Rev. David Holwick K Easter 1994
First Baptist Church
Ledgewood, New Jersey
April 3, 1994
John 20:24-31
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I. We live in an age of doubt.
A. Many in our generation have "lost the faith."
1) Testimony of a young atheist:
Dan Barker is the public relations director for the
"Freedom From Religion" Foundation.
From age 15 to 32 he says he was gung-ho into Christian work,
preaching, doing missionary work, & visiting house-to-house.
He immersed himself in all the accepted practices of the
Christian religion.
He even went to a "Christian" college and majored in
"Religion and Philosophy."
The faith he once proclaimed he now calls "an erroneous way
of thinking" and an "ill-conceived" world view.
However, he says he should not be blamed for believing and
acting as he did, "based on my limited knowledge back then."
He explains, "Should children be blamed for believing in
Santa Claus?"
Eventually, he says, he came to realize "there is no evidence
for Christianity" and "no need for it".
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2) Empty churches are a painful sign of the effects of this.
I passed a beautiful stone church in Manhattan, but the sign
outside was blank.
I asked some workmen nearby, "Is this church still open?"
"Yeah - as a nightclub."
B. Even with our doubts, many wish it could be different.
A few years ago the famous news reporter, Barbara Walters,
made a statement that shook people up.
Instead of being a brilliant brunette Jew, she said she
would rather have been born a "dumb blonde Catholic."
Her comment was controversial because people thought it was
a put-down, but it wasn't.
What Barbara Walters meant by it was that dumb women are
more accepted by men, blondes have more fun, and
Catholics have the hope of heaven.
As a humanist, Mrs. Walters was admitting that she admired
those who saw an ultimate meaning in life.
She herself could not. #2479
C. The ancient world had doubts as well.
1) People who lived long ago are often portrayed as simpletons
who believed anything that came down the pike. Not so.
a) The disciples doubted the resurrection (or at least
didn't expect it).
b) The resurrection appearances were not hallucinations
brought about by wishful thinking.
2) Thomas not different, just a more committed materialist.
a) In John 11:16 and 14:5 Thomas appears as a loyal, outspoken
and rather pessimistic person, and close to Jesus.
b) He was from Missouri - "Show me."
II. Doubting is normal.
A. The Bible doesn't warn against "doubt" as such.
1) Many in the Bible express doubt: Job, Jeremiah, even Jesus.
2) Thomas is not sinning by having doubts.
a) Notice that Jesus does not rebuke him.
b) Instead, he challenges Thomas to take the test he
suggested, and touch his wounds.
B. Doubt is the act of questioning, the expression of uncertainty.
1) Doubt is the humility of a mind asking real questions and
seeking real solutions.
a) For all the answers we have, rather significant
questions still remain.
b) The biblical expression of doubt is simply an honest
admission that things do not always seem to fit.
2) Real doubt, coming from a reverence for truth, is from God.
a) It does not forbid questions, nor does it answer
questions prematurely.
b) Instead, it reaches beyond understanding and asks honest
questions.
3) Doubt and belief are compatible.
a) Without beliefs, you cannot question.
b) You can doubt and believe at the same time. Mark 9:24
c) Honest doubt is better than dishonest faith.
C. Formaldehyde faith is dangerous.
1) We comfortably mouth a set of faith formulas, without passion.
2) It is easily threatened. (Paul de Vries and S.S. class)
3) Christians need to learn to ask serious questions.
III. Three areas of doubt.
A. Unbelief.
1) They are not identical - unbelief is sin.
a) Deliberate denial, disobedience, rebellion, resistance,
and is always condemned in the Bible.
b) Doubt is the sincere question, but unbelief is the
unwillingness to hear the answer.
c) Unbelief is the condition of being closed and out of
touch with God.
2) We often use doubt to rationalize disobedience.
a) We face the hard words of the Bible, and suddenly we
are not quite sure of our faith.
b) Is this honest doubt, or simply sin?
c) We must bring our doubts, and our motives, under the
scrutiny of the Bible.
B. Intellectual scorn.
1) Blanket assertions that something is impossible.
a) "Laws of nature" are often alluded to.
b) But our understanding of nature is always limited.
2) The resurrection of Jesus is a frequent target.
a) Not unusual to doubt it. It flies against our experience.
In March 1992 Newsweek magazine mentioned a letter from
the Greenville County, S.C., Dept. of Social Services.
The letter was written to a dead person. It read:
"Your food stamps will be stopped effective immediately,
because we received notice that you passed away.
May God bless you.
You may re-apply if there is a change in your circumstances."
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b) Rare for really dead people to get up again.
1> Thomas wasn't only disciple to doubt this. (Emmaus)
2> Steeped in science, we should expect to have doubts.
c) This is why it is such incredible good news!
3) When dealing with intellectual doubt, make sure you are
playing with a full deck.
a) By ignoring the possibility of the supernatural and
miracles, you are limiting truth.
b) Honest investigation requires you to allow for all
answers.
C. Doubt caused by dashed hope.
1) It can be hard to make faith fit with the painful realities
of life.
a) This is what forces the question for most of us.
1> Someone we love, dies.
