Overcoming Doubt

When he was just 17 years old, he determined to live his life as if every day would be his last. For many people, this might be paralyzing, but not for him. For this man, it energized and it motivated him to accomplish everything he could with the short amount of time that he had. And he lived this way until his death at the age of 56. And in those 56 short years, that thing that drove him led him to accomplish very much.

Steve Jobs was known for his creativity and determinism as he started and turned Apple not into just a billion-dollar company, but now today it is a trillion-dollar company. In 2005, Jobs gave a speech where he said this. He said, “Remembering that I’ll be dead soon is the most important tool I’ve encountered to help me make the big choices in life.” Jobs was only 17 when he resolved to live this way. However, it was even earlier that Jobs made an even greater decision that not only affected his life, but it affected his entire eternity.

In his biography called iCon, Jobs said his parents were not fervent about their faith, but still they wanted him to have a religious upbringing, so they took him to church most Sundays. Jobs was 13 when he chose to walk away from Christianity for good. Why? Because in July of 1968, Life magazine published an article, or published a magazine, that on the front had a picture of two starving children in West Africa. And after seeing this, Jobs took it to church the next Sunday. He came to his pastor, he laid it in front of him, and he said, “Does God know about this?” In which the pastor looked at Jobs and he said, “Steve, I know you don’t understand, but yes, God knows about this.” That was his answer. That was it.

After hearing the pastor’s dismissive answer, Jobs determined that he didn’t want anything to do with a God who would allow children to starve like that. And so Jobs turned away from the church and never looked back. In the biography, it’s said that Jobs is the ultimate icon of inventiveness and imagination, who has given our world so much. And surely Jobs did. The phone that we’re streaming on today is an iPhone. The way we call each other is usually an iPhone. And if it’s not, it was copied from an iPhone. Jobs remarkably changed the world through his inventions and his determinism.

And while Jobs certainly gave the world so much, sadly, religion failed to give Jobs the most basic answers to life’s tough questions. Religion failed to show Jobs from the Scripture what God says about these hard issues, which resulted in Jobs being robbed of the greatest gift of them all. Now, granted, we don’t know what his response would have been if that pastor had given him an answer of substance. We have no idea if Jobs would have seen the Bible’s answer to death, pain, and suffering and would have been satisfied. But we do know that Christianity is not a religion that runs from tough questions like this. Our answer isn’t just God moves in mysterious ways. Deal with it. That’s not our answer.

Why? Why don’t we run from tough questions? Because we have truth on our side. So we don’t need to be afraid of truth. I like what Augustine said about this when he said, “Truth is like a lion. You don’t have to defend it. Let it loose. It will defend itself.” Another reason is because serious questions demand serious answers. Unlike other religions, though our belief is founded upon faith, it’s not founded upon blind faith. Our faith isn’t the kind of faith that Mark Twain described when he said, “Faith is believing what you know ain’t so.” Okay, that’s not the kind of faith we have. Our faith is a faith that runs towards the smoking fires of doubt and unbelief, not away from them. We see people who are struggling, like in a burning building, and we say, “I’m going to go help them.” I’m not going to run away from that. That’s too dangerous. That might get me hurt.

That’s exactly what the Bible tells us. In 1 Peter 3:15, it says this:

But in your hearts, revere 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.

1 Peter 3:15

Did you know that this approach to doubt makes Christianity quite unique compared to most of the other world’s religions? Did you know that most religions will tell you that you shouldn’t doubt, and in fact, many will tell you that it’s a sin to doubt? For example, when I was living in the Twin Cities, I remember working with a guy who was scared to question his faith. He was scared to wrestle with his doubts because his religion saw it as a sin. I’m not going to tell you what religion it was, but I remember going to my coworker and saying to him, “Hey, what about this? What about that in your religion? How do you deal with that? How do you reconcile this with this?” And he didn’t deal with it. He just looked at me and said, “Well, you’ve got to have faith. You’ve just got to believe.” And I said, “I need to understand this. This doesn’t make any sense. You’re telling me this, and that doesn’t fit with this.” He says, “Well, my religious leaders know.”

