Sermon Tone Analysis

*Luke 7:18-23*

 

CS Lewis

Now faith…is the art of holding on to things your reason has once accepted, in spite of your changing moods.

For moods will change, whatever view your reason takes.

I know that by experience.

Now that I am a Christian I do have moods in which the whole thing looks very improbable, but when I was an atheist I had moods in which Christianity looked terribly probable.

This rebellion of your moods against your real self is going to come to everyone.

That is why Faith is such a necessary virtue: unless you teach your moods "where they get off," you can never be either a sound Christian or even a sound atheist, but just a creature dithering to and fro, with its beliefs really dependent on the weather and the state of its digestion.

v    This is true!

Ø     We all have moods swings in which we doubt certain aspects of our Christianity or even the Gospel

§        We all have those “moods” as C.S. Lewis puts it

·        And in our text today, John is having a mood swing…

* *

*READ 7:18-19*

* *

*Doubt*

v    John’s doubt is nothing new

Ø     In Scripture some of the Greatest men had doubts

§        *Moses* ~~ Num 11:10-15 ~~ People sick of Manna, Can’t do it, kill me!

§        *Elijah* ~~ 1 Kings 19 ~~ Jezebel threatens to kill Elijah, flees and wants to quit

Ø     One of the common threads in the lives of some of the greatest saints who have ever lived is doubt

§        M.

Luther commanding the mud puddles to dry up

·        /“I will do whatever you ask in my name”/

·        When did not, would doubt

§        G.

Campbell Morgan came to a place in his ministry where he doubted God’s Word

·        He cancelled all his preaching engagements went out and bought a new Bible

¨     He studied and studied it until, as he put it…

Ø     “The Bible found me”

§        Billy Graham early on in his ministry was racked with doubt about the power of God’s Word

·        It took an epiphany experience deep in the woods of NC for his doubt to be conquered

§        After Francis Schaeffer moved to L-Abri Switzerland his faith was shaken

·        Edith tells of their first year there as one in which Schaeffer struggled through his doubts and misgivings regarding Christianity

¨     Took long walks in the mountains

¨     Stayed up nights

¨     Pounded on walls

 

Ø     Perhaps some of you have been at a place in your life where you doubted

§        Had uncertainty about God

§        Entertained misgivings

§        Were unsure, hesitant, or irresolute

·        Well then…

¨     Welcome to the Christian walk!

 

v    You see…

Ø     We all have doubts from time to time about a variety of things

§        Is God really listening to my prayers?

§        Was the answer to my prayer really God or just coincidence?

§        Is Jesus really walking beside me?

§        Am I really saved?

§        Is the Gospel really true?

§        Did Jesus really raise from the dead?

v    What we have to realize is that…

Ø     Doubts are not incom­patible with faith. . . .

In his book, /Spiritual Depression/, Martyn Lloyd-Jones writes:

Some people seem to think that once you become a Christian you should never be assailed by doubts.

But that is not so, Peter still had faith (as he panicked in the storm in Matthew 14). . . .

His faith was not gone, but because it was weak, doubt mastered him and overwhelmed him and he was shaken. . .

.

v    Many people think that doubt is the absence of faith

Ø     They worry about their salvation if they doubt

§        Doubt is not an absence of faith

·        Just a weakness in it

¨     Jesus restores faith

Ø     Does not Cat away

§        E.g.

Thomas, Peter

v    And sitting in Machaerus dungeon, John had a moment of weakness in his faith

 

*The Doubt of John*

v    John the Baptist, Jesus’ 2nd cousin, the one who identified Jesus as the Messiah…

Ø     Doubting

§        The one who said

·        Behold, the lamb of God who takes on the sin of the world…

¨     Doubting

§        The one who said…

·        One more powerful than I, is coming whose sandals I am not fit to untie…

¨     Doubting

§        The one who said to Jesus when he came to him to be baptized…

·        I need to be baptized by you!...

¨     Doubting

§        The one who lept in Elizabeth’s womb when Mary carrying Jesus came near…

·        Doubting

 

*RQ: What could possibly cause this man of God to doubt?*

v    I think for the same reasons as so many of us…

Ø     Look at his Circumstances

§        John the Baptist had been sitting in Herod’s dungeon for many months

·        If Jesus is the Messiah, why am I still in jail?

·        Didn’t he come to “set the captives free” as Isa 61:1 says?

¨     His circumstances certainly did not encourage his faith

 

§        Circumstances tend to be a catalyst for doubt

·        Pashhur had Jeremiah put in stocks and beaten for prophesy against Judah

¨     *READ Jer 20:14-18*

Ø     So discouraged he wanted to die!

§        Has anybody here ever been to that place?

Ø     Jeremiah is asking…

§        Why is this happening to me since I am being faithful?

·        *RQ: Has anybody here ever asked that doubting question?*

§        Circumstances tend to be a catalyst for our doubt too!

·        We look at our circumstances sometimes and ask the same question that John asks…

¨     God, are you actively helping my circumstances?

¨     I am being faithful, yet look at my circumstances

¨     Are you really real?

¨     Are you really there?

Near the end of WorId War II, members of the Allied forces were often found searching farms and houses for snipers.