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Sermon Notes: notes.cornerstonesj.org
Thomas- From Doubt to Faith
Turn your eyes upon Jesus, look full in His wonderful face.
Kings of earth will grow strangely dim in the light of His glory, and turn your eyes to the hillside, where justice and mercy embrace.
There the Son of for all is dead was
Jesus, Jesus, our glory.
We adore You, behold You, our Savior ever true.
O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Turn your eyes to the
Lord, and see Christ the
Lion of God.
Fear is gone, for we carry
His life in our veins. Jesus, to You we lift our wings.
Jesus, our glory, and we adore
You, our Savior ever true.
O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Turn your eyes to the heavens, our
King will return for His own.
We will shout our glory to Jesus.
Jesus, to You we lift our wings.
You, behold You, our Savior ever true.
O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. Jesus, to You we lift.
O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You. O Jesus, we turn our eyes to You.
You have been our dwelling before You were.
And soon our lives turn back to dust.
When the sun comes up, satisfy us before the day has passed us by.
Before our hearts forget all
Your goodness, satisfy us with Your love.
For sin on Jesus crucified, set our shelter in His arms.
He has passed us by.
Teach us, Lord, to number our days on earth and give us more.
Wisdom in the secret heart is You displayed.
Amazing grace in Jesus Christ for us.
Teach us, Lord. Teach us, Lord. Okay, I do have some announcements this morning.
Before we do, though, I came across a couple verses, or a verse in particular that spoke to me.
I had forgotten about this verse in Ecclesiastes. It says this. It says, He who loves money will not be satisfied with money.
Nor he who loves abundance with its income. This is vanity.
And we remember Ecclesiastes speaks a lot about the vanity of the things we see in this world. And clinging to money is one of them.
But another verse came to mind, which was a beautiful verse that I had remembered from a while ago.
And it has to do with what we should be satisfied in. It's Psalm 90, verse 14, which says this.
It says, Oh, satisfy us in the morning with Thy lovingkindness, that we may sing for joy and be glad all of our days.
If our satisfaction is found in our Lord Jesus Christ, then we'll be satisfied indeed, and we're going to sing for joy.
So we thank the Lord for the things and the blessings He's given to us. But it's Him alone that we need to be rejoicing in and be satisfied in.
So I hope that's an encouragement to you this morning. And we do have some announcements. First off is tonight, the
NFC championship game. This is a tradition, and we're going to be at the Stockland House tonight, the guys.
This is for men and boys who would like to come. It's $12 for the men and $6 for children under 12.
And if you haven't signed up yet, please do so. And that's via the church app or Pastor's Pastogram.
There's a link in there. Or you could talk to Michael in person if you haven't signed up yet because Mike's trying to get a head count.
So I hope just everyone will enjoy their time tonight, and we'll all root for the Eagles, right?
Yeah, we'll be rooting all right. So no prayer night tonight, though.
Because of the men's event tonight, we're not going to have prayer at the church here tonight. Also, we have a men's retreat coming up, which is in April.
But we need to really sign up now so we know how many heads we have and we can start assigning rooms and things like that.
Things like allergies, they need to know a lot of stuff. So that's April 12th through the 14th.
And then the ladies will have a retreat shortly after that, which is April 26th through the 28th.
And they're both going to be up at Pocono Mountain Bible Conference. So if you'd like to be part of that, please sign up for those.
Coming up starting next Sunday are going to be starting point classes. Those classes are for those folks who wish to be members here so they can find out more about the church and also what it means to be a member here at Cornerstone.
So there's three classes, and Pastor John will be teaching them during this service. So if you would like to take part in that, you can come to the early service and then come to the class during the second service.
Also, we have a problem, okay? It's a good problem. Is that ever such a thing as a good problem?
It's a good problem, and it has to do with parking in the parking lot during the second service mostly.
The Lord has truly blessed us, and we are so glad that so many folks are coming out, but there's a lack of parking.