I said, “Okay, well, I’ll tell you what, that’s fine. I don’t expect you to know every answer to every hard question about your faith. I don’t know them for mine. But I’ll tell you what. How about you look into it and come back to me and let me know? How about you go ask your religious leaders these hard questions, find out the answers, and then we’ll have a conversation.” He wouldn’t do it. Why wouldn’t he do it? Because he was afraid that if he went to them and brought these questions up, it might be like, you know, how sometimes people are like, “Hey, I got a question about this. I’m just asking for a friend.” You know, that kind of a thing. He was scared that it would look like he was doubting, which to them was sin.

Now, Christianity is very different from this. Christians are to wrestle not only with our own doubts, we’re supposed to wrestle with the doubts of one another. It’s a way of showing love to them. See, when it comes to doubt, there’s two kinds of people: there’s those who have doubts and deny it. Okay, it’s like the ostrich sticking its head under the sand. And there’s those who have doubts and admit it. See, we all have doubts, but sometimes we’re worried that if we let people know that we’re struggling with doubt, or if we ask for prayer for doubt, that we’re going to look like we’re weak, like we’re not really a Christian after all. We’re worried that other Christians will start to treat us like we have leprosy or corona or something, instead of helping us with our doubts to understand difficult questions like why God might allow corona.

Now, I’m sure there’s somebody who’s listening to this who’s thinking, “Oh, not me, preacher. I don’t doubt that. I got rock-solid faith. Come on, come hit these things. This is solid.” There’s some people who probably are thinking that. Well, if that’s you, then I want you to think about this biblically for a moment. That means that you have more faith than Moses, Gideon, Abraham, Job, John the Baptist, Peter, Elijah, David, Jonah, Mary and Martha, the prophet Jeremiah, this list could keep going, and finally, even Jesus. Though Jesus knew who he was, he knew his mission and exactly when and how he was going to die. What did Jesus ask the Father in the garden? He said, “Father, might this cup pass from me?”

If you actually stop even for a moment to think about your religion beyond an hour on Sunday, why wouldn’t we doubt? If we take what we believe seriously, if we really believe what we believe is true, doubt should be something that we all wrestle with from time to time. I’m not saying we should live in doubt and just struggle with belief 24/7. That’s a problem if that’s where we’re at. But doubt absolutely is a part of the Christian experience.

Did you know the great prince of preachers—there we go, prince of preachers, say that ten times fast—Charles Spurgeon, he wrestled with doubt. Here’s what Spurgeon wrote. He said, “I must confess here with sorrow that I have seasons of despondency and depression of spirit. And at such times, I have doubted my interest in Christ, my calling, my election, my perseverance, my Savior’s blood, and my Father’s love.” Do you know what was one of the biggest drivers of Spurgeon’s doubt? It was his own sinfulness. And when it came to those who said that they never struggled with doubt, Spurgeon had quite the zinger for him. Here’s what he said: “I think when a man says, ‘I never doubt,’ it is quite time for us to doubt him. It is quite time for us to begin to say, ‘Ah, poor soul, I’m afraid you’re not on the road at all.’ For if you were, you would see so many things in yourself and so much glory in Christ more than you deserve that you would be so ashamed of yourself. And even to say, ‘It is too good to be true.’”

If you say you don’t struggle with doubt, you’re either not a Christian or you’re a Christian who has no self-awareness, doesn’t take your religion as seriously as you should, or you might just be super full of pride. Right? Like, what other options are there here? I like how Pastor Tim Keller puts it here. You’re getting one more quote, all right? And then I’m going to ease up on the quotes. But this is a good one. He says, “A faith without some doubts is like a human body without any antibodies in it. People who blithely go through life too busy or indifferent to ask hard questions about why they believe as they do will find themselves defenseless.” That’s good.

If we want to honor Christ, care for our own faith, and care about the faith of others, we have to engage with doubt. As we just read from 1 Peter 3, we must 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. Notice what it doesn’t say. It doesn’t say do this with haughtiness and obnoxious know-it-allness, right? We’re not to be know-it-alls. We need to do this with gentleness and respect. And so this morning, we’re going to look at the story of doubting Thomas to see how we might deal with our doubt, and help point others who are doubting to the solution to their doubt. So let’s begin.

