Hope Is Here-Hope for Doubters

BTCS - Hope Is Here: Week 3

Scripture: John 20:24-29

Today is the final week of our series, Hope Is Here.

I believe it can be very encouraging for us as individuals

To gather as a church

And together uncover ways that we find hope in our relationship with Jesus Christ

and hope in our relationships with one another.

Together pray through the storms that we are facing.

God always intended that life be a team “sport.”

He NEVER intended that we go through life alone.

He intended that we come alongside one another to:

Worship

To hear God’s Word

To pray

To encourage one another

And so, we have been looking at ways to encourage BIBLICAL hope in a hopeless world.

Biblical hope stands in stark contrast with the hope-so, maybe it MIGHT happen, if I’m lucky kind of hope that those outside of relationship with Jesus have.

Biblical hope says:

I know whom I have believed

I know His promises

Either I have seen those promises fulfilled in my own life in the past

Or I’ve seen or heard about them being fulfilled in someone else’s life

The Bible

A friend, relative, coworker, fellow student

And I believe what:

Acts 10:34–35 NLT

34 Then Peter replied, “I see very clearly that God shows no favoritism. 35 In every nation he accepts those who fear him and do what is right.

Therefore I have Biblical hope — a confident expectation that God will fulfill His promises in my time of need.

He will do it no matter on what side of the tracks I live.

No matter my skin color or my language.

No matter my nationality

No matter what my last name is.

Yes! God will fulfill His promises in me! He does it in the Mighty Name of Jesus!

That’s BIBLICAL hope!

During this short series ...

We have learned that there is hope for the broken and the discouraged.

We listened as King David of Israel, in one of the more broken and discouraging times in his life, nevertheless sang praise to God and encouraged us in:

Psalm 31:23–24 (NASB95)

O love the Lord, all you His godly ones! The Lord preserves [His] faithful [people] (Repeat) .... 24 [So] Be strong and let your heart take courage, All you who hope in the Lord.

Last week, we recognized that there is hope for the underdog because with God we can do anything.

Even a young man like David BEFORE he was king, understood the spiritual nature of our struggles.

He declared that God gives the victory.

Goliath, that big, ugly, seemingly insurmountable problem, looked sure to win, he always does — but when we are on God’s side (repeat) even the underdog will win.

This final week we deal with one of the hardest places to find hope as we ask the question:

Can there be hope in seasons of doubt?

Is there hope for the doubter?

Doubt is A Huge Part of Our World

And rightly so!

There are lies being published in every way imaginable by wicked people all around us who want to deceive us and lead us to hell.

2 Corinthians 11:13–15 NASB95

13 For such men are false apostles, deceitful workers, disguising themselves as apostles of Christ. 14 No wonder, for even Satan disguises himself as an angel of light. 15 Therefore it is not surprising if his servants also disguise themselves as servants of righteousness, whose end will be according to their deeds.

POINT #1 – WE DOUBT TO PROTECT OURSELVES

Since there are so many lies around us, we will often use skepticism, doubt, as a defence mechanism.

Illustration: Have you ever heard a piece of information that you had a hard time believing was true?

Maybe it seemed so outlandish that it made you doubt.

This past week my wife saw an article that said that the IRS is going to monitor all bank accounts that have more than $600 in them.

I thought, that can’t be true!

The banks will rise up is rage at the cost of such micro reporting!

Come to find out it IS a proposed plan under this administration’s Treasury Department .

And yes, bank ARE registering their complaints.

Thankfully there are also some U.S. legislators working to stop it.

But this plan reveals how much closer are we to the fulfilment of:

Revelation 13:16–17 (NASB95)

16 And he [talking about the False Prophet] causes all, the small and the great, and the rich and the poor, and the free men and the slaves, to be given a mark on their right hand or on their forehead, 17 and he provides that no one will be able to buy or to sell, except the one who has the mark, either the name of the beast or the number of his name.

Combine that with the hundreds of people losing their jobs because of NOT taking the covid vaccine and we begin to understand what the Tribulation looks like.

So, doubt becomes a coping mechanism.

A way for us to try to protect ourselves.

To NOT be that sucker that supposedly P.T. Barnum said was his prey.

It was for me when my wife was telling me about this proposed Big Brother action by the government.

By the way, this is not yet a complete dictatorship.

Write your U.S. Senators and U.S. Representatives and tell them you DO NOT want your finances micro-monitored — that the government has NO RIGHT to so.

So, it’s becomes really hard to tell what to trust and what to doubt.

Doubt has become a common occurrence for many of us within our culture today.

Why?