We're very grateful, though, because we have the opportunity to park across the street at the school. So what we're asking folks to do is to consider if you're a younger person, if you're a person that doesn't have children so they wouldn't have to cross the street, if you could park over there to make room for older adults and other folks that may be handicapped or whatever, we really would appreciate that because the
Lord is bringing a lot of folks into this service, and we're so grateful that you're all here. So thank you for that, and thank you for the folks that are already doing it, being considerate of the others in the church, and we're so grateful for you for that.
So with that, let's go to the Lord in prayer and just honor him with our service today.
Father, we thank you for being here with you and your people today. Father, thank you for gathering us as a people called out for your name,
Lord, zealous for good works, that we want to honor and glorify you with the things we say, the things we do.
And we're going to have an opportunity to do that just in a moment, Lord, when we lift up our voices in praise to your holy name,
Father. We thank you, Father, for being able to be here. We thank you for the worship team, and we pray that you would anoint
Pastor Jeff with your spirit as he brings forth your word today, Father. We praise you.
We lift this up in Jesus' name. Amen. Oh, glory in your sanctuary.
Splendor and majesty, Lord, before you.
All life adores you. All the earth will declare that your love is everywhere.
The fields will exalt, the seas resound.
Hear the trees joyful cry, praising you, and so will
I. A new song I'll sing,
Lord, I will glorify and bless your holy name.
Father, into your courts I will enter.
Maker of heaven, I tremble in your holy presence.
Glory, glory in your sanctuary.
Splendor and majesty, Lord, before the earth.
We'll declare that everywhere.
Blessed be your name. In the land that is plentiful, where the streams of abundance flow.
Blessed be your name. Blessed be your name.
When the road into the desert plays, though I walk through the wilderness.
Blessed be your name. Every blessing you pour out,
I'll turn back to praise. When the darkness closes in,
Lord, still I will say. Blessed be the name of the
Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name of the
Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
Blessed be your name. The sun shining down on me, when the world's all as it should be.
When the world is marked with suffering, though there's pain in the offering.
Lord. Blessed be your name. Blessed be the name.
You give and take away. You give and take away.
My heart will choose to say, Lord, blessed be your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord. Blessed be your glorious name.
Blessed be the name of the Lord, glorious day.
Amen. Lord, we are so humbled and so grateful that we can come before you with our singing, because your name is to be blessed, because you are the
Savior and Redeemer of the world. You are the rock that we can lean on.
All the praise, all the singing is for you and you alone. We sing to glorify you, the
King of kings, the Lord of lords. Your name is above all names. Christ alone, my hope is found.
He is my light, my strength, my song. This cornerstone, this solid ground, firm through the fiercest drought and storm.
What heights of love, what depths of peace, when fears are still, when strivings cease.
My comforter, my all in all, here in the love of Christ, I stand.
There in the ground, his body like darkness slain, bursting forth in glorious day.
Up from the grave he rose again, and as he stands in victory, sin's curse has lost its grip on me.
For I am his and he is mine, apart with the precious blood of Christ.
In death, this is the power of Christ in me.
From life's first cry to final breath, Jesus commands my destiny.
No power of hell, no scheme of man can ever pluck me from his hand.
Till he returns or calls me home, here in the power of Christ, I'll stand.
I find my strength,
I find my hope, I find my peace in Christ alone.
When fears are still, when darkness falls, I find my peace in Christ alone.
To Christ alone, the King of kings, the
Lord I haven't seen. To Christ alone, to Christ alone, to Christ alone.
Here in the power of Christ, we stand.
Heal us of doubts, Lord. We know that the devil's first lie in the garden was, did
God really say? And he uses the world to sow doubt against Christians and to keep unbelievers from coming into the light.
And so, Father, we pray against our enemy and against doubts, Lord, that you would grant by the power of God that we would repent of sin and believe the gospel of Jesus Christ.
I pray for any here who have been in an epic struggle against doubts, that this day, by the power of your word, you would set this one free.
I pray for all of us who have believed. We pray, Lord, that our faith would be strengthened, that we would be strong for battle in Jesus' name.
