I have questioned many things about our faith and the things of God. I am a skeptic. I admit it.
Whenever I hear about someone who is suffering from cancer miraculously discovering his or her cancer is gone, I wonder if it can be true. I doubt.
I read reports about God mysteriously working in people’s lives and I question whether their experiences are genuine or not. I wonder, I doubt, Sometimes I am skeptical.
Sometimes I wonder if God’s plan really works; if His Word is good for real everyday living.
I confess that there are times when I wonder if all that I say I believe is really real. There are days that I look through the stacks of sermons I have written and preached, and I question if it is worth the effort and time involved.
Do you understand what it means to be skeptical? – to question whether it is real? – to wonder if God is real? – to doubt?
There are times when while I am praying, I begin to wonder whether God hears me, whether there is even a God. What if this whole thing is wrong? What if Jesus was just a good man and there really is no heaven or hell?
Writer and preacher Lee Strobel says that there are three kinds of people in this room today. The first group would be those who have doubted. The second group would be those who haven’t doubted yet, but who will. And the third group would be those who are brain dead.
In other words, if you’re a thinking person at all -- if you seriously contemplate your faith and what it means to follow Jesus Christ -- the chances are that every once in a while you’re going to come down with some questions, some issues, some uncertainties, some doubts.
So, what doubts are you struggling with this morning?
Maybe you doubt that God has really forgiven you.
Or you wonder whether the Bible really is the Word of God.
Or you question why God lets people suffer.
Or you’ve been praying for help with a struggle in your life, but so far there has been silence, and you’re wondering whether anybody’s at home in heaven, or if there is, whether He really cares.
Maybe you have questions about how God created the world or even how He’ll end it.
Or you’ve said to yourself, “I think I’ve become a Christian, but sometimes I’m not sure. Maybe I wasn’t sincere enough when I was baptized.”
Maybe you doubt that God has really forgiven you. Or you wonder whether the Bible really is the Word of God. Or you question why God lets people suffer. Or you’ve been praying for help with a struggle in your life, but so far there has been silence, and you’re wondering whether anybody’s at home in heaven, or if there is, whether He really cares. Maybe you have questions about how God created the world or how He’ll end it. Or you’ve said to yourself, “I think I’ve become a Christian, but sometimes I’m not sure. Maybe I wasn’t sincere enough when I prayed.”
But these sorts of questions are not reserved for Christians alone. Many who have never trusted Christ are asking all the right questions – “Is there a God?” “Can I trust Him?” “Is Jesus for real?” and many others like them.
I want us to look at someone this morning that we might be surprised struggled with doubt. We call him “John the Baptist”
We’re going to look at his crisis of faith and the moment he had his greatest doubt. We’ll read of his story in Luke 7. As you look at the text with me, I’m certain you’ll be able to identify with much of what is revealed.
As we look together I want you to consider three questions: three issues that need to be raised in order to help you work through your own doubts about Jesus.
Question #1: Are You Really A Doubter?
18 John’s disciples told him about all these things. Calling two of them, 19 he sent them to the Lord to ask, “Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?”
Luke 7:18-19
I ask you that because the fact is that you need to be honest about what you are, because many people who say they are doubters or skeptics really are not. A doubter, or a skeptic is someone who has trouble believing something but will make the effort and take the time to investigate it.
In my first ministry in SJ I met with a man and his wife who claimed to be agnostics. They said that they didn’t know if there was a God or not.
I asked them if they believed what the Bible said about God. They said, “No, not really, we’re skeptics. We don’t believe the Bible.”
When I questioned their decisions as dishonest – how can they reject something they have not investigated the husband said this – and this is pretty much a direct quote – “I don’t know if there is a God or not and I don’t want to know because then I’d have to do something about it.”
Friends, This is not skepticism. This is not doubt. This is dishonest and arbitrary rejection of the evidence that points to the reality of God, his son Jesus, and the Holy Spirit – with out investigation, scrutinization, even a moment to ponder the claims of the creator.
This is simply a subtle way of lying. A man who says this is like the fellow who claims that the world is flat so as to avoid the burden of launching dangerous and costly voyages beyond the horizon.
Question #1: Are You Really A Doubter?
Any true skeptic worthy of the name is both hunter and detective, stalking the evidence, laying ambush, rummaging for clues, dredging the river bottom, wiretapping phone lines, setting traps. A true skeptic is passionate about discovering truth and wants to believe (and there’s the key), but safeguards against the hypnotic power of that wanting. So he tests.”
Mark Buchanan
Book: Your God is too safe
I suspect that most people who claim to be skeptics and doubters really are not. Most are just hiding behind the words so they don’t have to give an honest nod at Jesus.
John was a true doubter, a skeptic. When he heard the reports about Jesus he had to know if he really was the Messiah. Remember, this is the same John who baptized Jesus, confessed that he wasn’t worthy to untie his shoes and saw the Spirit of God descend on Jesus. This is the same John who professed that Jesus was “the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world!” But now John has his doubts, and what is he doing? He’s digging, investigating, asking, and demonstrating that he really wants to know.
