DOUBTING YOUR DOUBTS!

          Every Easter week we enjoy a re-screening of Lew Wallace’s Ben Hur, a gripping story of a Jewish Prince who is betrayed and sent into slavery by a Roman friend. When he regains his freedom, he goes back home to Jerusalem for revenge, encounters Jesus and is forever changed. Ben Hur  is probably the most thrilling fictional novel ever written concerning the time of Christ.

          The author, LEW WALLACE, was a famous Northern general and literary genius. He and a dear friend, Robert Ingersoll, the famous atheist and skeptic, covenanted together to write a book that would forever destroy the myth of Christianity.

          FOR TWO YEARS, Mr. Wallace studied in the leading libraries of Europe and America, seeking information that would enable him to write a book which would destroy Christianity. While writing the second chapter of his book, Lew Wallace suddenly found himself on his knees, crying out,

“My Lord, and my God!”

 

THE EVIDENCE for the deity of Christ was over­whelmingly conclusive. He could no longer deny that Jesus Christ was the Son of God! The one whom he had determined to expose as a fraud had captures him and he gave his heart to Jesus Christ!

 

          ANOTHER FAMOUS DOUBTER was C.S. Lewis, profes­sor at Oxford University. For years he was an agnostic who denied the deity of Christ, Later, he became a devout follower of Christ and wrote many outstanding books advocating belief in Christ as Savior.

          In "The Case for Christianity," C.S. Lewis states,

"A man who was merely a man and said the sort of things Jesus said wouldn't be a great moral teacher.  He would either be a lunatic on the level with a man who says he's a poached egg—or else he would be the devil of Hell; you must take jour choice, either this was, and is, the Son of God, or else a mad man or something worse. You can shut him up for a demon; or you can fall at His feet and call him Lord and God. But don't come up with any patronizing nonsense about His being a great moral teacher. He hasn't left that alternative open to us."

 

WHO IS JESUS CHRIST TO YOU?

MORAL TEACHER?

FRAUD?

LUNATIC?

OUR LORD AND OUR GOD!!!

This morning’s TEXT concerns one doubter that makes LEW WALLACE and the early C.S. LEWIS seem like SS Teachers: THOMAS, CALLED DIDYMUS. The news of Jesus' resurrection spread quick­ly among his disciples.  CAN YOU IMAGINE the difficulty that the disciples had believ­ing the news?

          Remember, the people of Jesus’ times were greatly influenced by the Greeks who lived four hundred years before Jesus. Their stoic, rational empirical philosophies created doubters and helped them to thrive. This sermon is a profile of how one man’s rationalism kept him from experiencing faith in God.

 

 

March 22, 2009 - Sheepfold Ministries

Pastor Phil Roland

DOUBTING YOUR DOUBTS

JOHN 20:19-31

Learning to Un-believe your Un-beliefs

"Getting rid of doubt is like polishing rust off a hub cap. Honest questions are asked and answered through God's Word and accepted by faith." Pastor Phil

 

GREEK = "A - POR-O-O" = “To be w/o any resource;” - “To be uncertain”

 

SEVEN OBSERVATIONS ABOUT THE PROCESS OF DOUBT IN THOMAS' LIFE:

I.   DOUBT IN THE MIDST OF POWER - vs. 19-23

            A. Demonstrations of Power will not dispel all doubts - Matt 28:17

                “When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.”

            B. Women from the Tomb of Jesus were not believed - Mark 16:11,14

                “And when they heard that He was alive and had been seen by her, they

                  did not believe.”

                “After that, He appeared in another form to two of them as they walked

                  and went into the country. And they went and told it to the rest, but they

                  did not believe them either.”

 

II.  DOUBT FORSOOK THE ASSEMBLY – v. 24

                "Now Thomas (called Didym us), one of the Twelve, was not with the

                 disciples when Jesus came.”   

            A.  Commanded not to Forsake the Assembly - Heb. 10:24,25

                 “And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good

                   works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the

                   manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as

                   you see the Day approaching.”

