terrible.
• 2:35
  SPEAKER_00: Go home because you're disrupting band practice.
• 2:40
  SPEAKER_00: And so I had to go home, I had to call my mom and have her pick me up because I got sent home from school because I smelled like a skunk.
• 2:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now imagine if, for the rest of high school and since that time, everybody had referred to me as Skunky Krause.
• 2:57
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 2:58
  SPEAKER_00: Now imagine 2,000 years from now, everybody referred to me.
• 3:05
  SPEAKER_00: Not that anybody will refer to me in 2,000 years, but everybody referred to me as Skunky Krause.
• 3:11
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about doubting Thomas for a second, okay?
• 3:18
  SPEAKER_00: This guy has been labeled by his worst moment for all of history.
• 3:25
  SPEAKER_00: And it's not that fair.
• 3:27
  SPEAKER_00: He does have a moment we're gonna get to, by the way, our text this morning is in John 20, so if you would like to turn to that and follow along.
• 3:34
  SPEAKER_00: But this painting by Carvaggio, who's an Italian painter, sort of depicts Thomas in his worst moment and the moment that we are all familiar with, where he doubted the resurrection of Christ.
• 3:48
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Thomas, before we get into the story, had some great moments before now.
• 3:53
  SPEAKER_00: Two in particular.
• 3:55
  SPEAKER_00: One is when Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead.
• 4:00
  SPEAKER_00: Um, they're going back into a town where they had previously been threatened by stoning.
• 4:06
  SPEAKER_00: And the disciples are like, Are you sure you want to go back there?
• 4:09
  SPEAKER_00: And Thomas is like, let's go back there.
• 4:12
  SPEAKER_00: And if Jesus dies, we'll die with him.
• 4:14
  SPEAKER_00: Like, okay, it's a good moment, Thomas.
• 4:17
  SPEAKER_00: We're stand up for it.
• 4:18
  SPEAKER_00: Uh, next one is in John 14, very famous.
• 4:22
  SPEAKER_00: Uh Thomas sort of uh softballs this question to Jesus and saying, uh, where you're going, how do we get there?
• 4:30
  SPEAKER_00: And Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life, and no one comes to the Father except through me.
• 4:35
  SPEAKER_00: That was Thomas.
• 4:36
  SPEAKER_00: So Thomas has some great moments, okay?
• 4:39
  SPEAKER_00: Um, but like I said, we sort of know him for his worst.
• 4:44
  SPEAKER_00: And this morning we're gonna use this story to discuss doubt, how we process doubt, how we work through it, and whether we are going to sort of languish in this pit of despair, or are we going to use it to draw deeper into our faith with Christ?
• 4:59
  SPEAKER_00: But first of all, I would like to read to you John 20 so that we can have the account, we can be filled with God's word.
• 5:06
  SPEAKER_00: And uh Thomas' part is at the end, but it's all important.
• 5:10
  SPEAKER_00: So I'll start in verse one.
• 5:14
  SPEAKER_00: Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance.
• 5:22
  SPEAKER_00: So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don't know where they have put him.
• 5:31
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter and the other disciples started for the tomb.
• 5:33
  SPEAKER_00: Both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
• 5:38
  SPEAKER_00: By the way, John is talking about himself.
• 5:41
  SPEAKER_00: John is the disciple that Peter or that Jesus loved, and so Peter and John are racing to the tomb, and John included it in God's holy word that he beat Peter to the tomb.
• 5:54
  SPEAKER_00: Verse 5, he bent over and looked in at the strips.
• 5:57
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, excuse me, both were running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
• 6:03
  SPEAKER_00: He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there, but did not go in.
• 6:07
  SPEAKER_00: Then Simon Peter, who was behind him, arrived and went into the tomb.
• 6:12
  SPEAKER_00: He saw the strips of linen lying there, as well as the burial cloth that was folded up by itself, separate from the linen.
• 6:19
  SPEAKER_00: Finally, the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went inside.
• 6:24
  SPEAKER_00: He saw and believed.
• 6:26
  SPEAKER_00: They still did not understand from Scripture that Jesus had to rise from the dead.
• 6:31
  SPEAKER_00: Then the disciples went back to their homes, because at this point in time the disciples, not only the ones here, but very quickly we're going to find out the disciples are troubled and don't believe that the resurrection has yet happened.
• 6:44
  SPEAKER_00: But Mary stood outside the tomb crying.
• 6:47
  SPEAKER_00: As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb and saw two angels in white seated where Jesus' body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot.
• 6:55
  SPEAKER_00: They asked her, Woman, why are you crying?
• 6:57
  SPEAKER_00: They have taken my Lord away, she said, and I don't know where they have put him.
• 7:01
  SPEAKER_00: At this she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize that it was Jesus.
• 7:07
  SPEAKER_00: Woman, he said, Why are you crying?
• 7:10
  SPEAKER_00: Who is it you are looking for?
• 7:11
  SPEAKER_00: Thinking he was the gardener, she said, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.
• 7:18
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to her, Mary.
