Faith and Doubt

Welcome

Good morning once again everyone and welcome to church. I hope everyone enjoyed celebrating the resurrection of Jesus on Easter and I hope you’re ready to continue to celebrate it! Today we are finishing John 20 and next week we will be going through John 21. Then, we’re done with the Gospel of John (at least in terms of this sermon series, you’re never really done with a book of the Bible). Our passage this morning is going to be broken up into two sections, the first appearance of Jesus to the disciples and the second appearance. Like usual then, let’s spend some time in prayer and ask the Holy Spirit to teach us.

Prayer

Engage

Who here has heard the phrase, “If it’s to good to be true, it probably is”? This is a phrase that runs through my head most typically if I see a really good deal on something online. For example, a few years ago I was working on my office at home and of course it is Star Wars themed, and I found a website that was selling a Star Wars desk on sale. It was a desk that was made to look like a Tie Fighter, one of the ships from the movies, and according to the website it was crazy discounted. It looked really nice and instead of it being $300 they were selling it on sale for something like $50. Okay, who knows already where this is going?

Needless to say I placed an order right away. The website looked legit and it was just a good deal, so I couldn’t pass it up. Cut to a few days later and I realize I never got an email confirming the order. I go back to the website and look up the order number I had written down, nothing comes up. This then prompts me to look deeper into the website. After some quick detective work online I come to the realization that it was 100% a scam and I had got, got. Once again I was reminded of that phrase, that deal was really to good to be true, and I ended up on the bad end of it.

Tension

Why do I bring that story up? Well, it has caused me to be a bit of a skeptic of purchasing things online. I thought I was a skeptic before, but now I comb the the site and reviews if I ever purchase something online. What that event did was create some healthy doubt for me when it comes to online orders.

Doubt is something that doesn’t often get discussed at church. Whenever we think about doubt we think about Thomas of course, he is Doubting Thomas after all. But as we go through our passage and look at Thomas’ doubt, I hope we realize that doubt itself is not a bad thing. While we may not walk into church and voice our doubts, the truth is that all of us have had them or even are experiencing them now. What does it mean for us if we doubt? We might feel shame, we might be embarrassed, and because of that we end up bottling these doubts up. We never discuss them and we would deny them to anyone who asked. As we look at this passage then, I hope we begin to see that doubts are normal, that they are okay to have, and that we would see how we should respond to them.

Peace and Joy

John 20:19–23 NIV

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

For the entire day the disciples just have Mary’s testimony and the empty tomb to go off of. Things are still pretty fresh, at this point the disciples aren’t going out into the city declaring the resurrection of Jesus. In fact, even though the tomb was empty and Mary claims to have seen Jesus, the disciples are still afraid that they are next. They are hiding in a locked room out of fear of the Jewish leaders. These leaders had just gotten Jesus killed so it likely would have been easy for them to convince people that his followers ought to suffer the same fate. So the disciples are hiding behind locked doors and are afraid.

But, that first evening Jesus appears to them. The reason John includes the fact that they were in a room with locked doors is to stress the miraculous nature of Jesus’ appearance. John doesn’t tell us exactly what this looked like or how Jesus appeared, but somehow Jesus appears to them. Jesus first greets them with a word of peace and then follows that by showing them his hands and side. Jesus here is more than a spectre or some kind of ghost, he is presented to them in his physcial body, even though he has this miraculous appearance to them. After these pleasantries, Jesus tells them that he is sending them. Just as the Father had sent Jesus, so Jesus is sending the disciples into the world. Then he breathes on them and says to recieve the Holy Spirit. This part has caused a lot of conversation among scholars. If Jesus gave them the Holy Spirit here, then do they recieve the Spirit at Penecost? We could spend some time discussing this and there are a lot of different ideas, but in general I believe that what Jesus is doing here is a bit of a recreation of the Garden of Eden. Just as God breathed life into Adam and Eve, so now Jesus is breathing this new life into the disciples.

Jesus then says that if the disciples forgive someone’s sins they are forgiven, but if they do not, then they are not forgiven. Now, this verse can be confusing. Do the disciples actually have the power to forgive someone’s sins? Do they have the power to not forgive someone? Jesus isn’t handing that power over to them, but because of the Spirit they are able to tell people if their sins are forgiven. The disciples are going to go out and preach the gospel and based on how someone responds to it, they will be able to say if their sins are forgiven or if they aren’t. If the person rejects the gospel, they can clearly tell them that they aren’t forgiven, however if someone does accept and believe the gospel, the disciples can tell them they have been forgiven. It is still through Jesus that sins are forgiven, but based on how someone responds to the gospels the disciples can explain to them where they stand.

From this first section, I want us to focus on two things. First, Jesus makes it a point to say peace be with them twice within a short span. Throughout his time with the disciples, he talks about giving them his peace. John 16:33 ““I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.””

