A. Allow me to welcome everyone to Friend Day, we are delighted that you are here today.
1. If you are visiting with us, we hope you enjoy yourself and leave here filled with joy and hope.
2. And we hope that you will come back again real soon…how about next Sunday?
B. I like the story told of a father and son who went fishing one summer day.
1. While they were out in the boat, the boy became curious about the world around him and began asking questions.
2. “Dad,” the boy asked, “how does this boat float?” His father replied, “Don’t rightly know son.”
3. A little later the boy asked, “Dad, how do fish breath underwater?” “Don’t rightly know, son.”
4. A few minutes passed and the boy asked, “Dad, why is the sky blue?” Again his father replied, “Don’t rightly know, son.”
5. Finally, the boy asked his father, “Dad, do you mind me asking you all these questions?”
6. “Of course not, son,” his father said with a smile, “If you don’t ask questions, you never learn nothin’.”
C. Children certainly have a lot of questions, and they are not afraid to ask them.
1. Here are some questions that children have asked God.
2. Dear God, Instead of letting people die and having to make new ones, why don’t you just keep the ones you got now? Jane.
3. Dear God, I went to this wedding and they kissed right in church, is that ok? Neil.
4. Dear God, In bible times, did they really talk that fancy? Jennifer.
5. Dear God, I am American, what are you? Robert.
6. Dear God, Did you mean for giraffes to look like that or was it an accident? Norma
7. Dear God, Are you really invisible, or is that just a trick? Lucy.
D. But in all honesty, children are not the only people who have questions for God.
1. All people have questions they would like to have answered about spiritual things.
2. That is true for people who have a lot of faith and for those who have very little faith.
3. Doubt is something that every person has to wrestle with.
4. As a matter of fact, we could divide the people in this auditorium into three groups.
a. The first group would be those who have doubted.
b. The second group would be those who haven’t doubted yet, but who will.
c. And the third group is those who are brain dead.
5. What I’m trying to say is that if you are a thinking person at all then you are going to wrestle with some questions, some issues, some uncertainties and some doubts about faith.
6. This is a universal human experience.
7. Both people who believe in God and people who don’t have doubts about their position from time to time.
E. I really like what Timothy Keller wrote about doubt in his book, The Reason For God.
1. He wrote: “I recommend that each side (believers and unbelievers) look at doubt in a radically new way.”
2. To believers, he wrote: “A faith without doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or too indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless against either the experience of tragedy or the probing questions of a smart skeptic…Believers should acknowledge and wrestle with doubts – not only their own but their friends’ and neighbors’. It is no longer sufficient to hold beliefs just because you inherited them. Only if you struggle long and hard with objections to your faith will you be able to provide grounds for your beliefs to skeptics, including yourself, that are plausible rather than ridiculous or offensive.” (pg. 21)
3. To skeptics, Keller wrote: “But even as believers should learn to look for reasons behind their faith, skeptics must learn to look for a type of faith hidden within their reasoning. All doubts, however skeptical and cynical they may seem, are really a set of alternate beliefs. You cannot doubt Belief A except from a position of faith in Belief B. For example, if you doubt Christianity because ‘there can’t be just one true religioin,’ you must recognize that this statement is itself an act of faith. No one can prove it empirically, and it is not a universal truth that everyone accepts…The reason you doubt Christianity’s Belief A is because you hold unprovable Belief B. Every doubt, therefore, is based on a leap of faith.” (pg. 22)
4. Keller continues: “Some will respond to all this, ‘My doubts are not based on a leap of faith. I have no beliefs about God one way or another. I simple feel no need for God and I am not interested in thinking about it.’ But hidden beneath this feeling is the very modern American belief that the existence of God is a matter of indifference unless it intersects with my emotional needs. The speaker is betting his or her life that no God exists who would hold you accountable for your beliefs and behavior if you didn’t feel the need for him. That may be true or it may not be true, but, again, it is quite a leap of faith.” (pg. 23)
5. That’s why I’m encouraging all of us to work hard in order to understand why we believe what we believe.
a. How do each of us know that what we believe is true?
b. What proof or reasons can we offer for why we believe or why we don’t?