• 7:20
  SPEAKER_00: She turned toward him and cried out in Aramaic, Raboni, which means teacher.
• 7:25
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said, Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet returned to the Father.
• 7:29
  SPEAKER_00: Go and stead to my brothers and tell them, I am returning to my father and your father, to my God and your God.
• 7:35
  SPEAKER_00: Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news.
• 7:38
  SPEAKER_00: I have seen the Lord.
• 7:39
  SPEAKER_00: And she told them that she had seen um she had said these things to her.
• 7:46
  SPEAKER_00: On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
• 7:55
  SPEAKER_00: After he said this, he showed them his hands inside.
• 7:58
  SPEAKER_00: The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
• 8:00
  SPEAKER_00: Again Jesus said, Peace be with you.
• 8:02
  SPEAKER_00: As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.
• 8:05
  SPEAKER_00: And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit.
• 8:08
  SPEAKER_00: If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven.
• 8:11
  SPEAKER_00: If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.
• 8:14
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Thomas, called Didymus, one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
• 8:20
  SPEAKER_00: So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
• 8:23
  SPEAKER_00: But he said to them, Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.
• 8:34
  SPEAKER_00: A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.
• 8:38
  SPEAKER_00: Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Boo.
• 8:42
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 8:43
  SPEAKER_00: Peace be with you.
• 8:44
  SPEAKER_00: Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, see my hands.
• 8:48
  SPEAKER_00: Reach out your hand and put it into my side.
• 8:51
  SPEAKER_00: Stop doubting and believe.
• 8:53
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas said to him, My Lord and my God.
• 8:55
  SPEAKER_00: Then Jesus told him, Because you have seen me, you have believed.
• 8:59
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
• 9:02
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
• 9:16
  SPEAKER_00: So just to kind of recap there a little bit, what's going on is after the resurrection has happened, well, specifically after the crucifixion has happened, the disciples are nervous, eleven of them remaining, and they go back to the upper room where they had the Passover meal, the Last Supper, and they have it locked, and they are they're awaiting because they don't know what's going to happen.
• 9:41
  SPEAKER_00: I mean, they just saw the Jewish sort of ruling party of the day, and their leaders kill their leader, kill Jesus.
• 9:50
  SPEAKER_00: And so they don't know are they going to come for them, what's going to happen.
• 9:53
  SPEAKER_00: And beyond that, up until he appears to them, they don't believe the account of the resurrection.
• 10:00
  SPEAKER_00: So that's what's happening the first day, okay?
• 10:03
  SPEAKER_00: The Sunday that Jesus rose from the dead, they're meeting in the room, he meets with them that evening.
• 10:09
  SPEAKER_00: A week later, Thomas is with them.
• 10:12
  SPEAKER_00: He wasn't with them for whatever reason the first time.
• 10:14
  SPEAKER_00: And that is when we get the account that we're looking at this morning.
• 10:18
  SPEAKER_00: Now, the the purpose of this story for us is we want to learn and answer the question: what is doubt?
• 10:26
  SPEAKER_00: And furthermore, how do we handle doubt?
• 10:32
  SPEAKER_00: There was a poll done in 2017 from the Barna group, and this is what they said.
• 10:37
  SPEAKER_00: That for those who self-identify as Christian, 65% of them have experienced doubt in the past.
• 10:46
  SPEAKER_00: One quarter or 26% say they still experience spiritual doubt.
• 10:51
  SPEAKER_00: Only about one-third, 35% claim to have never experienced it at all.
• 10:56
  SPEAKER_00: And I would submit that that last statistic about Christians, one-third who have never faced doubt, is misleading.
• 11:05
  SPEAKER_00: I don't know about you, I have certainly faced doubt.
• 11:08
  SPEAKER_00: And while it has not reached the core of my being, so much so that I have rejected my faith, there have been times in my life where my doubts have been very strong.
• 11:20
  SPEAKER_00: And doubt, let's set a sort of a definition for us this morning.
• 11:25
  SPEAKER_00: Doubt is maybe not the most helpful way to reference it.
• 11:28
  SPEAKER_00: What is doubt?
• 11:30
  SPEAKER_00: Doubt is the failure to trust.
• 11:32
  SPEAKER_00: And we face doubt in a lot of places in our lives.
• 11:35
  SPEAKER_00: We can fail to trust that a coworker is going to complete an assignment, fail to trust that a friend's promises to change are actually going to happen.
• 11:45
  SPEAKER_00: Fail to trust a doctor's diagnosis.
• 11:48
  SPEAKER_00: Fail to trust a child that they're not going to cheat on the next game of shoots and ladders, right?
• 11:55
  SPEAKER_00: But doubt ultimately is a failure to trust.
• 12:00
  SPEAKER_00: And when we look at doubt, there are two ways that we can walk through it.
• 12:04
  SPEAKER_00: One is devotion, because there is sort of like a toy car that you pull back, grows in tension, and then you release and it rockets forward.
• 12:12
  SPEAKER_00: There is a way that we can walk through our doubts and be stronger on the other side than we are currently, in the midst of this valley.
