church

INI
Rogate, the Fifth Sunday after Easter
May 17, 2009
Ascension Lutheran Church, Tacoma WA
Paul Naumann, Pastor

FAITH IS GOD'S ANSWER FOR OUR DOUBTS
John 20:24-29

Grace, mercy, and peace be with you from God the Father and from the Lord
Jesus Christ, the Son of the Father, Amen. The Word that God would have us
ponder today comes from the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John,
beginning with the 24th verse, as follows:

Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when
Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, "We have seen the Lord."
So he said to them, "Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my
finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not
believe." And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with
them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said,
"Peace to you!" Then He said to Thomas, "Reach your finger here, and look at
My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be
unbelieving, but believing." And Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord
and my God!" Jesus said to him, "Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have
believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Here
ends our text.

In the Name of Our Risen Lord Jesus Christ, Dear Fellow Redeemed,

A Christian writer once defined faith and doubt in this way: "To believe," he
said, "is to be 'in one mind' about accepting something as true. To disbelieve is
to be 'in one mind' about rejecting it. To doubt -- is to waver between the two.
To doubt is to believe and disbelieve at the same time, and thus to be 'in two
minds' about something."

Doubts are a problem that plague every Christian at one time or another.
Different doubts attack different people at different times, but everyone has
them. For instance: you know the passage where Jesus says, "Where two or
three are gathered together in My name, there am I in the midst of them." Matt
18:20. We are gathered in His name -- do you doubt that Jesus Christ is present
right here with us at this very moment? You shouldn't, of course, but it would
be understandable if you did. Because we human beings tend to have doubts
about anything we can't physically see. We always want proof! The best
example is the Bible account of "Doubting Thomas." That's why we're going to
take a special look at his case today. The theme of our message is --

FAITH: IS GOD'S ANSWER FOR OUR DOUBTS

If you ever meet a Christian tells you he never has any doubts, don't be fooled
-- it doesn't mean he's not a doubter. It only means he's a doubter and a liar!
After all, many of the things that God's Word tells us are difficult (or
impossible!) for our human reason to understand. The Bible contains what we
call "mysteries" - things which don't seem to make sense to our reason, but
which are nevertheless true according to Scripture. For instance, our mind tells
us that one plus one plus one equals three. But the Bible teaches clearly that
there are three individual Persons in the Godhead - Father, Son, and Holy
Ghost. However, the three Persons together don't add up to three Gods, but
one God. This is one of the great mysteries of Scripture.

Another great mystery of the Bible is the resurrection of Christ. What could
possibly go more against our common sense? Nature and experience teach us,
over and over again, that when a person dies the life leaves his body, and that's
that. If someone were to tell you that a person, who you knew had died, had
physically come to life again and was walking around -- well, you'd have doubts,
wouldn't you? In fact, you'd probably suspect there was something a little bit
unbalanced about the person you were speaking with!

The Apostle Thomas had doubts. He had doubts about what had happened to
Jesus. This, despite the fact that just a few days before Jesus had told all the
disciples, very plainly, exactly what would happen to Him, "Behold, we are
going up to Jerusalem, and the Son of Man will be betrayed to the chief priests
and to the scribes; and they will condemn Him to death, and deliver Him to the
Gentiles to mock and to scourge and to crucify. And the third day He will rise
again." Matt 20:18-19. Thomas didn't quite believe it, though, even when all
the other disciples said, "It's true! Jesus came out of His tomb, and He's alive!
We saw Him last night!" Here were ten eyewitnesses that this fantastic story
was true. But Thomas still wasn't buying it. "Unless I see in His hands the print
of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into
His side, I will not believe." He wanted proof. He wanted something he could
see and touch. He got it, too, when Jesus appeared again, and gave him just the
signs he had asked for. He also got a rebuke from Jesus, "Thomas, because you
have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet
have believed." Jesus wanted His disciples to have faith, not doubts. He wanted
them to believe the truth of His words, even when there was no "proof" to back
it up.

And what about us? This Easter season is the time of year when we're
reminded that for us, too, it's absolutely vital that we accept, as a fact, that
Jesus really did rise from the dead. If the resurrection never took place, then
that means that Jesus' death was really essentially no different than the death of
any other human being. Then there is no justification, no resounding voice of
our God declaring us "not guilty" of sin. In that case, our one hope of salvation
and everlasting life is gone. If we don't believe in the resurrection, Paul says,
then we Christians are the most pitiful people on earth: "If Christ is not risen,
your faith is futile; you are still in your sins! Then also those who have fallen
asleep in Christ have perished. If in this life only we have hope in Christ, we are
of all men the most pitiable." I Cor 15:17-19. But the problem is that there's no
visible "proof." If we wait for Jesus to appear to us physically, like He did to
Thomas, we will be waiting - literally - until the Day of Judgment!