Many of the people in the crowd were skeptics and doubters too. They were following Jesus around, listening to His words, watching His actions, looking for answers and asking questions. But the question for you is simply this: are you really a doubter. Are you a true skeptic? Or are you just hiding behind those words so you don’t have to do the digging necessary to discover the Jesus that you’re having those doubts about?
Question #2: Are You Seeking The Truth?
John preached his message to anyone who would listen. And what did he say to them?
The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.”
Luke 3:9
His winnowing fork is in his hand to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but he will burn up the chaff with unquenchable fire.
Luke 3:17
In Luke 3 John burst onto the scene preaching the baptism of repentance for the remission of sins. He had a message from God and was preaching that message with everything he had. If there was ever a hellfire and damnation preacher it was John. “Repent! The kingdom of heaven is at hand!” His was a scathing, stinging message. “The Messiah is coming who will sift Israel! You’d better get ready!”
What a strong message! John was convinced that the Messiah was coming who would set up His kingdom and establish righteousness. The Messiah would judge Israel and find her lacking. He was convinced that the Messiah was coming to purge and sift and rip the people to shreds for their disobedience and immorality. He took that message all the way to the top, rebuking the king for having an affair with his sister-in-law, a message that got him thrown in prison. But prison was okay. After all, the Messiah was coming to set things in order. I can hear him thinking about the king, “That’s all right. He’ll get you.”
But He doesn’t. At least he doesn’t have the same time frame in mind that John had. John was thinking… um… sometime in the next… say the next couple of months!
Jesus is thinking sometime in the next couple thousand of years…
What ever the time frame – it’s going to happen we have the promise of God but God is patient and wants all to come to repentance and to come back to him. God is going to give me and you and people like us and people not like us every opportunity to come back to him.
But this is not what John thought Jesus was going to do.
In fact, it is because of the way Jesus is conducting His ministry that John is having doubts in the first place. John was looking for a Messiah who would come and set up His kingdom with fierceness. Jesus is going around the countryside behaving exactly the opposite of how he thought he should be acting.
John spent his days in the wilderness dressed in burlap made out of camel’s hair. Have you ever petted a camel – they are not soft and plush in texture – they feel a lot more like canvass!
Jesus spent His at weddings and socials. John preached judgment, Jesus preached mercy. John preached sifting, Jesus was ministering to Gentiles and prostitutes and pimps. If he really was the Messiah why were so many rejecting Him? And why was He allowing it?
John fasted, Jesus feasted.
John was the prophet of doom and warning – Jesus is the savior of hope and love.
So when Jesus wasn’t doing what John expected he began to doubt.
John had come to quite a low place in his life: he had become a doubter. Think about how he had come to such a place.
So John wants to know – “Are you the Messiah or not?”
“Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor. 23 Blessed is the man who does not fall away on account of me.”
Luke 7:23
Instead of giving him a straight answer, Jesus turned and began ministering to people again – doing the same works He had been doing: healing illnesses, performing exorcisms, giving sight to the blind. Then he tells John’s disciples to go back and tell John what they had seen.
Now, watch what Jesus says in verse 23, “Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be offended in me.” Jesus’ ministry is a source of offense. It has been and it will continue to be until the people finally put Him on the cross.
Why? Because He wasn’t what most people were looking for.
John was looking for a Savior who would come and take the land by storm, and when he didn’t get it he was offended.
If you’re not careful you’ll be offended in Jesus too. It may offend you that some people who aren’t as faithful or good as you are just as blessed as you are. It may offend you that someone hurt you or cheated you or wronged you and they got away with it. It may offend you that some sorry sucker out there got sick and lived, but your loved one got sick and died. It may offend you that you pray and pray and pray but God doesn’t seem to hear or listen or care. It may offend you that Jesus is the only way. It may offend you that Jesus demands that you repent in order to be saved. But Jesus said that if you can walk through your doubts and skepticism and in your seeking discover the truth: discover the real Jesus and understand that He doesn’t always work like you think He ought or answer prayers like you expect or treat people how you want Him to and not be offended by what you discover, then you’ll be blessed.
You see, you’re going to get what you’re looking for. Jesus asked the people concerning John, “What did you go out to see?” They went out to see a prophet, not a reed or a finely dressed prince – a prophet, and that’s exactly what they got. But they didn’t just get any prophet – they got the greatest prophet ever born. And what did they do when they heard that prophet? What did they do when, being confronted with the truth about their spiritual condition, they saw the truth? Verse 29 says they justified God. In other words, they were not offended, but rather they gave a verdict of approval and demonstrated it by following in baptism.
Christendom is filled with images of a Jesus that are vastly different from what we find in Scripture, and if you’re not careful you’ll accept those images. Jesus came to bless our food and our weather and give us lives of peace and tranquility. He helps us take better tests in school and get better jobs in the marketplace and gives us a church where we can escape life for just a little while. That’s not Jesus – that’s an idol – a god created in our image. And if that’s the god you want, then Jesus will offend every time. If you’re really searching and digging, make sure to dig for the truth – the real Jesus of Scripture.