• 12:20
  SPEAKER_00: But there is also despair.
• 12:23
  SPEAKER_00: And unfortunately, that's where so many of us have found ourselves at one point or the other, because we haven't been able to walk forward into devotion.
• 12:31
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to get to that.
• 12:32
  SPEAKER_00: That's where we're going to finish this morning.
• 12:34
  SPEAKER_00: But right now, I want to talk with you about despair.
• 12:37
  SPEAKER_00: Despair, it is cancerous, it is pervasive.
• 12:44
  SPEAKER_00: It sort of sends its roots into every single part of our life.
• 12:48
  SPEAKER_00: And when we move from doubt and struggle so much with it that it just becomes all-consuming, we begin to pull back from the things that we love.
• 12:58
  SPEAKER_00: We begin to pull back from the faith that we have once known.
• 13:02
  SPEAKER_00: And we reject at sometimes the God of the universe himself.
• 13:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you have identified with Thomas before when he says, I will never believe to the disciples.
• 13:15
  SPEAKER_00: They come to him, they tell him, and by the way, in the Greek, this told him, it's in the imperfect, which means that they have continued to tell him that they have seen the Lord.
• 13:25
  SPEAKER_00: In the week that passes between their witness and Thomas's witness, they're like, No, Thomas, you need to understand, we've seen the Lord.
• 13:33
  SPEAKER_00: He has risen from the dead.
• 13:35
  SPEAKER_00: And Thomas, in a sign that will be so important as we walk forward, sets his own conditions.
• 13:42
  SPEAKER_00: He says, unless I see it with my own eyes, and not only that, unless I can touch it in case it's some sort of illusion, then I am never going to believe.
• 13:52
  SPEAKER_00: Now, on this spectrum of unbelief, we can find ourselves a number of different places.
• 13:58
  SPEAKER_00: For some of us, unbelief is to the furthest extent.
• 14:02
  SPEAKER_00: Atheist or agnostic.
• 14:04
  SPEAKER_00: We have failed to trust that there is even a God of the universe.
• 14:08
  SPEAKER_00: And this account, this true story, as we're walking through the resurrection, it seems like a myth and a fable.
• 14:14
  SPEAKER_00: That is the furthest end.
• 14:16
  SPEAKER_00: And what I hope to show you in a moment is that that is actually irrational.
• 14:22
  SPEAKER_00: But as we walk forward, there are other places where Christians find unbelief too.
• 14:30
  SPEAKER_00: We doubt, fail to trust the promises of God.
• 14:35
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe there's a part of this story itself, you're like, I believe everything about Jesus, that he died for my sins, that he is my savior, but I don't believe in the resurrection of the dead.
• 14:46
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you don't believe that God desires to have a relationship with you, even though he has said it over and over and over again.
• 14:54
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps you believe, and therefore doubt, that your relationship with God can be something that can even happen due to mistakes in your past.
• 15:05
  SPEAKER_00: You have said, I will never believe, and that is your sort of abiding remark.
• 15:11
  SPEAKER_00: This is a picture of a black hole.
• 15:14
  SPEAKER_00: Okay?
• 15:15
  SPEAKER_00: Now, this it's fuzzy because it's 55 million light years away.
• 15:18
  SPEAKER_00: Let's cut them some slack, okay?
• 15:21
  SPEAKER_00: And the black hole is something that a black hole is something that has been hypothesized since the 18th century.
• 15:29
  SPEAKER_00: They were observing the stars and the cosmos and said, there has to be something that makes sense of why the stars are moving the way that they do.
• 15:39
  SPEAKER_00: And then we get to, you know, the 20th century in the special theory of relativity.
• 15:45
  SPEAKER_00: It relies upon the black hole as a bender of space and time.
• 15:51
  SPEAKER_00: And then you get to 1971, when for the first time scientists discovered that black holes actually existed.
• 15:58
  SPEAKER_00: But it wasn't until 2019 that we got a picture of one.
• 16:04
  SPEAKER_00: Now, I don't know why this is the case, but for many people, the existence of a black hole was much more of a reality based upon all of the evidence that surrounded it, even though they could not see it than God.
• 16:20
  SPEAKER_00: They said, this is okay for us.
• 16:23
  SPEAKER_00: We recognize that the observable universe and all the math, it works out and points inextricably to this thing that we can't see.
• 16:32
  SPEAKER_00: And so we're going to operate believing in this.
• 16:37
  SPEAKER_00: And we're going to continue walking forward, not doubting that black holes exist as much, but trying to prove their existence.
• 16:44
  SPEAKER_00: And lo and behold, they were proved right.
• 16:47
  SPEAKER_00: So here's the painful part about doubt is that ultimately doubt is self-centered.
• 16:57
  SPEAKER_00: And I want to be merciful to those who are doubting because of some really intense pain.
• 17:04
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe you've lost someone that you loved.
• 17:07
  SPEAKER_00: Maybe your life is not going the way you had ever planned it to go.
