Introduction
Everyone goes through doubts in their faith, even Mother Teresa. She once wrote her spiritual director, “Where I try to raise my thoughts to heaven, there is such convicting emptiness that those very thoughts return like sharp knives and hurt my very soul. Love — the word — it brings nothing. I am told God lives in me — and yet the reality of darkness and coldness and emptiness is so great that nothing touches my soul.” Her spiritual director reassured her with the basic message, “The fact that you have doubts means that your faith is real.”
Doubts are something we all share. There are two types of people: those who admit they have doubts and those who lie about having doubts. We all have doubts at some level and at some point. At times, we may doubt whether God hears our prayers. Sometimes we wonder when young children die or when an evil person seems to succeed, or if we go through a great challenge like navigating through cancer or financial ruin, is our faith based on truth? Is it real? Everyone has doubts, and they’re actually good for you.
Things happen that challenge our faith. Questions arise and cause us to wrestle with what we believe. Unfortunately, for a few decades, we have viewed doubts as overtly negative. We have even chastised those with doubts. We have condemned doubts. We have created an environment where if you were experiencing doubts, you were some sort of lesser person and believer. Don't question God or don't doubt God, as if He would be offended and unable to handle our questions. I grew up in that period where doubts were either ignored, chastised, or belittled. Wrestling with your faith isn’t a sign of weakness, it's evidence of your humanity. The men and women in the Bible show us this. And repeatedly, Jesus shows how He responds to doubts.
Don’t be surprised when your faith is challenged to a wrestling match. The Bible tells us to fight the good fight of faith. Winning a good-faith wrestling match can even make you stronger.
Doubt comes in varying degrees. When you go through an illness, when you go through a family break up, when you go through financial hardships, when you go through a crisis of faith, when you go through a major life change, doubts can find their way into your mind and heart. Doubts are a part of the human experience. Often though, when we experience doubts, we pull back, we withdraw, we isolate ourselves, and we step back from our Jesus and other believers. Our mind reasons that if we doubt a relationship or a situation, we should step back, take a pause, and examine it. But how do we examine our questions and discover the truth when we're not engaged? When you place something under a microscope, you are wanting to look closer. Maybe stepping back is actually counterintuitive to finding the truth. In reality, it's going deeper, look closer that answers our questions. Today, I want us to see How doubts can grow your faith.
John 20:24-29 (ESV - English Standard Version)
24Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
25So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But he said to them, "Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe."
26Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."
27Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe."
28Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God!"
29Jesus said to him, "Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Scriptural Analysis
V24-25
The disciples who had experienced the surprising appearance of Jesus were apparently enthusiastically ready to share the details of their post-resurrection experience of “the Lord.” But Thomas had not been at the meeting, and he had no immediate sense of the significance of the miracle that had occurred. Although this statement of Thomas may seem to be quite obstinate, there is a sense in which contemporary believers ought to thank God that someone like Thomas was there to ask the question that millions have wrestled with since.
We should not jump to the conclusion that Thomas should be blamed for not being present at the first meeting. Thomas’ unbelieving attitude is based on fear. He must have visible, tangible proof of the Lord’s resurrection; otherwise, he will not believe. This is the attitude of many today. Only the evidence of his senses could persuade Thomas that the other disciples had not seen merely a phantom or apparition; a ghost or spiritual vision. Thomas does not doubt that his friends think they saw something; he doubts the nature of their experience.
V26-27
One week later, the Lord appeared to His disciples again. They are still fearful and worried. This time Thomas was with them. Again the Lord Jesus entered the room in a miraculous way and again greeted them with “Peace to you!” The Lord dealt gently and patiently with His doubting follower Thomas. He invited him to prove the reality of His resurrection by putting his hand into the spear wound in His side. Jesus was never severe on a person besieged by doubt. He was not hard on Thomas. Jesus did not say to him: “I am shocked by your doubt, Thomas. You have been one of My disciples, and I have expected better things of you.” He was very gentle and affirming. He simply said to him: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side; do not be faithless, but believing”
Sincere Christianity has always welcomed sincere research and all questions. Jesus did not scold Thomas or condemn his hesitation. He provided the evidence. Only then did he say to him, Stop doubting and believe.
