When Doubts Assail

Introduction

In recent years, academics, religious leaders, and the media have become increasingly engaged with a new group of people that is popping up all over our nation. That group is the group would say that they are non-religious. This group has no religious affiliation at all. A term has been coined for them recently, “The nones.” (N-O-N-E-S)

The reason much study and attention has happened in recent years is because this group has grown dramatically larger and larger.

The most harrowing detail is from another term called, “nonverts.” These are individuals who were not raised in a non-religious home, but instead, they were raised in a religious home and eventually became “non-religious” or “non-spiritual.”

Almost 70% of nones are “nonverts,” meaning that they converted from a pervious religious background to a non-religious background instead of just bring born into a nonreligious setting.

We currently have nearly 41,000,000 million nonverts in the USA today. People who have lost any semblance of religion. That is greater than the population of Both California (1st) and Pennsylvania (4th) combined.

Why is this happening? There are a variety of reasons.

Church Hurt. Some people had horrible experiences in their churches.

Flimsy Teaching. Their beliefs about Christianity were assaulted by the world, and they didn’t have a depth of knowledge about Jesus that could answer those questions.

Desire to sin. Some people wanted to live their own lives without the constraint of Christianity.

Dozens of other possibilities exist for why people are leaving the faith. And most people are a combination of many of them.

I am not here to discuss the various reasons that people deconstruct. I AM here to discuss the one common denominator for everyone who has walked away from the faith - DOUBT.

I hope to treat these other issues at length as I continue to preach and teach here, but I cannot even scratch the surface today.

Let’s look at doubt, build a foundation, start a discussion, and start to tackle this issue as Jesus does.

Read Luke 7:18-23

Luke 7:18–23 ESV

The disciples of John reported all these things to him. And John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?” And when the men had come to him, they said, “John the Baptist has sent us to you, saying, ‘Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?’ ” In that hour he healed many people of diseases and plagues and evil spirits, and on many who were blind he bestowed sight. And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. And blessed is the one who is not offended by me.”

Explanation

Luke 7:19 “calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord, saying, “Are you the one who is to come, or shall we look for another?””

The first question were see in the text is John the Baptist’s question to Jesus, Are you the one who is to come?’ If not, let me know so I can look for him.

This question seems strange coming from John, because prior to this moment, John said, Luke 3:16 “John answered them all, saying, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming, the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire.”

John knew who Jesus was.

John leapt in the womb at the announcement of Jesus’ coming.

John Baptized Jesus.

John said, “I am unworthy to untie the strap of His sandals.”

John knew who Jesus was, but he allowed doubt to crowd his mind.

The darkness of the jail cell became his reality, and eventually, the darkness inched its way into his heart.

Believer, never doubt the deception that your circumstances can wreck on your life.

Darkness can bring doubt. That darkness can be the darkness of your circumstances, the company you keep, or the sin you tolerate.

Slowly and steadily, doubt creeps into our hearts and corrupts our hearts.

He began to doubt things that he had always known.

Intuitively, we think that our external situations reflect our relationship with God.

We need to do exactly what John did… He took his doubt to the one who could end it.

Jesus responds to John’s doubt.

Jesus responds to John.

He could have been dismissive of John’s question. He could have gotten angry or indignant. He answers John’s question.

The God of the universe, incarnate, answered John’s doubt.

John took his doubt to the right person.

You won’t find the answers you want to the world in yourself. You won’t find it in our culture. You won’t find it any external entity or ideology.

You will only find the answers to your doubt in the person of Jesus.

Luke 7:22 “And he answered them, “Go and tell John what you have seen and heard: the blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, and the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them.”

Jesus responds with who He is and what He has done.

God’s answer may not be that he alleviates your problems.

God’s answer to your problems may not be to solve them, but rather to show you who He is in it.

He tells John’s followers to go back with this answer. Imagine them in the small jail cell - people he trusts - bringing the light of truth to that cell.

He defends John’s doubting and struggling to the people around him. “You went to see a prophet, and he is a prophet.” “There is none greater than Him.”

Jesus is not scared of your doubt.

Jesus’ throne is not diminished by your doubt.

Jesus then counters the Pharisees.

They have rejected John’s teachings and the person of Jesus.

They didn’t like John, because he was a little crazy. He was maybe a little too radical.

They didn’t like Jesus, because he ate with tax collectors and sinners.

Why does Jesus defend the doubt of John the Baptist and NOT the doubt of the Pharisees?

John was a man who loved God and was earnestly asking Jesus about Himself.

The Pharisees were religious people who had rejected Jesus.

They would not accept God, because they wanted a God in their own image.

Invitation

This week, as we are finishing the Old Testament in our BRP, you read the book of Habakkuk.

Habakkuk had a lot of questions for God, and they stemmed from the doubt of Habakkuk’’s heart that God was good. He had seen wickedness prosper, violence go unpunished, and corrupt leadership. He laments over this reality, and God answers him. I won’t get into the details except that God’s answers are sufficient

Habakkuk 3:17–19 ESV

Though the fig tree should not blossom, nor fruit be on the vines, the produce of the olive fail and the fields yield no food, the flock be cut off from the fold and there be no herd in the stalls, yet I will rejoice in the Lord; I will take joy in the God of my salvation. God, the Lord, is my strength; he makes my feet like the deer’s; he makes me tread on my high places. To the choirmaster: with stringed instruments.