• 17:13
  SPEAKER_00: But you have set up these sort of expectations, these hoops that you have required God to jump through in order for you to believe in him.
• 17:24
  SPEAKER_00: And when he has failed to jump through sort of your contrived system, then you've said, I will not believe.
• 17:32
  SPEAKER_00: No matter the evidence that points to it, the fact that at this point in time, even setting aside the historical evidence, the philosophical evidence, is more rational to believe in the God of the universe than to reject him at all.
• 17:51
  SPEAKER_00: But because we operate in this way, like I said, maybe because of pain, perhaps it's because you've seen the lowest common denominator of Christian behavior and said that that is not the kind of faith that you want to adopt.
• 18:07
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps it's because, like so many scientists, ironically, they say that they will not believe in something that they cannot see.
• 18:16
  SPEAKER_00: Our doubt, ultimately, our failure to trust, is self-centered.
• 18:20
  SPEAKER_00: And we run into a lot of problems when we do that, like Thomas, because we contrive these notions of how God is supposed to act and how he's supposed to treat me, and only he only exists if he answers my prayers that I've been praying for years and years and years.
• 18:39
  SPEAKER_00: And no other reality can extend beyond that point.
• 18:43
  SPEAKER_00: We have created an impossible scenario, a miraculous one.
• 18:47
  SPEAKER_00: And though we do believe in a God of miracles, that is not how he operates.
• 18:54
  SPEAKER_00: So let's look once more back at John 20.
• 18:57
  SPEAKER_00: The interaction between Jesus and Thomas.
• 19:00
  SPEAKER_00: Because I want you to see that despair that Thomas felt was not actually based in his need to see Jesus, but rather in his failure to trust in the one that he had been following.
• 19:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus spoke to Thomas.
• 19:16
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side.
• 19:22
  SPEAKER_00: Do not disbelieve, but believe.
• 19:24
  SPEAKER_00: Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.
• 19:27
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?
• 19:30
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
• 19:35
  SPEAKER_00: So, first of all, wonderful uh aspect of this story is Jesus, who is God, knowing the exact conditions that Thomas had set for him previously.
• 19:47
  SPEAKER_00: Remember, just beforehand, Thomas said, I will not believe unless I am able to do these things.
• 19:52
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus walks in the door and says, Peace be with you.
• 19:55
  SPEAKER_00: Hey Thomas, let's do it.
• 19:59
  SPEAKER_00: This word, um uh let's see, to uh place it in my side, uh to place it in his side, the Greek word here is balo, and it's a verb that is um, it's not violent, but it's the same word you would use if you said that you were going to throw something or cast it out.
• 20:15
  SPEAKER_00: It's a verb that requires a lot of action.
• 20:18
  SPEAKER_00: And so, my, though we don't get it in the text, my sincere belief is that Jesus is not rebuking Thomas here, but rather he is saying, like, okay, let's let's get this over with.
• 20:31
  SPEAKER_00: Let's do it.
• 20:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because I think that Jesus knows this is not what actually is tripping Thomas up.
• 20:38
  SPEAKER_00: And even though all of the artist renditions show Thomas poking his finger into Jesus' side, there's nothing in the text that actually tells us that.
• 20:48
  SPEAKER_00: The only account of Thomas here doubting is in John 20, and it just immediately moves from Jesus confronting his misconceptions, saying, I know you said this, let's do it.
• 20:59
  SPEAKER_00: And then Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.
• 21:04
  SPEAKER_00: Whatever it was that Jesus was able to do, kind of like the woman at the well, just speaking immediately into the deepest and darkest part of Thomas's soul, Thomas could do nothing but exclaim the divinity of Christ.
• 21:21
  SPEAKER_00: And what's actually really neat about this is this is the first time when he says, My Lord and my God, that anybody in the Gospels has declared Jesus to be God.
• 21:31
  SPEAKER_00: They've said things like, He is the Son of God and the Messiah and Christ.
• 21:36
  SPEAKER_00: But Thomas calling Jesus God is the first time anybody has said that.
• 21:43
  SPEAKER_00: What an amazing thing for Thomas to do.
• 21:46
  SPEAKER_00: So when Jesus confronts Thomas, though, it reminds us, and I think it reminded Thomas, that our doubts are not actually though we say they are.
• 22:00
  SPEAKER_00: Actually, about God's failures, but they're about our own failure to trust in the Lord of the universe.
• 22:07
  SPEAKER_00: There's sort of this Copernican shift that needs to happen where we move from deciding that we are going to be the center of the universe, and God and all of his angels are just going to consent to whatever we have demanded of them, to us being the one who worships the king of the universe.
• 22:28
  SPEAKER_00: And if we're able to switch in our minds and make that change, then the idea that Thomas set a demand for Christ seems slightly foolish.
• 22:39
  SPEAKER_00: Did Thomas' demands, did his expectations, change the reality of the resurrection?
• 22:46
  SPEAKER_00: No, they did not.
• 22:49
  SPEAKER_00: Nor when any of us struggle with doubt and it leads into despair, and we say, God is only going to be real if he heals me or fixes this thing or brings me out of this situation, gives me this job, or whatever it is that we have set up as the benchmark.