Because there are people that we know well who have failed us, and it causes us to doubt.

There is so much false information shared on social media that it may cause us to doubt everything.

Our government lies to us every time it opens its mouth.

Maybe this season of Covid-19 has caused us to doubt because we wonder where God is in the middle of it.

Seeing a world that is full of hurt and pain makes us doubt whether God is indeed good.

In fact, I have asked Sister Michelle and Sister Carol to work on a song that declares the goodness of God.

We sang the chorus to the Lord Wednesday night in Bible study:

All my life You have been faithful

All my life You have been so so good

With every breath that I am able

I will sing of the goodness of God

When the devil tries to get us to doubt, when storms of life are overwhelming you, when sorrow tries to drown you, sing it at the top of your voice.

Fight the spiritual battle.

Resist the devil who is trying to get you to doubt God’s goodness.

We doubt for all kinds of reasons.

I would argue that the problem is not the doubt itself, but rather, how we handle our doubt.

Mishandled skepticism often results in a lack of hope.

We certainly are not alone in this struggle.

After Jesus’ crucifixion, His disciples were heartbroken because their hopes and dreams of a new and better world under the rule of God’s kingdom had seemingly ended.

It was not until Jesus miraculously began to show up in His resurrected form that word started to spread among the disciples that perhaps Jesus was alive!

But there was one disciple, named Thomas, who refused to believe.

READ John 20:24-25

Thomas gets a bad reputation in the Church as some kind of stuffy skeptic.

He is too often viewed as a grumpy old cynic.

However, if we are truthful, Thomas comes to this place of skepticism and doubt honestly.

He had just watched his mentor of three years be brutally killed on a cross.

The thought of getting his hopes up about a resurrection that would defy all logic may have been just too hard to wrap his mind around.

He was more than likely looking to protect himself from further pain.

Thomas says that he will not believe unless he sees evidence in front of his eyes that he can see and touch.

I think Thomas was from Missouri.

The show-me state.

Truthfully, we are a lot like Thomas.

The doubt that we often express is a way of keeping ourselves from getting our hopes up that things in our life can improve, that God can answer our prayers, or that God loves us.

Thomas did not want to believe that Jesus was alive because he did not want to be let down.

We often do not want to believe and hope because we are afraid that God will not come through.

A week after Thomas tells the others that he refuses to believe their reports, he and the disciples find themselves together in a locked room, when suddenly the SOURCE of hope arrives.

READ John 20:26-27

Without any warning or explanation, Jesus, in the flesh, shows up in this locked room with the disciples.

They must have been shocked to the core.

In fact, the first words Jesus speaks to them are “peace be with you,” perhaps to let them know that they did not have to be afraid.

To whom does he speak first?

Thomas.

The doubter.

The one who refused to believe that he was alive.

Notice how he addresses him. Jesus does not reprimand him for his doubt.

He does not belittle him for his skepticism.

He does not ridicule him for needing proof.

No, he invites Thomas to see for himself.

He says, “Put your fingers in the scars in my hands and side.”

POINT #2 – JESUS IS NOT AFRAID OF OUR DOUBT

There are many in the church today who are struggling with their faith.

They have lost hope that Jesus is who they thought he was.

The usual response to those in the church who doubt is to shame them or to shun them.

I believe Jesus’ response would be much different.

I believe he would welcome the questions.

He would welcome the conversation.

He would welcome the wrestle.

I think this is because he knows that honest doubt will find honest answers.

Enduring answers.

So how should the Church respond to those who have doubts in a way that would be on par with Jesus’ response to Thomas?

First, the Church should listen to those who doubt for what they are NOT saying as much as what they are saying.

Where does the doubt come from?

Where is the hurt?

Where is the pain?

Where is the struggle?

You show me a congregation who is willing to listen, and I will show you a church that is providing hope to the hopeless.

Second, the Church should empathize and express compassion.

When people let themselves feel others’ hurt, pain, and struggle, then they are better equipped to meet that need and build a bridge back to faith and hope.

Story: Over the years of pastoring I have spoken to many who have struggled with doubt.

Many of them doubting that God loved them.

That He is compassionate.

That He cares about them or their loved ones.

They were just expressing the prevailing attitudes of this world system in which they are immersed.

Jesus was not afraid of Thomas’ doubts.

We should not be afraid of other people’s doubts either.

We go from being full of doubt to being full of hope when we find out people care about us enough to walk with us and love us.

Thomas touches Jesus’ hands and side; where there once were wounds, there now are scars.

A reminder of the pain, but proof of the resurrection.

READ John 20:28-29

This is all Thomas needs.