Amen. The Barna Research Group conducted a study in which they concluded that 61 % of today's young adults have been churched at some point, but are now spiritually disengaged.
So if you were to do a poll of the young adults in this country, 61 % would say they're not believing in Christ, but that they used to be involved in church.
They were sitting in seats just like these. Pressing a little deeper, the studies indicate that 39 .8
% first had their doubts beginning in middle school, pretty young age.
For 43 .7 % of this demographic, their doubts began in high school, and only 10 .6
% had their first doubts during college. But doubts were introduced from a number of different angles.
A large percentage indicated that science has been a stumbling block for their faith.
Because of academia and the presuppositions of the universities, many people believe that a young earth, a worldwide flood, an arc,
Jonah being swallowed by a great fish and spit out, or Samson's exploits are scientifically impossible.
A second area that introduces doubt is contradictions.
Some claim that there are contradictions in the Bible, and media, secular literature, very often look for ways to undermine the
Bible and insert these kind of teachings wherever they can. Ideas like that, the resurrection accounts differ from one another.
Even though it doesn't violate the law of non -contradiction, there are people that say it does.
A third, and perhaps what I hear to be the biggest concern, has to do with hell.
The idea of hell in our culture turns very many people off and introduces doubt into their mind.
They say a selfless, upright, morally good person who doesn't believe in Jesus going to hell, while the carnal
Christian who serves Christ only half -heartedly goes to heaven, seems to them like an absurdity that God would send people to hell.
A fourth area that brings some people to doubt is the agnostic who swears that if he knew what
God wanted, he would do it. So why would God allow Christianity to make no sense to him?
Shifting the burden to God that if God wanted me to believe, he would make it known and I would believe, so many people complain.
And a fifth one, which I'm sure all of us have likewise heard, is the accusation that Christians and church services tend to be boring, legalistic, hypocritical, too political, immoral, espousing ethics that seem judgmental, unloving, or condemning of people for things that they cannot change.
And so a culture, for these reasons, is wallowing in doubt, and many people sincerely so, sincerely doubting whether the
Bible is true. Well, let me begin with a word of encouragement to anybody here who's doubting.
You might be an older person who has, for a long time, believed and yet you're still struggling with doubt.
Or perhaps you're a grandparent and you have seen one of these young adults walk away from the faith and you wish you knew how to help them with their doubts.
Or a parent that's concerned to keep your child from going away.
Let me say something about doubt. Doubt is actually quite common.
Doubt is not something that undermines faith. It is oftentimes a path that God uses to genuine faith, to owning one's faith for themself.
Did you know that in Matthew 28, 17, when Jesus appeared to the disciples, resurrected from the dead, we are told, but some doubted.
Some doubted when they were seeing him face to face. It wasn't until he spoke and by his word gave the great commission that they were fully convinced.
A second word of encouragement. Jesus is merciful to those who doubt.
There was a father who was very concerned about his son because this son was possessed or somehow controlled by a demon and the child would throw himself into the fire or into water, the demon controlling him.
And it was a very scary thing foaming at the mouth and all kinds of horror. Imagine this father and he comes to Jesus and he says, if you can do anything to help, please do.
And Jesus answered, if you can. With God, all things are possible.
But at this point, some would think that Jesus might crush him like a bug or shoot lightning from the sky or wither him like the fig tree.
For his doubt, the man says, Lord, I believe. Help my unbelief.
Not exactly a stirring example of robust faith. Rather, there is in that a seed of doubt.
Lord, help my unbelief. And Jesus mercifully heals his son.
In fact, in Jude, which is only one chapter, verse 22, we are commanded to have mercy on those who doubt.
And so to be like God, we should be merciful towards those who have doubts.
Faith defeats doubt only by the power of God. We do not overcome doubt in our own strength.
It is God who overcomes doubt in us. But listen, God uses doubt -defeating instruments to destroy the doubts that plague us.
There are certain instruments that God uses to overcome our doubt.
In his grace and to his glory, he accomplishes the destruction of doubt by a certain means to that end.
So turn with me to find out what those are. Wouldn't you like to know for yourself or for somebody that you love how doubt is destroyed?