• 23:09
  SPEAKER_00: Do any of those expectations change the goodness or glory of God?
• 23:15
  SPEAKER_00: No, they don't.
• 23:17
  SPEAKER_00: But we have been led to believe that it is rational for us to set God up in that impossible position.
• 23:27
  SPEAKER_00: So Thomas does answer him, My Lord and my God.
• 23:30
  SPEAKER_00: You know what I love about this?
• 23:33
  SPEAKER_00: Is that Jesus, no matter in any of the gospels, those who doubted him, who mocked him, who beat him, who rejected him, the moment they came back, he welcomed them with open arms.
• 23:52
  SPEAKER_00: It's such a wonderful truth about the God of our universe.
• 23:56
  SPEAKER_00: That if you are somebody who has struggled with doubt and you have railed against God for years and said he doesn't exist, or that he is brutal and unkind, or that he is one who has apparently left you out in the open and rejected you, the moment you realize that none of those things are true and take your steps back to God, he is there waiting for you.
• 24:20
  SPEAKER_00: He has never left.
• 24:22
  SPEAKER_00: He has never left your side.
• 24:24
  SPEAKER_00: And that verse in Revelation 3 that everybody thinks is about salvation, I'm standing at the door and knocking.
• 24:29
  SPEAKER_00: And if he lets me in, I will eat with him and him with me.
• 24:32
  SPEAKER_00: That is not about salvation.
• 24:34
  SPEAKER_00: That is a verse or a part of a letter written to Christians.
• 24:37
  SPEAKER_00: That is those who are struggling with doubt and have up to this point shut the door on the Lord.
• 24:43
  SPEAKER_00: And he says, I am standing at the door knocking.
• 24:46
  SPEAKER_00: I am waiting.
• 24:47
  SPEAKER_00: I am wanting you to invite me in.
• 24:50
  SPEAKER_00: That is what Thomas encountered here.
• 24:53
  SPEAKER_00: And it's an amazing thing about Jesus.
• 24:56
  SPEAKER_00: So finally, Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?
• 25:01
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
• 25:06
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus is recognizing here and speaking to those who 32 or 33 days, depending how you count it, from this moment will no longer, unless you're Saul, be able to see the resurrected Christ and yet be called to believe in him.
• 25:24
  SPEAKER_00: He says, There is coming a time very soon where nobody will be able to see or touch the wounds on my side.
• 25:32
  SPEAKER_00: Nobody is going to be able to look at these things and rely exclusively upon them to trust in me.
• 25:39
  SPEAKER_00: Everybody is going to have to take a step of faith.
• 25:42
  SPEAKER_00: Because we can't see it, because we can't see Jesus right now at the right hand of the Father, does that mean that he is not there?
• 25:49
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 25:50
  SPEAKER_00: Has it changed the reality?
• 25:52
  SPEAKER_00: No.
• 25:54
  SPEAKER_00: But we are required and have been asked and summoned by God to respond to the resurrection, to respond to the cross, even though we can't see it.
• 26:04
  SPEAKER_00: And so I believe here, Jesus once more, I don't think he is condemning Thomas.
• 26:09
  SPEAKER_00: I think he is saying, blessed are those who have not seen.
• 26:14
  SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who, by the power of the Spirit and even the knowledge of the New Testament that we have now, say, sort of like the black hole, everything is pointing towards it, and there's no other explanation other than the one which is true.
• 26:29
  SPEAKER_00: And so we consent and we believe.
• 26:33
  SPEAKER_00: So there are two big dangers, though, if we do not work on our doubt and we allow it to become despair.
• 26:43
  SPEAKER_00: Two big dangers.
• 26:45
  SPEAKER_00: The first one is that James tells us in chapter 1, verse 6 the one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind.
• 26:54
  SPEAKER_00: He's a double-minded man, unstable in all his ways.
• 26:59
  SPEAKER_00: I love the imagery.
• 27:01
  SPEAKER_00: James is filled with natural imagery.
• 27:04
  SPEAKER_00: And here he is looking out to the ocean, to the Mediterranean Sea, and seeing the waves, or perhaps the Sea of Galilee, which is seven miles across and would get this way.
• 27:16
  SPEAKER_00: The waves that are being blown and tossed by the wind, he says, that is what it is like for somebody who has no anchor, who is not rooted in Christ, but allowing themselves to be turned and twisted by whatever events come their way.
• 27:32
  SPEAKER_00: And their relationship with Christ is so fraught with doubt that when things get tough, they don't know what to do.
• 27:39
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps they go to Him, perhaps they walk away, but they are more driven by the external than what is on the inside, the internal.
• 27:49
  SPEAKER_00: So the greatest danger in allowing our doubt to walk into despair, to leave it untouched, is that we are less effective for the kingdom of God.
• 28:01
  SPEAKER_00: The works that He has prepared in advance for us to do, we reject them.