He recognizes that if Jesus can overcome death and the grave, then He surely must be Lord and God.

This disciple who was the greatest doubter now becomes the disciple who makes the greatest and truest claim of who Jesus is.

Jesus is certainly glad for Thomas’ faith in this passage, but guess who Jesus is thinking about even as He compliments Thomas’ faith — you and me.

He is thinking about those who would be blessed for believing in his resurrection power and divine hope without seeing.

POINT #3 – WE DON’T DOUBT WHEN WE TRUST THE SOURCE

Thomas had first-hand evidence that came directly from the source.

This caused his doubts to melt away.

Our doubts can turn to hope when we too go directly to the source and find that Jesus is trustworthy.

The scriptures are full of first-hand accounts of the resurrection of Jesus.

The Church throughout history has seen the power of Jesus in miraculous ways.

There is testimony all around us of people who have found Jesus to be very real.

I found out this week that a former homicide detective named, J. Warner Wallace has written another book of Christian apologetics.

Apologetics is NOT apologizing for a belief in Christ, but rather a defence of belief in Jesus.

His new book is a way of pointing to the validity of belief in Jesus WITHOUT using the Bible.

Since a lot of people don’t believe in the Bible, we often need another way of presenting the truth of the Gospel.

The Apostle Paul did it in Acts 17 — read the account.

But Warner’s new book, entitled Person of Interest.

In Person of Interest, Wallace employs a methodology similar to what police use in what are called “no-body, missing person cases.” No-body, missing person cases are disappearances where there is little to no physical evidence, no victim’s body, no crime scene. Throughout his career, Wallace worked many cold cases and he’s noticed a pattern from those cases: there’s usually a trail of compelling evidence to follow. For example, in the case of a serious crime, there’s almost always a fuse: a series of words, suspicions, preparations, expectations that can be incriminating when followed after a crime.

And, there’s nearly always what Wallace calls a blast radius: the scope of an impact from the event’s significance. Even if the crime was hidden, almost anything about someone’s life could change after a hidden crime: hobbies, lifestyles, actions, relationships. Wallace writes, “When a high impact event like a homicide occurs, it leaves a mark. It takes a while for the fuse to burn, and the debris is difficult to miss.”

If you’d rather watch the video series based on the book you can get it on RightNow Media.

I realized that I forgot to include a link for signing up for the FREE source of Christian teaching, kids programs and more!

Go to our website at www.NewLifeBlairsville.org

The link is at the bottom of the Home Page.

So, whether though the Bible or through other evidence, don’t doubt, but believe in Jesus.

Believe that He died for your sins.

Believe that He will forgive your sins.

Believe that He will lead you through the confusion of life.

When Jesus is the source of our hope, we don’t have to be crippled by doubt.

Even when we feel our faith waver or our confidence shake, knowing Jesus helps us press on.

Story: Robert Louis Stevenson, one of the greatest novelists of the 20th century, writes of one of his excursions to the South Sea Islands where the ship encountered a terrible storm.

In the belly of the ship, the passengers grew frightened and worried that the ship would be lost.

They were filled with doubts about their safety.

One of the men finally ventured out into the wind and rain and scurried to the upper deck, where he saw the captain quietly pacing the bridge.

With a tranquil and undisturbed face, he looked out across the sea and gave orders for handling the ship.

He turned to the man and smiled.

The man made his way back to the cabin where the other passengers were huddled together in fear.

In response to their questions, he comforted them by saying, “I have seen the captain’s face and all is well.”

When we recognize that Jesus is here with us in the middle of our doubts, we discover that hope is here.

All we need to do is look into the face of Christ and see that all is well.

When life gets tough, it is easy to doubt that things can get better.

The disciples had watched their friend be crucified and buried in a tomb, and they were devastated.

Even though others had claimed to see Jesus resurrected from the dead, Thomas did not want to get his hopes up, only to be disappointed again.

He doubted their story.

It was not until Thomas saw the scars on Jesus’ hands and side that he was filled with hope again.

Some of us have experienced such tragedy and pain that we too struggle with doubt.

We need to know that Jesus has overcome death and, if we have eyes to see it, is active in our lives today.

The Church must become a place that is safe for those who have doubts.

The evidence for God is best revealed when it is lived out authentically in community.

Feel: Jesus is not afraid of my doubt and will meet me right where I am.

Do: Have the courage to trust that Jesus has overcome death and look for evidence all around.

PRAY

If you can’t sing this closing song honestly, I would like to invite you to come forward for prayer.

If you are watching this video and you are struggling with doubt — contact us.