Are you a skeptical person? Do you believe everything you hear, right away? Or does it take awhile before you believe something to be true? The other day I got an email from someone who said that they were my long lost relative. They were trapped somewhere in Nigeria, and needed me to send $5000 to the First Bank of Nigeria. Should I believe that email? Or should I be skeptical? Well, I hope it wasn't my long lost relative, because I deleted it.
A few months ago I received a postcard in the mail telling me that I could go to the Caribbean for free - this big postcard with a beautiful picture of a beach on it. Should I believe that postcard? There was some small print on the postcard about how the airfare wasn't free, and the hotel really wasn't free either.
Lots of people say lots of things - how much do you believe? How much do you doubt? For almost two thousand years, Christians have been saying that Jesus Christ has risen from the dead. Do you believe it? A lot of people don't. A lot of people are skeptical - this is just another scam - the church just wants your money, just like everyone else. Is the resurrection of Jesus real? Maybe you believe it now. But will you believe it 20 years from now, 40 years from now. Could there be anything that happens in your life that would cause you to change your mind?
This morning, we're going to look at a part of the Bible where doubt is discussed. Even those disciples, faced with the risen Jesus on Easter night, struggled with doubt, just like we do today. We're gong to look at that, and see what the one and only cure for doubt is, as the Bible describes it. May God bless you with a firm belief in Jesus now, and throughout your whole life, as we study the Scripture together.
What typically happens at your house on Easter night? At our house, we put the kids to bed, and they are typically exhausted from waking up too early and eating too much candy throughout the day. Then we spend time finding all those little pieces of plastic green grass all over the house, and we try to clean things up.
For the disciples in the first century, the atmosphere was a little different. They were locked up in a house. They were afraid. Just a few days ago, they had witnessed Jesus executed, and now people were saying that he was alive. And then suddenly, Jesus stood among them. And the Bible says that they were startled and afraid. They thought they were looking at a ghost, the Bible says. Back in those days it was more common to believe in such things as ghosts and spirits.
Jesus asked them why they were so troubled. "And why do doubts rise in your minds?" Jesus could read them like an open book - he could see that they were doubting that he was really alive and standing in front of them.
Why were the disciples so skeptical? You see, they did not want to get burned again. For 3 years, they had followed Jesus and thought he was the Messiah. They believed! But then they saw things and heard things that made them feel like something was not right. They saw Jesus arrested, even though he was all-powerful. They saw Jesus tortured and shouted at by the crowds, and crucified, even though Jesus was God and could walk on water and calm storms. They saw Jesus die and get buried, even though Jesus could raise people from the dead. None of this made any sense to them. Everything they saw contradicted their beliefs. And they weren't about to go through that again. That's why the were so skeptical.
Isn’t that why you and I sometimes doubt about what we believe? Last year I surveyed the students I teach in religion class. The number one thing they wondered about was if they believed the right thing. Is Christianity really the right religion? Are all these things I believe about Jesus really true? Sometimes, I have doubts, the students wrote. Do you ever have doubts?
What is the one thing that might cause you to doubt what you believe. It's trouble, isn't it? Real trouble that comes into your life. Did you realize that this is the number one objection to Christianity? A non-Christian will say, "The reason I am skeptical about Christianity is because of all the evil, all the trouble, I see in the world. How could God let that happen?
How could God let that happen? Your child is diagnosed with cancer. Someone dies that's not supposed to die. I just a student in my office the other day - his dad went to bed and never woke up. How could God let that happen? Have you ever had a moment in your life when you doubted the love of God? People fall away from God all the time - why? Because something bad happened.
Have you ever had a moment of doubt? What do you do? Where do you go? And if you haven't yet, you will. What should you do someday, when trouble comes into your life, and if it makes you wonder about everything you've ever believed in your life?
During the days of the Bible - the cure was simple - to spend time with the risen Jesus. "Look at my hands and feet" Jesus said to them. He even ate food in their presence, to prove to them that they were physically alive.
Wouldn't that be nice if Jesus did that today? But he doesn't. Instead, Jesus wants us to believe without proof. And he has given us something to help us do that. He has given us his Word. Isn't it interesting, that even on Easter night, the disciples were still struggling with doubts, even as Jesus stood right in front of them. So what did Jesus do? He pointed them to the Word. It says here that "he opened their minds so that they could understand the Scriptures." "This is what is written," he told them. And then he use the Word to help them to understand. Ultimately, it's the Word that takes doubts away.
It is the most underrated place in the world to go, and yet it is the best place in the world to go. If you have doubts in your mind - go to the Bible. Spending time here is just as powerful as spending time in the presence of the risen Lord Jesus, just as those disciples did years ago. Here your doubts slowly fade away. And if you are blessed right now to not have any trouble in your life, no questions or doubt whatsoever - this book serves another purpose - and that is to get you ready for when you are tested, when real trouble finds its way into your life and you start to wonder if everything you have ever believed is true.
Those disciples would certainly be tested. They were told by Jesus, "You are witnesses of these things." They were to go and preach in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. Every single one of them experienced persecution as a direct result of their faith. They experienced death and pain and trouble beyond what any of us normally could experience on a day to day basis. They had every reason to doubt that what they believed was true. But they had seen the risen Lord Jesus, and that filled them with an unshakable faith.
You have seen the risen Lord too, just in a different way. You have seen him here.
Peace be with you, Jesus says to you. You have seen how he forgives you and me for all of the times we've doubted his love in our lives. You have seen his scars as we look on the pages of Scripture. Even when the rest of the world says that God hates you, the pages of Scripture tell you that God loves you, that God is for you, that you have nothing to fear - just look at what Jesus endured for you on the cross.
May God bless each one of us with the same kind of unshakeable faith. I've heard it said that "Those who doubt most, and yet strive to overcome their doubts, turn out to be some of Christ's strongest disciples." Peace be with you. Amen.