• 28:07
  SPEAKER_00: And as we walk forward in this life, we are not the bright, shining beacon of hope that we should be into this lost world, but we are a flickering candle.
• 28:17
  SPEAKER_00: That is not a great testimony.
• 28:20
  SPEAKER_00: It can be, but it's not at that moment.
• 28:23
  SPEAKER_00: But the second thing, and the one that hopefully, for those of you who desire practical knowledge, is very important, is that that same study said that for those who doubt, 45% stopped attending church, 29% stopped reading the Bible, 29% stopped praying, and 25% stopped talking with friends or family about faith.
• 28:46
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about the worst thing you can possibly do if you are struggling with doubt, is to walk away from the community of faith, walk away from the Word of God, walk away from your direct line of communication with God, and walk away from anybody who could keep you accountable in your faith.
• 29:06
  SPEAKER_00: Let's talk about what is going to make despair last so much longer and persist is when we say, no, the one place where I can hopefully find answers to what I'm struggling with, I am going to reject that and turn my back on it.
• 29:20
  SPEAKER_00: And while I understand, sort of from a logical perspective, that like if you don't believe in God, that you are then going to walk away from the house of God, the community of God, the word of God, I understand that to a degree.
• 29:35
  SPEAKER_00: For those who have done that are in that place right now, like that makes sense to me to an extent.
• 29:41
  SPEAKER_00: But if your ultimate hope is not to just completely walk away from the faith and is to draw back and become closer with the king of the universe, then I have to tell you, leaving the community of faith, leaving the word of God, leaving communication with God, leaving these things, it is not the way to do it.
• 30:01
  SPEAKER_00: And yet, almost half of people or a third of people do these things.
• 30:07
  SPEAKER_00: It is sad and it is harmful.
• 30:14
  SPEAKER_00: The last thing I want to tell you about despair.
• 30:17
  SPEAKER_00: And if I can, perhaps pull you out of a nosedive if you're struggling with it.
• 30:22
  SPEAKER_00: As I mentioned earlier, that doubt is the failure to trust.
• 30:27
  SPEAKER_00: What I want you to know is that in your life, every single person, every single institution is going to let you down.
• 30:37
  SPEAKER_00: And God has never, never, ever let you down.
• 30:41
  SPEAKER_00: Because of the hoops that you have set up and the expectations that you have created, you might believe that he has let you down.
• 30:49
  SPEAKER_00: But we have already said, and I firmly believe, that those things which we contrive to force God to test him are not a true test of the King of the universe.
• 31:00
  SPEAKER_00: He has shown himself to us in the cross, he has shown himself to us in the resurrection.
• 31:05
  SPEAKER_00: These are the things which we draw back to.
• 31:08
  SPEAKER_00: And so if we set up expectations, we have to recognize that we need to break them down because they do not change the reality.
• 31:16
  SPEAKER_00: Because you believe that God is unkind, does not make him unkind.
• 31:21
  SPEAKER_00: He is still good.
• 31:24
  SPEAKER_00: Because there is pain in this world, it doesn't mean God is capricious and evil.
• 31:29
  SPEAKER_00: It means that we live in a fallen world, that God is rescuing us from and calling us towards something greater.
• 31:36
  SPEAKER_00: Or if you believe, perhaps the converse, that you have fallen so far away from God or done something so terrible that you are beyond the measure of grace that Christ has provided, then you just don't understand the gospel.
• 31:51
  SPEAKER_00: You don't understand that the cross covers every single person, no matter how far we have fallen.
• 31:58
  SPEAKER_00: Both of those missed expectations will lead you to just sitting in this pit of despair.
• 32:06
  SPEAKER_00: You must confront them and address them and recognize that the God of the universe is the one that he tells us he is through his word, through our prayers, through hopefully teaching in church.
• 32:20
  SPEAKER_00: And that this is the place where we need to confront our doubts.
• 32:24
  SPEAKER_00: You know, in the student ministry, I love it when our students ask great questions.
• 32:29
  SPEAKER_00: Some of the questions are not as great, but all of the questions, I shouldn't say that.
• 32:35
  SPEAKER_00: They're all great questions, just some of them aren't as important.
• 32:39
  SPEAKER_00: But when they say things like, if aliens exist, how does that affect the resurrection?
• 32:47
  SPEAKER_00: I think, well, I suppose it doesn't, and it means that our brand new mission field is now to the Martians.
• 32:55
  SPEAKER_00: Right?
• 32:58
  SPEAKER_00: These are the places that we confront our doubts.
• 33:01
  SPEAKER_00: This is where we are supposed to engage instead of step back.
• 33:06
  SPEAKER_00: But doubt, it does not have to end in despair.
• 33:10
  SPEAKER_00: It can lead to devotion.
• 33:12
  SPEAKER_00: We can walk through it and sort of like a um uh diving board, go down before going up.
• 33:19
  SPEAKER_00: That's not the best illustration.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: I just thought of that.
• 33:21
  SPEAKER_00: You do eventually go down with a diving board.
• 33:24
  SPEAKER_00: But like the car I mentioned earlier, you pull it back and it has tension, and we can grow regardless.