            B. Thomas Saw Lazarus' Resurrection, but un-believed – Jn. 11:16

 

III. DOUBT CHALLENGES GOD – v. 25

     "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 it."

            A.  Thomas' "Chip on the Shoulder" Challenges God

            B.  Jesus rebuked him, but came to him

 

IV. DOUBT IS RATIONAL - vs. 26,27

            A. Don't have to LEAVE YOUR BRAINS outside the Church Door

            B. Can you PROVE the existence of Love Rationally?

                 1. Love needs actual empirical encounter

                 2. Love needs inspirational encounter

 

V. DOUBT MUST ENCOUNTER GOD - v. 28

"Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

            A. JESUS Touched Thomas on the Deepest Level of his Soul

            B. We must meet the Living Jesus on the Level of our Deepest Need

 

VI.  DOUBT NEEDS A SIGN - v. 30

      "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples,

        which are not recorded in this book. "

            A.  Doubt is like Rust on a Hub-Cap - Matt 6:33

                "But seek first the kingdom of God and His righteousness, and all these

                  things shall be added to you.”

            B. Doubt Needs a Sign - Matt. 16:4;  Mark 16:17,18

                "A wicked and adulterous generation seeks after a sign, and no sign

                shall be given to it except the sign of the prophet Jonah."

              "And these signs will follow those who believe: In My name they will

                cast out demons; they will speak with new tongues; "they will take up

                serpents; and if they drink anything deadly, it will by no means hurt

                them; they will lay hands on the sick, and they will recover."

 

VII. DOUBTS ARE DOUBTED THROUGH SURRENDER - v 31

            A. Surrender to the Living Word of God: The Risen Christ

            B. Thomas Lost His Doubts by Surrendering to Christ

 

 

DOUBTING YOUR DOUBTS! CONCLUSION

          In 1985 an American doctor with a certain medical specialty was asked by the Chinese communists to come and share his knowledge with them. An elderly Chinese couple came to him and gave him a Chinese language Bible. They asked him to give it to their son who was a prominent physician in BEJING.”  (Peking)

          When he met the young Chinese physican in Beijing he started to give him the Bible. The young man reacted violently, “Not here!  Bring it to my house this evening!"

So the American doctor went to his house that evening. As he handed him the Bible, he noticed the young Chinese doctor was a devout believer, so he asked him HOW he came to become a Christian.

        "Oh, it happened in an instant!  The medical attendants brought in an elderly lady. As she was walking down the mountain-side, a boulder fell on her, crushing her. I x-rayed her and decided that since every major bone in her body was either broken or fractured, and she was hemorrhaging internally, she would probably die with or without treatment.  I placed her in a comfortable bed to die!

She kept mumbling something over and over again. I bent over her to listen to her petition,

"Jesus, save me!"  

She repeated it over and over... 1 went home and went to bed.

          The next morning I was making my rounds, and went past her bed. I expected it to be empty, because she had, no doubt, died in the night. The elderly woman was sitting up in her bed, sipping rice soup!

He exclaimed to her,

"WHAT are you doing here?"

The woman thought he was mad because she was eating soup!

"Honest, one of the nurses offered me some!"

"No! I mean, why aren't you dead?"

"Jesus HEALED me!"

The young Chinese doctor replied to the American Doctor, "Right then, I became a Christian!

If Jesus could heal her!

He can save my soul!

I can trust Him for eternity!"

 

DOUBT NEEDS A SIGN!

 

DOUBTING YOUR DOUBTS! SURRENDER

          The Thirteen Volume, "ANTE-NICENE FATHERS"  contain an apocryphal book called, "The Legend of Thomas."

The book claims that after Jesus ' ascension, the disciples divided up the known world to conquer it for Christ.

THOMAS RECEIVED INDIA!

There Thomas gave up his life a martyr for the faith he once doubted! In SOUTH INDIA today you will find a church called,

“Thomas’ Church of So. India." The church claims Thomas as its founder. . .

THOMAS LOST HIS DOUBTS BY SURRENDERING TO JESUS CHRIST ! ! !

HE LOST HIS DOUBTS BY SURRENDERING TO THE LIVING WORD OF GOD!!!