V28-29
Thomas was convinced. He acknowledged the divinity he did not see by the wounds he did see. Thomas’ response, My Lord and My God! is the high point of the Gospel. Jesus then commended Thomas for recognizing his true identity as “Lord” and “God.” Here was a fearful, skeptical man, confronted by the evidence of Jesus’ resurrection. He announced that Jesus, the Man of Galilee, is God.
John opened this book with the declaration that the Word was God in chapter 1, and now, near the end of the Gospel, Thomas names Jesus as his Lord and his God. One more important thing to notice is that Jesus accepted worship as God. If He were only a Jewish man, He would have refused it.
Jesus pronounces a blessing on those who do not share the experience granted to Thomas, of seeing so that they might believe. Jesus here states that the willingness to take the report of Him by faith is a blessed condition. This does not denigrate the way Thomas sought evidence, but it does commend a certain posture to the audience of this Gospel: John’s audience hears from the lips of Jesus that they are blessed if they hear and believe, though they have not seen.
TODAY'S KEY TRUTH
You can do both: Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
Thomas has often been vilified by Christians because of his early doubts expressed in these verses. He even earns a nickname: “Doubting Thomas.” But throughout this Gospel, he has been presented as a realist, a person who evaluated situations on the basis of what he could perceive and someone who, despite some doubts, stays committed to the cause. Thomas was just as committed as the other disciples, perhaps even more so in some ways. Just weeks before Christ’s Crucifixion, Jesus told the disciples that he had to go to Bethany, because his friend Lazarus was very sick. Most of the disciples cautioned him away from the idea because of all the hatred towards Him fuming in nearby Jerusalem. Yet, Thomas responded, in John 11:16, “Let us also go, that we may die with him." Thomas is not merely a pathetic doubter. He is a paradigm of many Christians who are capable of great possibilities while also experiencing some hesitations in faith.
But Thomas isn't the only biblical hero that wrestled with doubts.
Abraham was ninety-nine years old when the LORD appeared to him. God proclaimed He would make a covenant with Abram and make him the father of many nations. He and Sarah both had serious doubts about becoming parents in their nineties.
Moses was tending his father-in-law’s flock at the mountain of God. While there, God told Moses He was sending Moses to Egypt to speak to the Pharaoh about freeing God’s people, the Israelites, from slavery. Moses stuttered; you got the wrong guy.
God came to Gideon and told him to save the Israelites. Years before, the Israelites were doing evil, so God allowed a large number of Midianites to ruin the Israelite’s crops and kill their livestock. Gideon said I'm the weakest dude from the weakest clan; there's no way you're asking me.
John the Baptist, the famous wilderness preacher who was sent to prepare the way of the Lord, started out confident and certain. When baptizing Jesus, he said, "Look, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! And, I have seen, and I testify that this is God’s Chosen One.” But when he found himself in jail, he questioned if Jesus was really the Messiah.
And look at this one with me. Have you ever noticed the two verses before The Great Commission in Matthew 28? “Now the eleven disciples went to Galilee, to the mountain to which Jesus had directed them. And when they saw Him they worshiped him, BUT SOME DOUBTED.” Wait? What? Of the eleven disciples, who have been with the resurrected Jesus for weeks now after seeing him brutally murdered, there were some still wrestling with doubt. He’s ascending into Heaven at this moment & yet doubt still existed in the minds of some disciples.
Clearly, asking for “signs” won’t quiet your doubts when the people who are witnesses to the resurrection & ascension still struggled. Doubt is a part of the human experience. But how did these doubting men still become heroes of our faith?
Because instead of allowing doubts to drive them away from Jesus, they went toward Jesus.
You can do both: Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
The key to properly handling your doubts is to go toward Jesus, not away. Every one of these examples went toward Jesus. They didn't withdraw, step back, or become reclusive. They went toward Jesus. Thomas showed up at the next meeting to see if Jesus had been resurrected. There's no way to honestly examine your doubts and Jesus unless you head toward Him.