But we aren’t done yet, there is a third question. It is very important and one that many don’t think to consider…
Question #3: Are You Holding God Ransom?
Look at what Jesus said to the Pharisees after the disciples of John left to report back to him what Jesus had said.
31 “To what, then, can I compare the people of this generation? What are they like? 32 They are like children sitting in the marketplace and calling out to each other: “ ‘We played the flute for you, and you did not dance; we sang a dirge, and you did not cry.’”
Luke 7:31
Have you ever played dare and double dare as a kid? To dare someone created a contractual obligation for a kid – at least in the small town I grew up in! And if they hesitated you double dared them – and agreed that you would do it too! And if it was a really big deal you double dog dared them – and it was sealed in blood – sometimes literally! Especially, if it involved a bicycle, a big hill, and a wooden jump over a red wagon! Blood was a very real probability.
Well, when Jesus said in verse 31 that the Pharisees “were like children sitting in the marketplace, and calling one to another, and saying, We have piped unto you, and you have not danced…”
It was a game kids played. A group of kids would call out what they wanted the other kids to do and they did it. If they said to dance, they danced. It the command was to mourn, they mourned. Kids the world over – in all times – are still kids aren’t they!
But Jesus, and John for that matter, wasn’t about to play that game.
In the beginning, the Pharisees came to hear John preach about the coming Messiah. They witnessed him baptize Jesus. They knew the prophecies, but they were skeptical. In the beginning they were doubters, and that was a good thing.
You see, they wanted to believe, but their king wasn’t supposed to begin in a manger. He wasn’t supposed to be born in scandal. He wasn’t supposed to be some common laborer. There were a lot of questions surrounding Jesus, so in their skepticism they watched and waited and in effect began to hold God ransom.
Question #3: Are You Holding God Ransom?
Listen again as Mark Buchanan talks about doubt.
“Doubt has its limits. It can be faith’s tonic, a cleansing and invigorating force. But doubt can quickly turn corrosive or cancerous, burning or mutating healthy tissue. It can become a way of holding God for ransom. Our lives can degenerate into a fruitless and futile round of, ‘Unless I see, unless I touch, unless I have the experience, I will not believe.’ Indulged too long, doubt becomes just a parlor game.”
Mark Buchanan
When you begin to hold God ransom, you are in effect calling out for Him to dance. But He will not dance. He won’t play your games. Even John in his moment of doubt tried to make Him dance. “Declare yourself to be the Messiah man! Are you he that should come or not?” Jesus wouldn’t dance though. He just turned, performed a few more miracles and told him to weigh it out and exercise faith.
You may be doing the same thing. “God, if you will get me through this then I will serve you.” “If you will get me out of debt then I will give.”
“If you….” You fill in the blank.
Are you trying to force God’s hand? Are you waiting for Him to do something, say something, prove something, before you believe?
Remember Thomas who said that he wouldn’t believe until he put his finger into the nail prints and his hand into the wound in Jesus side? When Jesus appeared to him he fell down in worship and Jesus told Thomas that those who believe without seeing are blessed.
Now, that’s the stuff of faith. We aren’t to test and try God. It isn’t a matter of holding God ransom. Faith isn’t about proof. Faith is about trusting God.
So – What time is it?
I don’t know which of the three kinds of people you are today. You may be one who has or is in doubt. You are certainly one who is going to be faced with doubt. But listen, it is okay to doubt. In fact, it can be a good thing. You ought to notice in our text that Jesus doesn’t rebuke John for doubting. In fact, He points out for the benefit of all who are listening that John is the greatest prophet ever born.
If you’re really wrestling with doubt today, that indicates to me, and more importantly it indicates to God that you want to know the truth: you want to encounter the real Jesus.
If that’s really your desire then you need to know that He’s going to reveal that Jesus to you: you’re going to come face to face with the truth.
The question then comes as to whether you will embrace that truth or be offended by it. Turn away from the truth often enough, long enough and you’ll find yourself spiraling away from God in ways you never dreamed. But in faith if you will embrace Jesus, trust Him, understand that you will never control Him, then your doubts will begin to fade.
I speak with some experience.
I was holding God ransom and wanted answers to questions He would not seem to answer. I threatened God – told Him I wouldn’t follow Him any more, wouldn’t serve Him any more, all the while thinking that I was somehow hurting Him so He’d answer my doubts. But I learned, should have known all along I was only hurting myself, wounding my own spirit. One evening I finally cried out to God not too very long ago and basically told Him that there were many things I did not understand, but I believed that He was God, He is in control, and He owns my life. I surrendered those doubts knowing I couldn’t continue going like I was.
Did God answer my questions? No. Instead, it was like He turned, went right back to work and said, “Now where were we? Oh, I remember, you were walking in faith…”
Are you ready to resume your journey of faith with God?
Are you ready to begin a journey of faith with God?
Are you ready to learn to walk by faith?
Start with the decision to believe. Turn from your self centered life and become a follower of Jesus. Confess him today and be baptized into him…
close