Of course, we go to the story of Doubting Thomas. And let's read it from John 20, 24 to 31.
Remembering where we are from last week, we saw that faith has different aspects. In one sense, it is the destruction of fear.
Faith overcomes fear. And the opposite of faith is fear. Stepping out, even though a person has fear.
Well, last week we saw that the group of disciples were in a locked up room. And Jesus somehow passed into that room without opening the door or a window.
He just came into the room. And he destroyed the fear of those disciples by his appearing.
But there was one of the disciples who was not there that day. Providentially, I think
God knew that this particular man, Thomas, didn't really struggle with fear. Earlier in the
Gospel of John, we heard Jesus say, let us go up to Jerusalem. And the disciples objected.
Hey, they're about to kill you in Jerusalem. Let's not go there. Thomas said, let's go with him and die with him.
Thomas was not a fearful man. He was a courageous man. But Thomas had a particular struggle.
And that was doubt. So here we're going to see an aspect of faith that faith overcomes doubt.
It is God's gracious work to destroy this doubt. But he does so with instruments.
Let's see what those are. John 20, 24 to 31. Now, Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin.
That word is didymus. So he probably had a twin somewhere. Was not with them when
Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the
Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands, see in his hands, 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. 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.
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. 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.
The first doubt defeater is humility. Notice that Thomas sought to approach
God as if Thomas was the one who hung the stars in the sky.
As if Thomas was the creator of the universe and the one who sustained his own breath and made his own heartbeat.
He says, dictating to God, the one who reveals mysteries and makes things known.
He tells God, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails.
And as if that's not enough, place my hand in his side.
I will never believe. This is a spirit of pride.
He is making demands of God. He is dictating to God the parameters under which
God is allowed to reveal himself. You guys ever heard a
Muslim arguing with a Christian? And the Muslim will say, unless you can show me where Jesus says,
I am God, worship me. I will never believe that Jesus is
God. Here, the Muslim is dictating the terms by which
God must reveal himself. Of course, we know that when Jesus came in the flesh, he said,
I am the light of the world. I am the good shepherd. I am the way, the truth and the life.
He even said before Abraham was born, I am. Jesus claimed his deity in the way he wanted to claim his deity with reference to the burning bush.
Jesus dictated the terms of this revelation. And so the first point about overcoming doubt is to remind people who they are and who
God is. The preacher in the pulpit must tear down the high places and say, come down from your high horse.
Who do you think you are that you could tell God how he is to speak to man? And the parent to the child struggling must remind that child.
Who do you think you are? Remember who God is and open your eyes and listen with humble ears and pay attention to the signs that he chose to give.
And don't dictate to the one who made you. The first doubt to feeder is to be reminded of humility.
Thomas here was trying to dictate the terms, which is a very interesting development as we follow the story, because Jesus will in some way invite
Thomas to come. But Thomas never needs to touch the hands. He never puts his hand in Jesus's side.
He believes as the others had by sight. And by the hearing of the word of God, which brings us to the second point.
John 20, 26, eight days later, later than what?
Last week we learned about that first appearance to the disciples in the inner room.
It was Easter Sunday. Now it's Monday, a week later, eight days later.
His disciples were inside again. This time Thomas was there.
Now, providentially, God had Thomas be there in order to appear, but Jesus did not owe this to him.
This is the mercy of God to bring a second encounter with the disciples in order to reveal
Jesus to Thomas. This is so much for him. Notice how he does it.
Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.
And in the speaking of those words, peace be with you. The heart of doubting
Thomas was set at rest. As the disciples a week earlier were set at peace when
Jesus told them, peace be with you. The speaking of the word of Christ brought faith.
All of us could say, well, I wasn't there in that room. Sure, Thomas could believe he saw him, but here am
I, 2000 years later. We don't see with physical eyes, but we have the word of Christ.
The words that Thomas heard, you are hearing right now in the power of God.
Peace be with you. I want to tell you what defeats doubt. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ.
The preaching of the word. We read this book, Already Gone, that came out in 2006.