• 33:30
  SPEAKER_00: With devotion, let's talk about this, because this is where we want to end up.
• 33:34
  SPEAKER_00: I want to show you the best example of devotion that we see in the Gospels.
• 33:39
  SPEAKER_00: Peter answered him, speaking to Jesus, Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.
• 33:45
  SPEAKER_00: He said, Come.
• 33:46
  SPEAKER_00: So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus.
• 33:50
  SPEAKER_00: But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink, he cried out, Lord, save me.
• 33:55
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, Oh, you have little faith, why did you doubt?
• 34:01
  SPEAKER_00: And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased, and those in the boat worshiped him, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
• 34:08
  SPEAKER_00: What does Peter do here?
• 34:10
  SPEAKER_00: Peter is setting his own expectations, like we just talked about.
• 34:15
  SPEAKER_00: He is seeing Jesus walking on the water and says, Jesus, if that's really you, make me walk on the water.
• 34:24
  SPEAKER_00: Now, Jesus, and this is true for us even today, sometimes he does consent to our sort of wild requests.
• 34:33
  SPEAKER_00: It's not guaranteed, and it doesn't guarantee that we are not guaranteed that he will do that, but he does hear to Peter.
• 34:43
  SPEAKER_00: And so Peter steps out of the boat.
• 34:45
  SPEAKER_00: He steps out in faith.
• 34:47
  SPEAKER_00: But because there's a storm brewing and the waves are whipping back and forth, Peter becomes scared and he says, and he begins to sink down into the water, and he says, Lord, save me.
• 35:00
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus immediately reaches out his hand to rescue Peter and says, Oh, you of little faith.
• 35:06
  SPEAKER_00: I isolated here just the command, just the words that are being said.
• 35:12
  SPEAKER_00: Command me to come to you on the water.
• 35:14
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus invites him out.
• 35:15
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, save me.
• 35:17
  SPEAKER_00: Oh, you of little faith, why did you doubt?
• 35:19
  SPEAKER_00: As we look at this story, is there any confusion for us that Jesus gave him the power to do what he needed to do?
• 35:28
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any confusion for us that with greater faith Peter would have been able to continue walking on the water?
• 35:34
  SPEAKER_00: Is there any confusion for us that when Peter began to sink, Jesus immediately reached out his hand and rescued him?
• 35:43
  SPEAKER_00: And then they got onto the boat and they began to worship the Lord, saying, Truly you are the Son of God.
• 35:51
  SPEAKER_00: If you are somebody who writes down notes, I would love if you wrote down this phrase, that we are supposed to doubt faithfully.
• 35:59
  SPEAKER_00: This is how we walk through the doubts, that many of us, I disagree with the poll that said, only two-thirds struggle with doubt.
• 36:08
  SPEAKER_00: That the many of us, the multitude who've struggled with doubt at any point in our Christian life, that if we want to walk through it and be stronger on the other side, that we must doubt faithfully.
• 36:18
  SPEAKER_00: And what does that mean?
• 36:19
  SPEAKER_00: Well, it means that we take the example of Peter.
• 36:23
  SPEAKER_00: We go out in boldness, we continue to engage with the Lord.
• 36:28
  SPEAKER_00: And when we begin to fall for fear of doubts, for the winds are whipping around us and make us question what's going on, that we cry out to God in faith.
• 36:38
  SPEAKER_00: We say, Lord, save me.
• 36:40
  SPEAKER_00: And He will.
• 36:41
  SPEAKER_00: He is the one who reaches down and rescues us.
• 36:45
  SPEAKER_00: And then when we get back on the boat, when we are back on not dry ground, but safe land, we worship him and say, Lord, truly you are the King.
• 36:55
  SPEAKER_00: There's this cyclical pattern, and you see it in that story with Peter on the water, and you see it throughout the Gospels, and those who have doubted, you see it with Thomas too, those on a wider spectrum.
• 37:08
  SPEAKER_00: We doubt, we cry out for help, God restores us, and we move forward in praise.
• 37:14
  SPEAKER_00: And then we doubt, we cry out, God restores us, and then we move forward in praise.
• 37:19
  SPEAKER_00: And that is the sort of cycle we want to find ourselves in.
• 37:24
  SPEAKER_00: How do we doubt faithfully?
• 37:26
  SPEAKER_00: We don't step back from those things which are able to help us.
• 37:30
  SPEAKER_00: Being in a community of believers, reading God's word, praying to the Lord.
• 37:36
  SPEAKER_00: We don't step back from these things.
• 37:38
  SPEAKER_00: We engage more deeply in them, even if our desire is not there like it once was.
• 37:44
  SPEAKER_00: That is doubting faithfully.
• 37:46
  SPEAKER_00: Perhaps if you are somebody who is doubting right now, this story from Mark 9, 17 through 27, if you'd like to read it, it is the man who comes to Jesus and his son is being possessed by a demon.
• 38:00
  SPEAKER_00: And he comes to Jesus and kind of funny he says, If you can save him, and Jesus is like, If I can.
