Hope for the Doubter
Joel Kolb
Hope Is Here! • Sermon • Submitted • Presented • 44:32
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· 132 viewsWhen 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.
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Today is the final week of our series, Hope Is Here.
It has been so encouraging to gather as a church and uncover all the ways that we find home in our relationship with Jesus Christ and our relationships with one another.
The first week we learned that there is hope for the weary because we don’t have to carry our burdens on our own.
The second week, we discovered that there is hope for the broken because forgiveness is offered to us in love.
This final week we deal with one of the hardest places to find hope. Is there hope for the doubter?
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. Maybe it was too good to be true and so it made you skeptical. I want to pose some questions to you, and I need you to decide if you trust it or doubt it. If you trust it, put your hand in the air. If you doubt it, keep your hand down.
Did you know that every day, on average, 11 banks are robbed in the U.S.? Trust it or doubt it? It’s true!
Did you know you are more likely to be stung by a bee in windy weather? Trust it or doubt it? It’s false.
Did you know they have square watermelons in Japan because they stack better? Trust it or doubt it? It’s true.
Did you know penguins can smell toothpaste from a mile away? Trust it or doubt it? It’s false.
It’s hard to tell what to trust and what to doubt.
Doubt has become a common occurrence for many of us within our culture today.
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.
You can even trust the news because of political bias!
This past season of Covid-19 has caused many 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.
If God were really good, would He stop bad things from happening?
People 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 friends 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!
There was one disciple, named Thomas, who refused to believe.
24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So 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.”
Thomas gets a bad rap 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 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.
WE DOUBT TO PROTECT OURSELVES
WE DOUBT TO PROTECT OURSELVES
Truthfully, we are a lot like Thomas.
We want to avoid disappointment.
We want to avoid disappointment.
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.
Think about it: What is the first thing we say when we are given good news? We respond with, “No way,” or, “You have got to be kidding me.” We respond first with doubt because we want to protect ourselves. Occasionally, it takes time to let hope rise.
We want to avoid being wrong.
We want to avoid being wrong.
OK, so it’s not just disappointment that we are afraid of, we don’t want to be wrong.
We want to get our facts straight.
We would rather be correct, than be corrected.
More than wanting to believe, we want to be believable.
The problem is that you don’t know what you don’t know.
The fact is, what we know or what we can know is limited.
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.
26 Eight 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.” 27 Then 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.”
Without much 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 calm their fears.
Whom does he speak to 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.”
JESUS IS NOT AFRAID OF OUR DOUBT
JESUS IS NOT AFRAID OF OUR DOUBT
There are many in the church today who are struggling with their faith.
Be honest about your doubts.
Be honest about your doubts.
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.
So how should the Church respond to those who have doubts in a way that would be on par with Jesus’ response to Thomas?
Understand the reasons for your doubts.
Understand the reasons for your doubts.
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.
Move through your doubts.
Move through your doubts.
I was once counseling a survivor of unimaginable abuse. She has given me to share her story. In one session she was remembering the horrors of a childhood trauma and when she would remember, her mannerisms and voice would change to that of a child. So I would respond to her gently as I would a small child.
During one of these intense times she asked a question, innocently, but is shook me. “Why did God allow this to happen?”
What could I say? What could she possibly understand in her child-like state? How could I explain the mysteries of the universe to a child? But I know that God speaks to her and that she hears God’s voice.
So I simply said, “I don’t know.” Why don’t you ask God that question?
She did and she smiled. So I asked, “What did God say?”
“He said that when He allowed those things to happen He knew that I could be healed.”
God knows what we don’t know.
There is healing.
There is resurrection.
There is hope.
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.
For Thomas, seeing is believing.
But what about the rest of us? How are we to overcome our doubts?
DOUBT IS OVERCOME WHEN WE TRUST THE SOURCE
DOUBT IS OVERCOME WHEN WE TRUST THE SOURCE
28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
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 thankful for Thomas’ faith in this passage, but guess whom Jesus is thinking about…you and me.
He is thinking about those who would be blessed for believing in his resurrection power and divine hope without seeing.
Evidence is only as good as the source.
Evidence is only as good as 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.
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.
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.
Jesus’ presence is enough.
Jesus’ presence is enough.
Maybe you wish that you could reach out your hand and touch Jesus’ scars like Thomas?
Jesus’ presence is still here and still very real.
This week commemorates the feast of tabernacles -Sukkot.
It is a celebration of the wandering in the dessert where God provided for His people.
The Jews will make a temporary shelter to hang out with friends and relatives and remember that life is temporary and how God provides.
But it is also a celebration of God’s dwelling with us.
The Sukkah is a sign of dwelling in God’s presence.
14 And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we have seen his glory, glory as of the only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth.
I wasn’t just that Thomas could see Jesus in the flesh, but that at that moment Thomas also realized who Jesus really is.
Today Jesus is with the Father in heaven, but He has sent the Holy Spirit so that we still experience His presence.
The church, throughout history has been a place and a people of God’s presence.
It is why we gather together, because when we do He is in the midst of us.
When we say, “Hope is here” we can only say that because Jesus is here!
He is the source of hope.
Sometimes only He can answer your questions.
Sometimes His answer is simply to be comforted in His presence.
Questions for reflection:
Questions for reflection:
Are you struggling to know who or what to believe? You can start with the truth that God loves you. Jesus is real and His presence is here! Ask the Holy Spirit to give you peace.
Do you still have doubts? Perhaps there are questions that have never been answered or situations that you cannot understand or accept? Let’s be honest, we all have those! Why don’t you ask God to show you why you feel that way?
Granted that answers may take time. And there may be things that we will never understand. But what do you know that you can be sure of? What have you experience first-hand that gives you hope?