After the events of the last few days, peace is something that Jesus’ followers are not likely feeling. Yet despite everything that has happened, despite the fact that they are hiding behind locked doors, Jesus tells them to have peace. DA Carson says that this peace Jesus gives to them complements what Jesus said on the cross. Carson says, “Jesus’ peace on Sunday evening is the complement of “it is finished” on the cross, for the peace of reconciliation and life from God is now imparted.” Because of what Jesus has done on the cross and through his resurrection, the disciples and everyone who believes has the peace of reconciliation with God. This is what it means for us to be able to have peace even in the midst of trials and hardships. While life is going to have chaotic times, we are able to have peace because of what Jesus has done and how we are reconciled to God. Even though the disciples don’t know what the Jewish leaders are going to do, they aren’t sure what their future holds, they can have peace because of what Jesus has done.

The second thing to point out, is to see how the disciples are filled with joy at seeing Jesus. This is exactly what Jesus said would happen.

John 16:20-22 “Very truly I tell you, you will weep and mourn while the world rejoices. You will grieve, but your grief will turn to joy. A woman giving birth to a child has pain because her time has come; but when her baby is born she forgets the anguish because of her joy that a child is born into the world. So with you: Now is your time of grief, but I will see you again and you will rejoice, and no one will take away your joy.”

When you meet the risen Jesus, joy becomes a part of your life. This isn’t just happiness, this isn’t “become a christian and you will always be happy.” Happy is more of a feeling whereas joy is a state of being. Our reconciliation with God doesn’t come and go and a result of that we are able to have joy even in sadness. This is a type of joy that it doesn’t matter what we face in life, we can be overjoyed because of our relationship with Jesus. Our relationship with Jesus gives us the same peace and joy that the disciples experienced that Sunday evening when they encountered Jesus.

As we continue though, we see that not everyone experienced this peace and joy. One of the disciples wasn’t there with them in the first appearance of Jesus.

Doubt and Belief

John 20:24–29 NIV

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” 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.” 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” 28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Here we see where Thomas gets his nickname. As we look at Thomas and his doubt, I want to point a few things out. First, doubt is not the opposite of faith. Unbelief is the opposite of faith. Unbelief is when you willfully refuse to believe whereas doubt refers to uncertainty. Second, for some reason we can have this idea that doubt is bad. We see that just in how we typically look at Thomas. Psh, Thomas doubted, why did he do that? How could he doubt after hearing from the other disciples? We have to remember that Thomas was not around for that first appearance. We don’t know why he wasn’t, we don’t know where he was, but he hasn’t had that first experience. In a sense, he is in the same position the rest of the disciples were in after Mary told them she had seen Jesus. Mary had seen him, but yet they weren’t filled with joy at that moment. Because of his doubt, Thomas is able to have this interaction with Jesus and grow as a result.

Doubts are not bad, in fact they can lead to great growth in our relationship with God.

As an imperfect illustration, think about weightlifting. If you take up weightlifting and you only ever lift things that you will never struggle with, you likely aren’t going to get a whole lot stronger. In order to get stronger you have to lift enough that it causes a strain on you. Sure, there will be times that you can’t finish the lift, but over time you will be stronger as a result of that. Doubt acts in a similar way. When you doubt, don’t just ignore it, press into it. Talk to God about it, talk to others about it. Read scripture, spend time in prayer, have these difficult conversations with people. Because, once again, doubt is not unbelief. Use your doubt to push you forward in your relationship with God.

Thomas is also open about what he needs to see and experience to really believe. He needs to see the hands of Jesus, he needs to feel where the nails were and where he was pieced in his side. Likewise, we need to be honest about our doubts. For some reason we think it is wrong for us to express our doubts to God. But the truth is that God can handle them just as Jesus handled Thomas’. God can handle the doubts, fears, and unanswered questions that you have. Don’t attempt to hide them from God, take them to him, ask for help, seek his guidance, talk to others about them, and give yourself time and room to grow. Doubts are not often resolved in a short period of time, so be prepared and be okay with kind of sitting in that doubt for a season. Don’t beat yourself up if your doubts aren’t resolved immediately, the important thing is that you continue to seek God and grow.

Frederich Buechneer says this about doubt. “Doubts are the ants in the pants of faith. They keep it awake and moving.” I know that is a sillier way of looking at doubts, but it is true. Doubts prompt us to dive in, to seek answers, and grow.

Thomas’ doubts allow him to have this encounter with Jesus and to believe. The only problem with doubt, is if you ignore it, push it off, refuse to acknowledge it, until one day you just don’t care anymore and that doubt has changed to unbelief.

So this morning, I want you to know that if you have doubts, you are welcome here. If you have questions, you are welcome here. If you are uncertain, if you are a skeptic, if you are searching for truth, you are welcome here. I am sure that Jesus will meet you in whatever doubts you have and that he can use those doubts to develop a deeper relationship with you, just as he did with Thomas.

Prayer

The Purpose

John 20:30–31 NIV

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.