2> Children face hunger.
3> We lose a job, or a marriage.
b) Our doubts about miracles is strong, but our desire FOR
them can be even stronger.
1> "God, please make Daddy forget who broke the window."
2> Serious prayers - for healing of loved ones, who died.
2) Our anger at God is an expression of doubts that He is
running the world the best that he can.
a) The psalms express much anger and sing of doubts and
disappointments.
b) They conclude that God is there and cares to listen.
c) By contrast, in a state of unbelief our anger would be
completely pointless and absurd.
3) Jesus expresses doubt on the cross, but keeps faith. Ps 22.
IV. Denying doubt is dangerous.
A. It leads to spiritual numbness.
Paul de Vries experienced this when he was 19 years old.
He was so involved, his church made him chairman of church
outreach.
Bear in mind that this church had over 2,000 members.
He did all he could to bring people to Christ.
But something began to bug him.
It struck him that they could continue to do their church
work, preach, try to obey the Scriptures, and even win
people to Christ, whether or not Christ was in their
enterprise at all.
His problem was that he did not experience the living Christ.
When witnessing to people, he claimed that he had this
personal awareness of Christ's presence.
But he lied. It wasn't there.
He also began to doubt whether anyone he knew had the personal
relationship to Christ that they all professed.
19-year-old De Vries decided to go right to the top.
He made an appointment with the senior pastor and explained
his problem.
However, before the pastor had the chance to counsel him, Paul
wanted to know if the pastor had what Paul lacked.
He looked him in the eye and asked him if he had the personal
experience of Christ that he preached.
The pastor swallowed and quietly admitted, "No."
To me that would be pretty depressing.
But to Paul the doubts gave him hope.
He doubted that this formal profession of faith was all God
had for him.
De Vries sincerely hoped that there was more.
Still believing the Bible, he asked questions.
Strangely, he would not have asked, knocked, or even sought,
if he had not doubted.
Professing what we do not have, and promoting what we do not
know is a deceitful form of unbelief.
It is deadly, but also amazingly attractive.
Our lives are perfectly under our own control.
We can also miss the incomparable power of God's presence
and the authentic light of his truth.
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B. Our faith is still under construction.
1) Doubt is something we grow out of, faith is something we
grow into.
a) "Stop doubting and believe." 20:27
b) There comes a point where we have to make a decision.
c) This requires faith, but every human decision does.
2) When Thomas came to faith, he came completely. John 20:28
a) For a Jew to call another human associate "my Lord and
my God" would be almost incredible.
1> It would be blasphemy and punishable by death.
2> Both are titles for God.
b) Faith changes the direction of an entire life.
V. God will meet any honest seeker.
A. Christianity is not just for dumb, gullible people.
1) "Skeptical Inquirer" has 63 people on its board, and 90% of
them have doctorates from prestigious universities.
2) Jesus has some smart people, too.
Some of the greatest discoveries in the area of science, for
example, were made by people who believed in God.
Among this group are included
Frances Bacon, "the father of modern science",
William Harvey, "the founder of modern physiology",
John Ray, "the founder of systematic biology",
Carolus Linnaeus, "the father of modern systematic botany",
Isaac Newton, "the father of physics" and perhaps the
smartest human to ever live,
Robert Boyle, "the father of chemistry",
Louis Agassiz, "the world's leading ichthyologist"
Michael Farraday, "the discoverer of electromagnetic
induction",
Rene Descartes; the philosopher,
Edmund Halley; who calculated the orbits of comets,
Johann Kepler;
Louis Pasteur; and
Galileo Galilei, just for starters.
#1219
Recent astronomer in book .... (Hugh Ross)
B. "Blessed are those who don't see, and yet believe." 20:29
C. The Bible is written so that we might believe in Jesus. 20:31
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draft notes:
I. Christians don't generally set out to doubt God, to call the
essence of their faith into question.
A. For most of us, life's pain simply catches us off guard.
B. Doubt overtakes us in the race of faith because earth's
suffering screams in our ears.
C. If faith cannot reasonably address hurt, what good is it?
II. Constructive doubt. (???)
A. We see through a glass darkly. 1 Cor 13:12.
1) What we see is always clouded by our limitations and sin.
2) Therefore we must doubt, but we also have to strain to see
what we can through the glass. We must seek.
B. We know only in part. 1 Cor 13:12.
1) Humility of mind must characterize our most enthusiastic
professions of faith.
2) The power of God's Word does not depend on our assertions.
3) God has authority, we must have humility.
C. Our doubts must make us hungry to know God.
1) Pray for the time when we will know him as well as he
knows us. 1 Cor 13:12.
2) This hunger excludes unbelief.
III. Christians don't generally set out to doubt God, to call the
essence of their faith into question.
A. Doubt is often triggered by hardship and suffering.
IV. Our desire FOR miracles is equal in strength to our
DOUBT that they can happen.
V. But the biblical expression of doubt is simply an honest
admission that things do not always seem to fit.
VI. Faith is not a static thing that comes once to a
person, only to lie dormant.
It is a response to God that again and again confronts
us afresh with the story of Jesus.
Copyright © 2024 by Rev. David Holwick
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