F. D. James Kennedy, author and minister, opens his book titled Skeptics Answered with this story.
1. One of Kennedy’s staff members listened one day as a young lady was baring her soul on the radio.
2. As the host of a radio call-in talk show, she was telling all of Los Angeles on a Saturday night how she was losing her faith. It was almost gone.
3. After setting the stage for a discussion of her dilemma, she invited believers and unbelievers alike to call in and share their experiences of faith or skepticism.
4. Kennedy’s staff member sent the lady a copy of one of Kennedy’s books, but never heard back from the woman.
5. Kennedy said that he didn’t know if the radio host was sincere or just putting on a radio act, but the saddest thing was that she implied that for a person to believe, he or she must stop thinking and asking questions.
6. The radio host implied that you just have to make a leap of faith – a blind leap.
G. But what I want to say today, and throughout this new sermon series that I’m titling “Got Questions? Answering Faith’s Great Questions,” is that Christianity has answers that are not only satisfying for the soul, but are also satisfying for the mind.
1. Skeptics and doubters are welcome.
2. Skeptics and doubters are invited to come and look into the great questions of faith.
3. Throughout the ages, many skeptics have looked into Christianity’s historicity and the Bible’s reliability and have ended up coming to faith in God.
4. The reasons and evidence are there, so there is no need to park our brains at the door.
5. All that is needed is an open and honest mind.
H. I want to take a few minutes to share with you the stories of several former famous skeptics who are now believers.
1. To me, the motivators that persuade a skeptic to convert to belief are especially powerful.
2. These former skeptics are not examples of deathbed conversions, nor are they intellectual light-weights, or persons easily lead in one direction or another like sheep.
3. Rather, these persons are highly intelligent courageous thinkers who place the highest of values on the pursuit of truth.
I. Here is a short list of prominent skeptics turned believers (http://www.awakeandamazed.com
/id66.html)
1. First on our list is C. S. Lewis. He was an Oxford educator and accomplished writer who became an atheist as a young man. Influenced by arguments made by Christian thinkers, Lewis, “...came into Christianity kicking and screaming.” The reasoning for his beliefs have been articulated in many books, the most popular of which is titled “Mere Christianity.”
2. Second on our list is Lee Strobel, who was for many years a hard-nosed journalist and atheist. As Strobel set out to confirm justification for his atheism, he unexpectedly, found that the evidence he encountered led him instead to the Christian faith. He is now a minister, producer, and author of several very successful books, including “The Case for Christ.”
3. Next on our list is Josh McDowell. He set out to disprove the Christian faith as a college student only to arrive, after many months of study, at the conclusion that Jesus Christ must have been who he claimed to be. For more than 30 years he has been one of the best known defenders of the Christian faith. He is an author of numerous books including the immensely helpful “Evidence That Demands a Verdict.”
4. Francis S. Collins M.D. Ph.D. is a physician-geneticist, famous for his landmark discoveries of disease genes, and his leadership of the Human Genome Project. An atheist at the completion of graduate school, Collins later became a believer as a result of philosophical and scientific considerations. His conversion and reasons for belief are detailed in his very readable book “The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief.”
5. Dr. Hugh Ross was the youngest person ever to serve as director of observations for Vancouver's Royal Astronomical Society. After testing the scientific and historical data, Dr. Ross became convinced that the Bible is truly the Word of God. He is known for establishing his own ministry called “Reasons To Believe” which uses scientific evidence to argue for the truth of Christianity.
6. Dr. Antony Flew was a British philosopher, known for decades as one of the world's most outspoken and prominent atheists. Interestingly, in 1976, Flew debated Dr. Thomas Warren, who taught at Abilene Christian and Harding Graduate School of Religion. Warren argued, “I Know that God exists,” and Flew countered, “I Know That God Does Not Exist.” In 2004, Professor Flew became a believer in God’s existence and in 2007 released his book “There is a God: How the World's Most Notorious Atheist Changed His Mind.” Flew's conversion was based primarily on the growing body of scientific evidence that points to the existence of a supreme creator.