And it gave statistics that one third of church going kids remain in the faith as they go off to college.
Two thirds depart from the faith. And so in 2016, we thought about this as elders and leaders of the church.
And we said, forbid it, Lord, that two thirds of our young people would go off to college and lose their faith.
Forbid it, Lord. So what can we do? What instrument do we have?
What means, what sword do we hold to keep them believing? The first thing that needs to be said is it is only by grace that any of us believe or continue to believe.
Peter would have wandered off. Jesus said, Satan has desired to sift you like wheat, but I have prayed for you that your faith would not fail.
Your faith is sustained by grace. And so we pray for this grace and we say, Lord, keep our children.
Did you know that over the course of these last eight years, that by grace, I've had the opportunity to preach the word.
And the Sunday school teachers that week after week, while we are here, they are there teaching the word faithfully.
I believe it's Rob this morning. That as this has been happening, I cannot think of one of our young people over the last eight years that has departed from the faith.
Praise the Lord. And where does the glory belong for such a thing?
The doubt defeater is nothing other than the sword of the spirit. So long as we preach the word.
Ready in season and out of season. We rebuke, exhort, train through the teaching of the word.
This instrument in God's hand keeps us in the faith. It defeats doubt.
Keep listening to the sermon every week. Reading the word on your own. Going to the community groups where the word of God is opened.
This is what's sustaining us. The power is in the word. Doubt defeater number three.
Let's look at John 20, 27. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands.
The third doubt defeater is signs. The book of John is very occupied with giving us signs.
Rather than commanding a blind faith. Faith is not blind.
The word pistis in the Greek. Or pisteo, depending on the form. It means faith.
But it is a derivative of a Greek word. Patho, which means persuade.
Faith is not a blind leap against reason. It is to be persuaded by evidence.
This is why when Luke introduces his gospel and writes the book of Acts. Luke 1, 2.
Acts 1, 3. He appeals to incontrovertible proofs. And eyewitness testimony.
Faith is a response to the evidence as God has given it. Faith is taking
God at his word and according to the evidence. So consider the proportion of that which creates doubt.
And the evidence that God gives to destroy doubt. Yes, a philosophical problem like the reality and longevity.
And the severity of hell will create problems in your mind. And there is a certain reality to that which is difficult.
But don't take the difficulty of a doubt. And create this outsized proportion to it.
That it overwhelms everything else in the universe. Because the truth is the proportion of evidence that God has given.
That Jesus is the son of God. That he did rise from the dead. Is so great, so utterly overwhelming.
That the things which create doubt pale in comparison. Let me tell you a few examples of what
I mean. And by a few I mean many. This will be a long section of my sermon but I'll be quick.
Because the signs are what God give us to create and to sustain faith.
God is the one doing it but he uses means. So the first I would appeal to is the uncontrollable precision of prophecy.
Things written prophetically that come true in Christ. That cannot be explained as if they were only trying to fulfill prophecy.
Some people I've heard argue, well Jesus might have been trying to be the Messiah figure.
So he got a donkey to ride into Jerusalem to fulfill Zechariah 9 -9.
But the truth is of the hundreds of prophecies. Most of them are completely beyond any human control.
That David would say in Psalm 110. The Lord said to my Lord, sit at my right hand until I make your enemies a footstool for your feet.
The Messiah is called God. He is given the throne of rule. And then a few verses later we're told he's a priest according to the order of Melchizedek.
Melchizedek is only mentioned in Genesis 14 and then expounded upon in Hebrews 7.
That all of these data points come together to prove that the king is God who is the priest.
This isn't just getting a donkey and riding into Jerusalem. This is fulfilling every prophecy spoken of the coming
Messiah. Prophecies fulfilled in Christ confirm and are signs that he is who he claimed to be.
Number two, the death -defying testimony of eyewitnesses. These will be in your notes.
You can find them on the app. You don't have to furiously take notes because you won't be able to. There's a lot of them.
That every eyewitness who claimed to see the resurrected Christ was willing to die for what they saw.