• 38:07
  SPEAKER_00: And then Jesus says to the man, though, Do you believe?
• 38:12
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you believe that I can save your son, then he will be saved.
• 38:18
  SPEAKER_00: And it wasn't the fact that the man's faith in Jesus gave him power or something like that, but rather that what was going on is Jesus was testing the man's faith.
• 38:27
  SPEAKER_00: He says, Am I just some sort of like, you know, coin-operated machine that heals you?
• 38:32
  SPEAKER_00: Or am I the king of your universe and you trust in me?
• 38:37
  SPEAKER_00: Jesus says, Do you believe?
• 38:38
  SPEAKER_00: And the man responds, I do believe.
• 38:41
  SPEAKER_00: Help me overcome my unbelief.
• 38:44
  SPEAKER_00: What a paradoxically beautiful statement.
• 38:49
  SPEAKER_00: I do believe.
• 38:50
  SPEAKER_00: I trust.
• 38:51
  SPEAKER_00: I know you are God.
• 38:53
  SPEAKER_00: I'm also struggling right now, and I need your help.
• 38:58
  SPEAKER_00: God includes these things in his word so that we can be strengthened when we walk through the same kinds of situations.
• 39:06
  SPEAKER_00: So, doubt is the failure to trust, ultimately.
• 39:10
  SPEAKER_00: And we need to recognize that our expectations that we have set for God are self-centered.
• 39:16
  SPEAKER_00: They are not actually the conditions that he needs to meet.
• 39:19
  SPEAKER_00: Rather, it is our own inability to trust in the truth that everything is pointing towards.
• 39:25
  SPEAKER_00: And when we get down to the brass tacks, the bottom foundational level of it all, what is our doubt referencing?
• 39:36
  SPEAKER_00: Peter, Mr.
• 39:38
  SPEAKER_00: Walking Out on the water, though you have not seen him, you love him.
• 39:42
  SPEAKER_00: Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.
• 39:54
  SPEAKER_00: To any of you who are here this morning, and perhaps because of Easter last weekend, are new and doubt is sort of boiling up within you.
• 40:06
  SPEAKER_00: Failure to trust in the king of the universe is a matter of salvation of your soul.
• 40:11
  SPEAKER_00: And above that point, there is sort of a plane where Christians wrestle with things that they don't understand and work through and persist.
• 40:21
  SPEAKER_00: But beneath that, we have got to say that before moving on today, the greatest doubt that we could ever address is whether or not we trust in the true story of Jesus.
• 40:32
  SPEAKER_00: Because the salvation of our souls is on the line.
• 40:36
  SPEAKER_00: And so this morning, I just want to encourage you.
• 40:39
  SPEAKER_00: Because if you have set up these rules for God that He has not met, tear them down.
• 40:46
  SPEAKER_00: If you believe that you cannot walk closer to God because of something that you have done, tear that down.
• 40:52
  SPEAKER_00: Your doubt is centered on you, and it is a bias that I would submit not knowing you, that you are still just holding around to this bubble of Christianity and not the rest of your life, where you are able to trust in things that you don't see based on evidence and based on the testimony of others.
• 41:13
  SPEAKER_00: Christianity is this isolated bubble in your life of doubt, and you need to burst it, because the salvation of your souls is what we're talking about.
• 41:23
  SPEAKER_00: So if you don't know that Jesus died on the cross for your sins, that by believing in him you can have eternal life, know that.
• 41:31
  SPEAKER_00: If you don't know that he resurrected on the third day so that he defeated death and showed us that we might live for him in eternity in heaven, know that.
• 41:42
  SPEAKER_00: Know that these things are not myths or fairy tales, but they are true stories.
• 41:47
  SPEAKER_00: And over the next month we're going to continue to look at them together.
• 41:50
  SPEAKER_00: Would you all pray with me?
• 41:53
  SPEAKER_00: Heavenly Father, we thank you for today.
• 41:55
  SPEAKER_00: God, I thank you that Jesus rose from the dead, that he defeated sin and death and every single bondage, every single weight that could be holding us back.
• 42:07
  SPEAKER_00: Lord, please help us to not be like those who are tossed by the wind and whatever is happening in their life, to be those who are rooted and find our foundation in Jesus Christ.
• 42:20
  SPEAKER_00: Strong, like one who's planted by a river.
• 42:24
  SPEAKER_00: Father, please help us to draw from that when we doubt.
• 42:27
  SPEAKER_00: Please help us to remind ourselves of your goodness when we begin to question it.
• 42:32
  SPEAKER_00: And Lord, when we come back to you after a period of walking away, please remind us that you are there welcoming us with open arms.
• 42:41
  SPEAKER_00: The one who is the shepherd who's gone after the one and left the 99.
• 42:47
  SPEAKER_00: God, we love you and we thank you for Jesus, and it's in his name that we pray.
• 42:51
  SPEAKER_00: Amen.
• 42:52
  SPEAKER_00: All right.
• 42:53
  SPEAKER_00: Have a great Sunday.