Is it wrong to question our faith?
Questions, we all have hundreds and thousands of questions. It is one of the ways we learn. The other day a co-worker asked me a really good question.
The bible tells us we must be ready to answer such questions. 1Peter 3:15
15But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,
The question my co-worker put to me was this. Is it wrong to question our faith?
Wow, what a great question! I took a few seconds before I answered his question and I came to realize something about Jesus.
Jesus asked a lot of questions during His ministry on earth. The bible is full of all kinds of questions put forward by Jesus. I started to go through the New Testament and found that Jesus asked at least 97 questions in the book of Matthew, 65 in Mark, 94 in Luke and 43 in John.
He asked questions of rich people, poor people, religious people, men, women and children. Then it struck me, Jesus ministry was all about asking questions.
The questions were often about matters of faith. But the answers were often left up to us. Let me show you what I mean.
Peters Confession of Christ Matthew 16:13-20
13When Jesus came to the region of Caesarea Philippi, he asked his disciples, "Who do people say the Son of Man is?"
14They replied, "Some say John the Baptist; others say Elijah; and still others, Jeremiah or one of the prophets."
15"But what about you?" he asked. "Who do you say I am?"
16Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ,[b] the Son of the living God."
17Jesus replied, "Blessed are you, Simon son of Jonah, for this was not revealed to you by man, but by my Father in heaven. 18And I tell you that you are Peter,[c] and on this rock I will build my church, and the gates of Hades[d] will not overcome it.[e] 19I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven; whatever you bind on earth will be[f] bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth will be[g] loosed in heaven." 20Then he warned his disciples not to tell anyone that he was the Christ.
We see Jesus himself putting the question to the disciples. Jesus puts that same question to each one of us who call themselves Christian.
"Who do you say I am?"
There have been a lot of answers to that question over the years even for Christians. For those who were closest to him there was no doubt as to who He was. To the many that were fed and healed on the hillsides there was no doubt.
To the followers of John The Baptist there was no doubt. To the religious and political leaders of the day there were more questions. So how would they answer such a question? The answers led them to an obvious conclusion; if Jesus is the Messiah then we will no longer hold our position of power and prestige over the people. We will have to admit that God is among us and we will become the servant and not the served.
Well it seems the religious and political leaders of Jesus day did not like the answers they arrived at so they conspired together to find an acceptable solution. They would kill Jesus in order to retain their grip on their coveted positions in society.
In our modern age so many years past these events people still ask the same question. Who do you say Jesus is? Some of you have answered this question and like Peter have come to a saving knowledge of who Jesus is.
For others among you the jury is still out on this decision. Id like to weigh in on this topic today and provide you some food for thought.
My friend at work had asked me whether we could or should question our faith. Lets start there.
The short answer is YES we should and can question our faith.
In fact if we dont you can be sure that an unbelieving world will be right there pointing an accusatory finger in our face saying prove it. In fact this week we saw another example of this with the so called discovery of Jesus bones.
Just for the record this was no discovery it was a re-telling of a discovery made in the 1980s and this would be Archaeologist/Historian who happens to be Canadian was looking for some dramatic headline to promote his T.V. show. Yes people will use the cause of Christ for their own personal ends.
So if we do not ask the questions and try to find the answer the unbelieving society around us will make up answers for us.
There comes a time in our lives when we can no longer let our parents or friends do our thinking for us. While growing up we trust our parents to make the very best decisions concerning our welfare. For the most part they do a good job. A parents decision making also centers around the things of faith. Most if not all of us adopt our parents faith since it is the only faith we are exposed to in our everyday life and culture.
Many people make the argument that we believe what we believe because of where we are born. If we were born in a Muslim country chances are we would be raised in the Muslim faith, if in a Buddhist country likewise etc, etc. There is a lot of truth to this statement and that brings us to our discussion today.
Do you practice your faith because it is the faith of your parents or grand-parents? Do you believe in Jesus for your own reasons? Do you have a personal faith in God or are you relying on the church or family or friends or some other association to ensure your place in eternity?
As Jesus said, who do you say that I am?
It does not matter where you live, who your parents are, and what your cultural background, what your religious position about God might be. The rubber hits the road when you decide for yourself who Jesus is.
This is the most serious decision of your life. You will build your entire belief system around whom and what you believe God to be. You will be staking your eternal future on making the right decision. You will find that making this choice will separate you from other groups of people and other religions. It can not be helped.
This is an entirely individual decision. As much as we as parents or as followers of Jesus Christ would like to make this decision for you, we can not. We can share our experience and knowledge of Jesus Christ but thats all we can offer.
You and you alone have to come to a final decision on this most important of lifes decisions.
How then do you decide?
Well thats the hard part isnt it?
I read in the Toronto Star a couple weeks ago about a pastors son who just happened to be a member of the Presbyterian denomination. He was at a loss as to what to believe about God.