Human beings want proof. Did you ever notice that people seem to have a
terrific curiosity about relics and artifacts that might lend some "proof" to the
Bible? It makes you wonder though why they never can quite get the solid
evidence, for instance, that Noah's ark is really up there on Mount Ararat, or
that the famous Shroud of Turin really was Christ's burial cloth! Perhaps it's
because God doesn't want us to place our confidence in these things. If we had
to work our own way through a maze of doubts, providing that kind of "proof"
for every question we have about God, well, I don't think we'd get very far! So
God has provided us with a shortcut through this maze of doubts, and that
shortcut is faith.

-- And when I say God provides faith, I mean just that! We're all familiar with
the figure of the revivalist preacher who paces back and forth in front of a
crowd of people, fire in his eyes, chanting, "You gotta believe! You gotta
believe!" -As though it's up to you to try real hard and convince yourself that
what the Bible says is true. But faith isn't something you can produce in
yourself. Faith is a gift that God gives you through His Holy Spirit. Paul tells
the Ephesians, "It is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this not
from yourselves, it is the gift of God." Eph 2:8 NIV.

Did you know that you have supernatural powers? That's what faith is - it's the
supernatural power to believe something that you can't see, to put your trust in
something that you can't prove. And God gives you this power through His
Word. St. Paul said, "I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ, for it is the
power of God to salvation for everyone who believes." Rom 1:16. This
powerful Word of God is much stronger than any earthly "proof" or evidence
that anyone could bring. Do you remember Jesus' parable about the rich man
and poor Lazarus? It shows us how incredibly powerful the Word is! In the
parable, the rich man died and went to hell. In his torment, he looked up and
saw Lazarus in heaven with Abraham. He asked Abraham to send Lazarus back
from the dead to warn his brothers, so they'd repent and escape the torment he
was suffering. But do you remember what Abraham replied? He said, "No,
they've got the Bible - and that's the strongest proof there is!" "If they do not
hear Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rise
from the dead." Luke 17:31.

The strength of any faith, of course, lies in its object. And the object of our
faith is Jesus, God's Son. He fought as our Champion to win for us the salvation
that we could never win for ourselves. Jesus left the splendors of His heavenly
home to live here in poverty. As a result, you and I have become rich beyond
our wildest dreams. Jesus walked the way of God's commandments, fulfilling
the Law in perfect holiness. As a result, you and I - who had broken each of
those commandments time without number - have been given that same record
of perfect righteousness in the eyes of God. Jesus bore the sins of the world in
the suffering and death He experienced on the cross. As a result, each of your
sins, and each of mine, have been buried forever in His tomb, never to plague
our consciences again. Yes, I am a wretched sinner. But God's Word says that
my sins have all been washed away in the blood of Christ. And the Word of
God is powerful -- not even the direst accusations of a guilty conscience, not
even the most cunning whisperings of the devil can argue against that. As Jesus
said, If the Son therefore shall make you free, you shall be free indeed John
8:36.

God's Word is powerful - and He uses it to "charge up" our faith. Have you
been troubled with doubts lately? Then it's more important than ever to take
advantage of every opportunity to come and hear that Word preached! Have
you been feeling that the batteries of faith are running low in your family right
now? Why not start a plan of daily devotions at your house! Ten minutes of
worship after supper, or just before bedtime each night may be just what your
family needs to make the power of God's Word a daily experience, rather than a
weekly one. The more you take advantage of the Word, the stronger that
supernatural power of faith will become!

I wonder how many of us really understand electricity? And how many of us
can say that we've seen a radio wave? You can't see them, but they're real. And
you don't have the slightest doubt, do you, that when you turn on the lamp the
room will light up. You haven't the slightest doubt that when you turn on your
radio, you're going to hear music, or news, or a weather report. We can't see
Jesus, either; we can't touch Him and put our fingers in the nail prints like
Thomas did. And yet, God has given us faith through His Holy Spirit, so that
we believe His powerful Word. That's the best answer - God's answer - to every
one of our doubts! Every time you can find a quiet moment to open the Bible
and read, the Holy Spirit will be working in you, making Jesus and His Words
more real than even the grass and the trees and the sunshine. Every time you
attend church to hear the Word preached and partake of the Lord's Supper, God
will be charging up your faith. You'll be better prepared to meet those doubts
you know you're going to run into along the way! I pray that all of us will
remember this answer for our doubts, and that we'll listen to the voice of God
when he reminds us, "...these things are written that you may believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His
name." God grant it, for Jesus' sake, AMEN.