1. Open, Not Obstinate (vv. 24–25)

If we are going to overcome doubt, we must first be open, not obstinate. We need to be open, not obstinate. And I pull this point from verses 24 and 25. In verse 24, it says:

Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.”

John 20:24

Okay? The other disciples, there were ten of them, because Judas had killed himself after he betrayed Jesus. Now, in these verses, did you notice who wasn’t there when Jesus showed up and appeared after his death, after he had been resurrected? Who wasn’t there? It was Thomas. That’s what you get for skipping church. All right? And word to the wise, the day you skip church just might be the day that Jesus shows up. So don’t skip church. That’ll preach. Why not? In all seriousness, I don’t know if the text is suggesting that in any way, shape, or form. But it is true that just as a vehicle that avoids gas stations shouldn’t be surprised when it runs out of gas, so shouldn’t a Christian be surprised when doubt arises when they avoid the things and places that strengthens faith. What are those things? God’s Word, prayer, church, and fellowship with other believers.

And what did Thomas do when these other believers came to him and said, when we were together last week, the Lord appeared to us. What did he do? Thomas said this, “Unless I see his hands and the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” That’s pretty bold. That’s a pretty dogmatic statement about where Thomas was at. He had just spent three years with Jesus. He thought Jesus was the Messiah. He had all these hope and expectations. He thought his political candidate was going to be king. And then it failed. How many of us have experienced a feeling like that after even just the United States election? This is like that for Thomas, times about 500 billion. Thomas was in a low place. And so that explains why Thomas has some capital B big doubting going on here.

Now, to be fair, Thomas, you know, we call him doubting Thomas, but the rest of the disciples doubted too. All right? And it wasn’t until they saw the risen Lord that they believed. All right? So, I mean, we don’t call Peter denying Peter, so it’s probably not fair to call Thomas doubting Thomas, but nevertheless, that’s his nickname. Still, though, if you look at all the things that Thomas was doubting, we see that he really was doubting to a great degree. Let’s look at some of the things that Thomas was doubting.

Well, first off, what did Thomas doubt? He doubted the women’s testimony, right? The women showed up, they saw the empty grave, they reported that, and he doubted it. Mary even saw Jesus. They also saw the angels, and the angels gave testimony to Jesus’ resurrection. And Thomas heard about this, and he says, “Nah, no. I don’t know what you saw, ladies, but it wasn’t that.”

He also was doubting the disciples on the Emmaus road who were traveling, and what did they see? They saw the risen Lord. Jesus shows up, is walking along with them, and hears them talking. He’s like, “Hey, what’s all the scuttlebutt about?” They’re like, “You’ve been living under a rock, man? You didn’t hear about Jesus of Nazareth? We thought he was going to be Messiah. He’s dead now.” And then he begins to teach them. And then, after they realize and see that, “Oh, this is Jesus,” what do they say? They go around and tell people about it. They’re just blown away that Jesus showed up.

He also doubted the ten disciples, who Thomas had spent roughly three years with, day and night. He knew these people really well. They weren’t the kind of people to go around and just make up and fabricate a bunch of lies just for fun. All right? And so he didn’t believe them. I mean, can you imagine this? Thomas shows up a week later. Or Thomas shows up after Jesus appears to these ten guys, and they’re sitting around like, “Thomas, he was here. We didn’t see a ghost. We saw Jesus. Like a living, breathing, eating, drinking Jesus.” All right? And Thomas just sits there with his arms crossed. “Nope. Not going to believe it.”

What else did Thomas doubt, though, in his doubt? Well, he also doubted the Old Testament, which the Old Testament prophesied all about the Messiah’s death and resurrection. It told us how the Holy One would not see corruption, which is exactly what verse 9 is talking about when it says, “For as yet they did not understand the Scripture that he must rise from the dead.” Similarly, in Luke 24, it says:

And he said to them, How foolish you are, and how slow to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Did not the Messiah have to suffer these things and then enter his glory? And beginning with Moses and all the prophets, he explained to them what was said in all the Scriptures concerning himself.

Luke 24:25–27

See, the entire Bible is whispering and pointing us to the name of Jesus. And so Thomas was doubting that.