He had been raised in the church at the side of an effective and successful minister of the gospel. Yet he could not decide if Jesus was for him. Why?
I do not know, sometimes those of us who are closest to things that are matters of faith often become alien to them. We do not absorb things through osmosis or simply by being close to a religious truth. We have to discover it for ourselves.
Even the disciples when asked started guessing until Peter came to the truth.
http://www.thestar.com/printArticle/181875
This young man decided to do his own research and began a deep self examination of himself and God. He went to a Catholic church and a Jewish synagogue as he began this personal quest. I found myself admiring him and at the same time I was a little sad as I considered his plight.
I could not help but think of Jesus and his disciples so long ago going through the same dilemma. Let me expand this for you.
Jesus came into a society that was Jewish not Christian. The Jewish society was one that had become entrenched in its legalism and divided in its ideas about how best to serve God.
This was demonstrated by the two divisions in the Jewish faith, the Pharisees and the Sadducees. To make matters even more confusing they had the Hellenistic model of the Roman pagan cults and what ever local self-proclaimed prophets might be working the area. John the Baptist was just one of those.
People had a lot of choices as to what they believed but everyone had to acknowledge the Emperor as a god that was a matter of law not faith.
You see it was no easy decision even back then and it remains no easy decision today. Still it remains a personal decision we all must make.
A conflict of faith is an opportunity to discover the living God.
Moses came out of the Egyptian faith. Abraham was called out of a pagan faith. Jesus came out of the Jewish faith. Our modern Protestant movement came out of the Roman Catholic faith.
It would seem that from time to time God wants us to define our faith in Him. But as we do we have to learn a lot of what people used to believe in order for us to discover what we now believe.
We seem to need to be able to weigh their experience and knowledge of God against our need to discover God in a personal way. Does the experience of others matter to how we view God for ourselves?
Well Yes it should.
While a police officer I needed to collect evidence if I stood any chance of proving a case in a court of law. There were all kinds of rules for this as well as all kinds of evidence that could be presented.
There was what is called Real Evidence things you could touch, a person, place or thing.
There was documentary evidence, letters, papers, wills etc. There is circumstantial evidence things that added to other types of evidence that gave them weight. There was Best Evidence or eye witness, finger prints, and confessions.
If you find you are like this Ministers son in Toronto and you too are seeking to define your faith then you need to rely on this kind of evidence and you will need some time to collect it all before arriving at a decision about who Jesus is.
Even Jesus had his Thomas. Poor Thomas gets a bad rap for being rational. Yet he asked good questions and demanded good evidence. Jesus did not chastise him for it but rather offered to Thomas the very things he needed to reach a conclusion about Jesus.
But for Peter it was different, it was a spiritual knowledge or coming of age that revealed who Jesus was.
In our bibles we can recount how Jacob wrestled with God. How Job wrestled with his faith and on and on it goes.
You see folks here we are into the second week of Lent. We who are believers are anxious to celebrate once more the sacrifice our Saviour made on our behalf. We are anxious to once more tell an unbelieving society about the life, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ and how He is the only hope for Human-kind.
It is the same message we have been telling for two thousand years and still people do not get it. Even some of Jesus closest followers did not put it together for themselves until Peter had his epiphany.
The great thing is we have a bible that has proven itself over and over as being reliable and accurate. We have two thousand years of learned teaching about Jesus Christ. Many, many great minds have laboured over this issue and we have a synthesis of collected thought and discovery about Jesus Christ.
For me to discover Jesus Christ in a personal way meant I had to be faced with a personal crisis. My marriage was in trouble and I turned to my church for help. I found little help or direction and it started me on a personal journey of spiritual discovery.
That discovery took me to the local library and after I had exhausted its shelves I headed for a Christian book store. I tried again to reconcile my faith since it was what my family practiced for years there had to be some merit in it or so I thought.
In the end I left the Roman Catholic Church and even submitted my own version of Martin Luthers 95 theses. What I discovered I found alarming and disturbing. I tried to talk to family but they refused to listen to what I had read and learned. They closed their minds and their hearts to what I had to say. They were more content to believe what someone else told them they should believe about God rather than discovering who God was for themselves.
It may take you some time and effort to learn who Jesus is. For me it took a personal crisis. For someone else it may be a spiritual apathy or a genuine curiosity to learn about Jesus for themselves. You will find one book will lead you to another then another and on and on.
If you search earnestly you will find the truth. Not everyone will have to or want to become a history student or bible scholar but some will. I have found that those who are in search of God will not be disappointed in what they find.
So do not be afraid of people who ask you who do you say Jesus is. Rather be ready to share what you have learned and how Jesus has changed your life and suggest to them that they go look for themselves.
Hebrews 11:[6]
But without faith it is impossible to please him: for he that cometh to God must believe that he is, and that he is a rewarder of them that diligently seek him.
Be diligent in your search for God and you will receive your reward.
Let us pray.