7. Dr. Bernard Nathanson is a physician who has changed from being an influential pro-choice activist, to an influential pro-life activist, producing pro-life documentaries (The Silent Scream & Eclipse of Reason) and books (Aborting America & The Hand of God). In addition to changing his stance on abortion, he converted from a self-described “Jewish Atheist” to the Christian faith.
8. John Clayton is a man whom I have personally met. He was a devout atheist until his early twenties. Clayton was part of the same organized atheist group that made Madeline Murray O'Hair famous. He decided to write a book called All the Stupidity of the Bible, but as he did his research, he found himself slowly becoming convinced about Christianity. Today, he travels the U.S. giving some 40 lectures per year on the subject “Does God Exist?” He is a retired teacher and geologist by profession. He has written many books and articles and has a wonderful website called Does God Exist.org.
9. One final person on our short list is Anne Rice, who is a best-selling American author of Gothic and religious-themed books. Anne, was a self-described atheist, but returned to her Christian faith which she had not practiced since her adolescence. Rice has stated that she would "write only for the Lord" from this point forward. In 2010, Rice announced that although she still believes in God and Christ, she no longer considers herself a Christian.
10. I don’t give that list of people to try to prove that God exists or that Christianity is true, rather I give that list to suggest that thinking people can employ their minds and come to faith.
11. In the Bible, God says, “Come now, let us reason together…” (Isaiah 1:18), and that’s what God wants us to do – to think, to use reason, and to use our brains.
J. As we move through this series, we will always look into the answers the Bible offers about the questions we are considering.
1. For our discussion today, let’s examine what the Bible says about people who have questions?
2. How did Jesus deal with skeptics and doubters?
3. Let’s spend a few minutes looking at three examples.
K. The first example concerns how Jesus handled the doubts of Thomas after the resurrection of Jesus.
1. Thomas was one of the 12 apostles, and I think he gets a bum rap, because whenever he gets mentioned, he is called “doubting Thomas.”
2. His story is found in the Gospel of John, chapter 20.
3. It was the evening of the Sunday that Jesus was raised from the dead.
4. The Bible says: 19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. (Jn. 20:19-20)
5. Sounds great right? Unfortunately, Thomas was not there to witness this appearance of Jesus.
a. The Bible doesn’t tell us where he was nor why he wasn’t with the rest of them.
b. All we know is what the Bible says.
6. The Bible continues: 24 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
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.” (Jn. 20:24-25)
7. Thomas comes across as the pure skeptic.
a. He knows these other apostles very well. He would gladly entrust any of them with his life.
b. But still, he can’t imagine that what they are saying is true.
c. They must have been hallucinating or something.
8. But notice how Thomas dealt with his doubt – He brings it out in the open.
a. He isn’t hostile or unpleasant, he is just honest.
b. Thomas doesn’t believe it and so he said so, and he said, basically, “show me, give me some proof, until I have some proof, I won’t believe.”
c. What I also like about Thomas is that he didn’t let his doubt cause him to leave the group.
d. Even though his doubts made him something of an outsider, he hung in there and gave time for things to work themselves out.
e. Thomas wasn’t looking for excuses to leave, but was looking for reasons to believe.
9. So what happened next? Jesus made another appearance.
a. The Bible says: 26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”
28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (Jn. 20:26-29)
10. Did you notice how Jesus treated Thomas?
1. He didn’t criticize him or disparage him, rather he responded to Thomas’ request for more evidence by giving him more evidence.
2. And “doubting” Thomas became “believing” Thomas.
L. Another great example of how Jesus handled doubters was the surprising story of John.
1. The John I’m speaking of was John the Baptizer who was Jesus’ relative and was the forerunner of his ministry.
2. John had baptized Jesus and had told others that Jesus was the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.
3. But toward the end of his life, John the Baptizer was in prison for denouncing Herod’s relationship with Herod’s own sister-in-law.
a. Eventually, John would be executed by Herod.
4. But for now, there John sat in a dingy prison cell, and as he reflected on his life and his pending death, he began to have doubts.
5. The Bible says: 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?”
20 When the men came to Jesus, they said, “John the Baptist sent us to you to ask, ‘Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?’”
21 At that very time Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind. 22 So he replied to the messengers, “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.”