What else did Thomas doubt? There’s one more thing. The fifth thing that Thomas was doubting in his doubt was he was doubting Jesus. Thomas had been with Jesus for roughly three years. And Jesus was constantly reminding them, saying, “The Son of Man would lay down his life and rise again on the third day. The Son of Man will rise again on the third day. Did I mention to you that the Son of Man would lay down his life and rise again on the third day?” They had heard this how many times. But not only that, but Thomas, remember what just happened right before Jesus’ death? Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. This was a guy who wasn’t just a few minutes dead, all right? He hadn’t just stopped breathing for a couple minutes. This was a guy who was super dead, all right? And so Jesus wasn’t like these modern-day miracle workers who come along and resuscitate somebody who’s not really dead. Lazarus was a lot of bit dead. Lazarus was four days dead. All right? That’s like stinky dead. And so how did Jesus come along and raise Lazarus? With his voice. And so here we find Thomas doubting the voice of the man who can raise people from the dead with his voice. That’s some serious doubt.

And so after considering all of this, instead of believing, Thomas doubts. Instead of being open, Thomas is obstinate. Thomas is refusing to believe unless his conditions are met, which is the sign of a closed mind, not an open one. See, a lot of people in our culture today will act like, “Hey, you know what? I’m just more open-minded than you. I don’t believe and just gobble down all these beliefs that you have. I’m open-minded.” And the sad reality is, often it can be the case where they’re not open-minded. They’re closed-minded. I like what, I think it was Chesterton. He said, “The point of having an open mind is to receive things like an open mouth. The point of opening your mouth is so that you can shut it again on something.” And that’s exactly how we need to be. We need to be open, but not so open that we’re actually closed.

Thomas refused to believe unless his conditions were met. He refused to do it. I remember when I was living in the Twin Cities, and I had some Jehovah’s Witnesses show up on a Saturday. They said, “Hey, can we share with you?” And I said, “Absolutely. Come on in.” So for the next, I think it was two or three weeks, I met with them every Saturday for about an hour, an hour and a half on my couch, and they went through all their beliefs, what they thought, what they believed the Scriptures said. And I remember the very first week I met with them, I said, “I’m absolutely willing to meet with you guys. I love talking about religion. I’m in seminary right now. I’m excited about religion.” They were like, “Oh, cool.” I said, “But as long as we agree on one thing, whatever this book says is what we conform to. If I’m wrong, and you can show me from this book why I’m wrong, I will come with you today down to your temple or whatever you call it, and I’ll become a Jehovah’s Witness because I don’t want to be closed-minded. I don’t want to believe wrong things about God because I’m stubborn, because I’m obstinate.” They said, “Sure, absolutely.”

So we met for three weeks. And at the end of those three weeks, I said, “Okay, guys, I’ve been listening to what you have to say, but I just have a couple questions for you.” And I have this little pamphlet or packet or whatever printed off and made up. And we went and looked at John chapter 1. We went and looked at Hebrews chapter 1, where the Father is worshiping the Son. See, they don’t believe Jesus is on par with God. They think he’s a created being, like an angel, basically, who was glorified and elevated. Anyways, we went through these things, and they couldn’t answer the questions. And I said, “Look, you know, I don’t expect you guys to know all these answers, but how about you take these papers, go look into this, and come back to me.”

And I remember, it was so interesting because they always come with an older gentleman or an older person and a younger person. And the younger one had this deer-in-the-headlights look, but the older one, he looked at me, and I remember that, I’ll remember this till the day I died. He looked at me and he said, “I don’t care what you tell me. I will die a Jehovah’s Witness.” I was like, wait, what? I thought we agreed. At the very beginning of this conversation, way back weeks ago, that it didn’t matter what I thought, it didn’t matter what you thought. It mattered what was in this Word. You know what that sounds a lot like? “Unless I see his hands and the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.” Sounds like Thomas. That’s obstinance towards truth. That’s not openness.

So the question for us is, how am I doing? Where am I at in this? Do I have any obstinance in my belief towards Jesus and towards the teachings of Jesus? Am I accepting this much of Jesus’ teachings, but saying, these ones over here, nope, nope, nope, nope. I don’t need that. And if so, why? I don’t know.