You can do both: Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
We do not think little of a Christian who gets sick or becomes crippled. We know that physical illness and infirmity are a part of the human experience. It happens to all of us. It's part of the human experience. You and I will wrestle with doubts. It's part of the human experience.
But don’t seclude yourself or withdraw when it happens. It was when Thomas was away from the other disciples that his doubts were strengthened. Isolation magnified the doubts that he had. He missed Jesus’ first visit and now his doubts grew. If you separate a piece of coal from the rest of the fire, what happens? It goes out.
There are too many people who become a recluse when they start having these feelings of doubt or depression. Instead of running toward Jesus and getting surrounded by people to help us, most of us try to eat the problem away or starve the problem away and stay behind closed doors. When life is toughest, we withdraw. Don't run away. Don't withdraw from God and His people.
You can do both: Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
Run toward Jesus.
I don’t know if y’all realize this, but… We need each other. When you feel least like going to church, that’s when you need to go the most. When you most want to hide out, that’s when you need to force yourself to reach out to others, if not in person, then by phone or Face time, Facebook, or something. Together we are the body of Christ, and when one hurts, the whole body hurts; when one celebrates, the whole body celebrates. Where two or more (Brothers and Sisters in Christ) are gathered, Jesus is there in the midst! You can't deal with the doubts of life alone.
If you look at the post-resurrection appearances, Jesus almost always appeared to groups of people, not individuals: Mary and Mary, Peter and John, the two friends on the road to Emmaus, the ten disciples, a week later to the 11 disciples, later to 500 people at once, and after that, to 120 folks gathered at Pentecost. Jesus seemed to honor groups. We need each other to fight off the doubts.
So, Be on Guard, Be Accessible. Be Together. Withdrawing from something when you have doubts is counter-intuitive. Draw closer, examine, study, read, and seek the truth.
Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
Jesus was never severe on a person besieged by doubt. He was not hard on Thomas, or John the Baptist, or Peter. Do you remember how gentle Jesus was with the father of the boy who was deaf and dumb? The boy had suffered much, but the father had suffered too. The father came to Jesus, half believing and half doubting. “If you can do anything,” he said, “have pity on us and help us” (Mark 9:22). He was saying in effect: “I am not sure You can do anything, but if You can, please help us.” And Jesus was not severe on him. Jesus responded: “If you can! All things are possible to him who believes.” And the father confessing his ambivalence, said: “I believe; help my unbelief!” (Mark 9:24).
We can learn a lot from Jesus. Jesus was never harsh on someone to help them overcome doubts. Jesus always responded by creating a deeper relationship that encourages faith and trust.
A few years after this event in our scripture, Thomas caught a cargo ship to India to preach the risen Jesus. Thomas was warned to be quiet. When he kept preaching, his opponents ran a spear through his back. He died in pain and suffering never denying his faith in Jesus. The church he started in India still flourishes today.
Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.
Philip Yancey, in his book, Reaching for the Invisible God, says, “Doubt is the skeleton in the closet of faith, and I know no better way to treat a skeleton than to bring it into the open and expose it for what it is: not something to hide or fear, but a hard structure on which living tissue may grow.” Show me a faith that has never experienced doubt, and I’ll show you a day-old faith, a faith that hasn’t had a chance to grow… or worse, a pretend faith, a fake faith.
If we believe that Jesus is the real truth, if what we believe is real and certain, then why would we fear our doubts when they arise? When you examine the truth, it's still the truth. So ask the hard questions, wrestle with your unbelief, and deal with the doubts while you run towards Jesus. He will not rebuke you. He will not refuse you. He will not abandon you. He will not reject you. As He did with John the Baptist, as He did with Peter, like He did the father of the ill son, like with doubting Thomas, Jesus will embrace you and your doubts with His love, patience, and understanding.
Jesus says, "All things are possible to him who believes. Blessed are those who believe." Jesus knows He is the truth and the life. He's not afraid, upset, or angry at our doubts. He knows that if you draw closer and embrace Him, your doubts will be answered, and your life will be on mission. Doubts can grow your faith when you...
Examine your doubts & Embrace your savior.