24 After John’s messengers left, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the desert to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 25 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear expensive clothes and indulge in luxury are in palaces. 26 But what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 27 This is the one about whom it is written: ‘I will send my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way before you.’
28 I tell you, among those born of women there is no one greater than John; yet the one who is least in the kingdom of God is greater than he.” (Luke 7:18-28)
6. So how did Jesus react to John’s questioning doubts?
a. Did He chastise John for doubting? Did he criticize him or shame him?
b. No, he sent back a word to John that would encourage his faith and confirm it.
c. And then Jesus turned to the crowd and paid John the highest of compliments.
M. The third example comes from Mark 9.
1. A man came to Jesus and asked for Him to cast out the evil spirit that had possessed his son.
2. The Bible says: 21 Jesus asked the boy’s father, “How long has he been like this?”
“From childhood,” he answered. 22 “It has often thrown him into fire or water to kill him. But if you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
23 “‘If you can’?” said Jesus. “Everything is possible for him who believes.”
24 Immediately the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe; help me overcome my unbelief!”
3. Notice how Jesus exposed the man’s lack of faith. The man had said, “If you can…”
4. Jesus wanted him to know what faith in Jesus could really do.
5. Then the man made an honest statement that we all may need to make at times: “I do believe; but help me overcome my unbelief.”
6. Jesus went ahead and healed the man’s son, in spite of the man’s doubts.
7. That’s how God is, He understands our weaknesses and struggles and He is patient with us.
N. Whether you consider yourself a believer or a skeptic, I invite you to join us in honestly examining your beliefs and your doubts.
1. God wants us to find answers to our questions.
2. Please take a look at the questions that we will be trying to answer in this sermon series.
a. Questions like: Does God exist? Is the Bible truly the Word of God? Do science and faith conflict? How could a good God allow suffering or send people to hell?
b. I hope you will come and explore the Bible’s answers to these questions.
3. If you have some other question, feel free to approach one of us and we will try to help you find the answer.
4. God has promised to help us in our pursuit of God. He has given us promises, like:
a. “Call to Me and I will answer you and tell you great and unsearchable things you do not know.” (Jer. 33:3)
b. “You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.” (Jer. 29:13)
c. The apostle Paul said, “From one man he (God) made every nation of men, that they should inhabit the whole earth; and he determined the times set for them and the exact places where they should live. God did this so that men would seek him and perhaps reach out for him and find him, though he is not far from each one of us.” (Acts 17:26-27)
O. I want to end today with the true story of another doubter turned believer.
1. Lew Wallace is the author of Ben-Hur: A Tale of the Christ.
2. His book was turned into the 1959 film, Ben-Hur that is still tied with two other films for receiving the most Oscars (11) in film history.
3. What you may not know is that Lew Wallace had been a skeptic earlier in his life.
4. Not only had he been a skeptic, but he also set out to disprove the Christian faith.
5. But like so many other people, after several years of intense research, he became a Christian – it would have been intellectually dishonest for him to do otherwise!
6. Lew Wallace said: “After six years given to impartial investigation of Christianity, as to its truth or falsity, I have come to the deliberate conclusion that Jesus Christ was the Messiah of the Jews, the Savior of the world, and my personal Savior.”
P. Perhaps the same thing will happen to you.
1. Got Questions? Go ahead and ask them and we will do our best to answer them.
2. I believe that in Christianity you will find that there are honest answers for honest questions.
3. So I hope you will come and explore with us.
4. We want to be able to do what the apostle Peter told us to do.
5. Peter wrote: “Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have.” (1 Peter 3:15)
6. So bring your questions and bring your brains and let’s reason together.
7. I believe that every one of us will discover that there are far more reasons to believe than there are reasons to not believe.
8. Let’s explore together!
Resources:
Skeptics Answered, by D. James Kennedy, Multnomah Books, 1997
Questions People Ask Ministers Most, by Harold Hazelip, Baker Book House, 1986
The Reason for God, by Timothy Keller, Penguin, 2009
The Virus of Doubt, Sermon by Lee Strobel, SermonCentral.com
Show Me, Sermon by Tim Zukas, SermonCentral.com