Maybe there’s somebody watching or listening today who is struggling just to believe in general that Jesus rose from the dead. I mean, this is the Sunday after Easter. Last Sunday, it was all about celebrating the resurrection and what that means for us. And there’s a lot of people in our world who don’t believe in Jesus’ resurrection. And if so, my question for you is why? Why are you disregarding the mountain of evidence that Jesus was raised from the dead? That Jesus actually was who he said he was? Now, maybe you think he was just the good teacher. You know, all the miracles and stuff, that’s interesting, but that’s myth. That’s fairy tale. That didn’t happen. But yeah, Jesus’ teachings are good. No. The world doesn’t remake its entire calendar around somebody who had some good thoughts and ideas, some good teachings. All right? It’s not how it works.

And not only that, but if Jesus was just a good teacher, then how do you explain the rise of the early church? See, the first century listeners would not have become radical followers of Jesus simply because they really enjoyed turning the other cheek, right? Simply because they enjoyed loving their neighbors sacrificially. No one was like, “Hey, man, you know what? My life is really rough, but wow, you know what will change everything? Getting slapped on the other side of the cheek. That’ll be awesome.” Nobody did that. No one signs up to be burnt alive as human torches for the emperor or be fed to lions all to spread the gospel of Mr. Rogers’ neighborhood. That wouldn’t explain the church. Right? Like the church didn’t just grow slowly, it exploded. It took over the world, basically, more or less. Its teachings spread everywhere. People won’t do it for Mr. Rogers’ gospel. But you know what they will sacrifice their lives for? Resurrection.

Only the resurrection, only the resurrection adequately, there we go, explains the light switch nature of the disciples. See, all throughout the Gospels, the disciples are painted as bumbling, obtuse cowards, right? And then after they see the resurrected Jesus, they go on to be bold and courageous evangelists who preach this message even when it leads to their own death. And as church history tells us, eleven of them, all but John, were martyrs for their faith. Jesus wasn’t a bigger and better social program. That doesn’t explain the rise of the church. Doesn’t do it. Not even close. He wasn’t just offering up adopt-a-highway. He came along and he offered something radical. He offered resurrection. And the proof of this radical offer was the radical outcome of his own resurrection. So if you try to explain away Jesus as merely just being a good teacher with some good ideas that we should all live by, and you remove the miracles and the resurrection from it, you cut Christianity’s throat. You remove all of Christianity’s power.

And the Apostle Paul agreed with this. He said, if Christ didn’t rise from the dead, then our religion is worthless. And not only is it worthless, but we should be pitied above all people. If Christ didn’t rise from the dead, how do we explain the rise of the early church? Christianity comes out of Judaism, which is a religion that believed that God becoming man was heresy. All right? These people were absolutely opposed to that belief big time. John 10:33, after hearing Jesus teach, they tried to stone him. And it tells about this. And Jesus said to them, “Wait, what’s the problem here? Which one of my good works are you stoning me for?” And the crowd replied, “We are stoning you not for any good work, but for blasphemy. You, a mere man, claim to be God.”

The best illustration I can think of for trying to understand the culture that Jesus was in and how they were so opposed to this belief would be this. Imagine someone going to the Middle East today and teaching that Muhammad was really a woman who owned a pork farm. All right? How successful of a teacher do you think that person is going to be? Not very. They’re probably not even going to make it. They’re not even going to live through this, let alone start a massive new religious movement. And that’s actually pretty similar to Jesus’ situation. Except Jesus, the results of his life and teaching, was the largest religion the world has ever seen. How did this happen? Well, there’s one theory: he rose from the dead. That explains how something so radical, something that is so culturally opposed, was accepted and spread like wildfire.

Otherwise, how do you explain these things? Look, if you’re going to start a religion, why on earth would you make the founders of your religion look like buffoons who just never seem to get it? You wouldn’t do that. You wouldn’t sit there and be like, “All right, hey guys, we’re going to start this. We’re going to write this down. Remember that time, Peter, when you denied Jesus three times? Yeah, let’s put that in here. Yeah.” No, it doesn’t make sense. You’d shut that down. In a world that didn’t even accept the testimony of women because they were considered too unstable. Why would you make your first eyewitnesses of the resurrection women? Like, if you felt you had the liberties to, you know, kind of play with the truth, why wouldn’t you change that? Why wouldn’t you make it Peter? It doesn’t make sense.

But you know one reason why you might have women as the first eyewitnesses to the resurrection? A reason why you might paint your founding apostles and leaders of the religion in a very negative light? Because it’s true. Because it’s actually what happened. Only the resurrection explains these things in a serious and responsible way. And if you take the resurrection out of Christianity, you take its heart out and you render it completely void. See, the gospel is not, “Hey, here’s a good teacher for you to live like. And if we all do it, the world’s going to be a better place. Hooray!” The gospel of Jesus is this: you don’t have the power to live a life like Jesus lived, so you’re going to have to trust in him to live it for you. And the one who conquered the grave has more than enough power to do that. Are you being obstinate to the resurrection? Then, as Thomas was told by Jesus, stop disbelieving, and believe. So, to overcome doubt, we must be open, not obstinate.

2. Behold Jesus’ Character (v. 26)

But secondly, we must behold Jesus’ character. In verse 26, it says:

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” And then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”

John 20:26–27

People have long discussed whether God has a sense of humor. And I’m not saying this is for sure a proof text for God having a sense of humor. But do you notice what’s going on in these verses? The disciples are hiding yet again in fear behind locked doors. And the Bible tells us that several times the disciples were worried that they saw a ghost. All right, remember when Jesus was walking on the water? They’re like, “It’s a ghost,” you know? And they kind of had a little bit of a panic attack. And so what does Jesus do here? He doesn’t come to the front door and is like, “Hey, can I come in?” No. He just appears inside of a locked room after being executed, and he didn’t go through the door and he didn’t sneak in through a window. Which, him just appearing like that, I’m pretty sure that would freak anybody out, especially if you saw him executed recently. And what does Jesus say? “Peace be with you.” Now, whether or not God has a sense of humor or not, that’s funny to me.

But notice how Jesus acts then when he shows up. These disciples, they weren’t winners. They were losers. They had failed him, not just a little bit, but a lot of it. They had failed Jesus big time. They fled, right? When Jesus was taken off by the religious leaders to be executed, they took off. Peter denied Jesus three times, even after Jesus warned him about it. And here they are yet again, hiding in their doubt and fear inside of a locked room. And here is Thomas, Captain Doubter Pants himself, doubting and saying, “I will not believe unless I put my hands in his side and touch the nail prints in his hand.”

And what does Jesus do? He doesn’t show up and say, “Shame on every single one of you. You all left me. You guys are the worst. You have no belief, no faith. I’m done with you.” He doesn’t do that. He responds with patience. And his patience is godlike, is it not? Like, which person would respond that way? And then he does something else that’s remarkable. He turns to Thomas and says, “Go ahead, Thomas. Here’s my hand. Feel the nail prints. Put your hand on my side. Go ahead. But stop disbelieving and start believing.” Thomas wasn’t just wrestling with doubt. Jesus understood where Thomas’ heart was at. Thomas was dangerously close to obstinate disbelief. And Jesus comes along and he gently rebukes him for demanding more evidence than he really needed. But then he also lovingly and patiently offers him the evidence that he demanded.

If you’re struggling with doubt, you need to remember the character of Jesus, the character of our Savior. Remember how loving and patient that he’s been with you. He knows about all your doubts. Okay, it’s not like you need to keep it a secret and not tell everybody because Jesus will find out. He knows about all your doubts. He knows about all your struggles. He knows about every silly and stupid thing you’ve ever said or done. He did with Thomas. Remember, Jesus wasn’t there. Thomas said, “I’m not going to believe unless I touch the nail prints in his hand and touch his side.” He wasn’t there, but he shows up responding to Thomas as if he was. Why? Because Jesus knows all things. He’s God. He’s omnipresent. He’s everywhere. He’s all-knowing. Our Savior is a Savior who patiently loves us despite all of our weakness and failures, which he already knows all about. And when we see this, this should help us with our doubt and draw us closer to him.

But how then can we draw close to Jesus and behold his personality if he isn’t here physically speaking with us like he was with the disciples? Well, through God’s written Word. Christianity has a God who wrote a book to us that has everything we need, as 2 Timothy 3:16 and 17 tells us, for life and godliness. We don’t need any extras. All right? God has given us everything we need to do the Christian walk and to do it well and to finish the race well.

Anyone who knows me very well knows that the disciple that I resonate most with is this disciple, doubting Thomas. All right? Because just naturally, like I’m a doubter at heart. I think about these things. I wrestle with these things. I wrestle through these things. And then six months later, I’m like, “Hmm, how about that thing again?” All right? But if there is any antidote to all the doubt that we face, it’s reading the words of Jesus. When we see Jesus’ remarkable character, what he says, how he says it, it leads us to say, as the disciples did on the road to Emmaus, when Jesus taught them, “Oh, how our hearts burned within us while he taught us.” The word of Jesus burns away doubt like a fireplace burns up newspaper. It does.

In Jesus, see, we find everything that we were looking for. In Christ, we find what it is that we were really looking for in our careers. We find what it is that we were really looking for in our family, in our kids, and in our friends. In Christ, we find what it is that we were really looking for in our romances. In Christ, we find what finally fills the God-shaped hole in our hearts that none of those other things could ever fill. Trying to fill the God-shaped hole in our hearts with career, family, friends, or romances is like trying to run a car off of Mountain Dew instead of gasoline. It’s not going to work.

And then after we behold our Savior’s patient and loving character, we behold his hands and his side. And we see just how far he was willing to go to love us and save us. And when you see that, your heart stops pumping doubt, but starts pumping worship, just as it did for Thomas, who looked at Christ, who showed up to deal with his doubt and said, “My Lord and my God.” And if Jobs had seen and understood that, the cover of Times magazine would have looked like what the Apostle Paul described of his suffering as nothing at all compared to the glory of God that is coming. This is not a low view of suffering at all. It’s actually a very high view of glory.

3. Free of Your Conditions (vv. 27–28)

To overcome doubt, you must behold Jesus’ character, but you must also be free of your conditions. In verse 27, it says this:

Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

John 20:27–28

I get this third point from those verses, 27 and 28, and not with what Thomas did, but mostly with what Thomas didn’t do. See, we have no record that Thomas ever actually reached out and touched the nail prints in Jesus’ hands or the wound in his side. When Thomas saw the risen Jesus, his conditions flew right out the window. When Jesus showed up, what we see happening here is the most skeptical of the disciples actually becomes the most enthusiastic and has the most powerful statement of who Christ is in the entire New Testament. “Behold, my Lord and my God.” See, Thomas’s conclusion about the risen Jesus is actually the pinnacle of John’s entire Gospel. It’s what John has been building to and calling his readers, which he does right after these verses, to confess that same confession.

And so the question for us is a simple one. What are your conditions? What is it that you must have in order to believe in Jesus? For Thomas, it was to touch Jesus’ pierced hands and his side. But for you, do you have any conditions? See, if you approach Jesus and you say, “I’ll believe in you and trust in you and I will obey you so long as fill in the blank,” then you’re not actually a Christian. Why? Because whatever that condition is, that’s your real God. That’s the real thing that you’re serving, that you’re living for, that you’re trusting in. And you’re taking the real God and you’re saying, “You are under this. You must serve this as well. I will have you be a part of my life. You can come in here as long as you help me serve that.” So you’re not really a Christian. Whatever that condition is, it’s your real God.

Maybe it’s an intellectual condition. Maybe it’s, “Unless Genesis can make sense with the current scientific understanding, then I’m not going to believe in Jesus. Anybody who believes in that is nuts and stupid, and I’m not going to do that. So if you can find a way to reconcile this with all this, I’ll consider it. Probably not going to believe, but I’ll consider it.” Maybe it’s a sexual condition. Maybe you’re thinking, “If God really expects me to believe some outdated view of sexuality, to reject the current culture’s belief that love is love, and have this narrow and bigoted view, then I’m out. Not going to believe.” Maybe it’s a financial condition. Maybe it’s a health condition. Maybe it’s a career condition that says, “I will love and obey God as long as my health is okay. As long as my finances are okay. As long as I get that promotion, as long as my job goes well and I don’t lose my job, then I will serve God.” Whatever it is, though, drop your conditions and behold your Lord and your God. Besides, whatever those conditions are, they’re crummy gods, anyways. They’re going to disappoint you.

4. Believe Personally

To overcome doubt, not only must we be free of our conditions, but we must believe personally. Thomas answered him in verse 28, “My Lord and my God.” And then:

Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:29–31

You can be open instead of obstinate about Jesus. You can behold Jesus’ character, and you can even be free of your conditions. You can do all three of those things. But if you don’t do this fourth thing and personally believe and trust in Jesus, it’s not going to change a single thing for you. As John writes in verse 31, these things are written so that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life through his name. As Jesus told a weeping Martha right before he raised her brother from the dead, he said, “I am the resurrection and the life. The one who believes in me will live, even though they die.” Until you come to personally know Jesus, who is the resurrection and the life, you will not overcome your doubt. And even worse, you will one day die in your unbelief. And so Jesus shows up and urges doubting Thomas, saying, “Stop disbelieving, and you, Thomas, start believing.”

5. Confident in Your Foundation (v. 29)

To overcome our doubt, not only must you believe personally, but fifth, you must be confident in your foundation. And I pull this from mostly verse 29 and a little bit from verse 31, but in verse 29, it says:

Jesus said to them, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:29

If you’re listening today and you’re struggling with doubt, maybe you’re struggling with your walk with Jesus, maybe you’re not seeing the victory in the life that you want. Maybe you’re struggling with worry. You’re looking around at the situation that we are in with this whole coronavirus nonsense and quarantine. And it’s like, what is going on? How are we going to get through this? Is this the end of the world? Whatever it is that you’re struggling with, listen to this and know that your foundation is solid. Remember the foundation of your faith.

In verse 29, Jesus looks down the corridors of time at you, at me, and he offers us a special, unique blessing for all those who trust in him but have not seen him. Though we can’t see our risen Lord today, make no mistake about it, that we’re closer to him than even the Israelites who stood at the base of Mount Sinai and saw the glory of God up on the mountain as he delivered the law to Moses. We are even closer to God than they ever were. Drastically closer. Why? Well, for one, we have a special blessing from the Lord right here. But two, we have the Lord’s Spirit living within us. The Holy Spirit of God, who, as Ephesians 1 tells us, is the guarantee of our hope.

For those who believe and walk by faith and not by sight, we take great comfort in knowing that our doubts are going to lose. They will not win out. Yes, they might make us stumble. Yes, they might make us fall. But doubt will not have the final word. Belief and resurrection will. Why? Because as Hebrews 12:2 tells us, we have set our eyes upon Jesus, who is both the author and the finisher of our faith. And in Philippians 1:6, Paul writes, “I am sure of this, that he who began a good work in you will bring it to completion at the day of Jesus Christ.” Our faith is God’s creation given to us, and it’s insured by him with the blood of his own Son. He’s not going to let this faith fail.

Upon our faith, we find a firm foundation, a foundation upon which there is no firmer foundation. As Isaac Watts’ great hymn goes, “How firm a foundation, ye saints of the Lord, is laid for your faith in his excellent word. What more can he say than to you he hath said, to you who for refuge to Jesus have fled. The soul that on Jesus hath leaned for repose, I will not, I will not desert to his foes. That soul, though all hell should endeavor to shake, I’ll never, no, never, no, never forsake.” Amen.

Pray with me. Father, I thank you for this text. I thank you that you don’t let doubt have the last say in our walk with you. I thank you that you give us our faith, that you preserve our faith, and you will one day complete our faith as you bring us home to be with you. Father, if there’s anyone doubting right now who’s struggling with whatever form of doubt that they are struggling with, I just ask, Lord, that you would give them a special comfort. That the blessing, the special blessing that Jesus gives all of those who have never seen him would become more real in their life today than it has ever been.

Help us, Father, we face an enemy that tries to tempt us with doubt and unbelief and tries to get us to set up standards for our faith and belief that are not your standards. Help us to live in a culture that sees all of this as foolishness. Help us not to be cowards hiding behind doors and locked rooms when it comes to preaching the gospel to this culture. But help us to be as the disciples were after they saw the risen Jesus, who went out boldly and were excited to receive lashings even for sharing their faith, who were excited to suffer because of sharing their faith. Father, we love you. We praise you. And we look forward to being able to return together soon in this building to worship you. We pray these things in Jesus’ name. Amen.