Some run through with spears, Peter crucified upside down. All of them still claiming that they saw the resurrected
Christ. Eyewitness testimony with the reliability of a willingness to die.
Number three, the unquenchable joy of the martyrs. That for 2 ,000 years that when
Christians out preaching the name of Christ are put to death, they die with joy. This is unexplainable from a human perspective.
Number four, the absurd willingness of the missionary. I'm rereading a missionary volume by Ruth Tucker called
From Jerusalem to Erie and Jaya. If you get that book and you read about what Christians have done to go to the ends of the earth, you see a passion and a zeal and a willingness that cannot be explained by human reasoning.
Number five, the paradoxical foolishness of the cross. That the instrument of torture invented by the
Romans would be hung around our necks, indicating our faith.
The paradox of the cross, the foolishness of the cross, the divine son in flesh dying.
The most horrible death known to man. We are sent out with a message that humanity would consider utter foolishness.
In order to show that the power does not come from man, but from God as billions of people believe this message.
The power of God displayed in the foolishness in order to confound the wise.
This is a sign. Next, the loving justice of propitiation.
The world's great problem of the sacred and the profane. The gap between the holy and the sinful that the world has considered for so long.
Justice and love. That in propitiation, in the cross, you have a perfect display of justice.
God's wrath fully poured out on a substitute. And at the same time, a perfect display of love.
Bringing together love and justice as no one else had ever been able to do. That God would be just and the justifier of those who have faith.
How many hearts have been awakened by the teaching of Romans 3? It's a sign that this is true.
The sweet release of expiation. The guilt of sin that it weighs down the heart only can be lifted by a final sacrifice.
And how many guilty people felt that weight lift off by believing that Jesus paid that price.
The peculiar glory of the Bible. How many times have you sat down to open the word, to read something you've seen a hundred times, and the power of God hits you like a lightning bolt?
How is it that every Monday morning, I sit down to write a sermon, and I just see depths of riches to mine?
In the treasure trove of this book, there is a peculiar glory in the
Bible. To use the words of John Piper, where he is very accurate there. Peculiar glory.
The drastic elevation of love. That before Jesus, no one understood love.
Until he came and gave us the golden rule, do unto others as you would have them do unto yourself.
And then he says, and love your enemies. And then he says, greater love has no one than this, to lay down his life for his friends.
And by example and word, he changes the world with love. And changes our understanding of love.
The outrageous reversals of individuals. That one of the literary masterpieces of the world, the book of Romans, was written by a man who previously was trying to destroy the very faith he is now advocating.
How can you explain Paul, except to say that the gospel he preached is real?
He himself is a sign. And how many others like Paul? Like Mike Lindell, the
MyPillow guy. Laying in a gutter in Mexico, ruined by drugs, awakened by faith, and starts a pillow company.
That's quite a reversal. Through the power of Jesus. The long obedience of the faithful.
Sometimes it's not so dramatic. Sometimes it's my father living the same way for all 70 -some years of his life, and still to this day, every day, caring for my mom in that memory care unit.
The long obedience of the faithful. Haven't you seen it? The stunning effects upon culture.
The four horsemen of atheism. Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins. One was
Ayaan Hirsi Ali. Just this last month, she realized that wherever Christianity flourishes, cultures flourish.
And this atheist converted to Christianity by her vision of what's happening to society at large.
Amazing. Culture itself transformed by Christianity. The bitter rage of the atheist.
Ranting against the God that they say they don't believe exists. The upside down thinking of the humanist.
When ethics are turned upside down and you say this cannot be. We know that a baby born out of the womb is a person, and minutes before is a person in the womb.
Everybody knows this, but to see ethics turned upside down by those who reject
God only confirms that there are liars, deceivers, false spirits in the world.
And so again, you see the extreme evil of the demonized. Adolf Hitler, the demonized man in front of the murder mill when we were sharing the gospel who circled us and ranted and raved.
And you could see and even smell on his breath the reality of evil.
And if there's evil, if there are demons, then the Bible is true. The cold consequences of disobedience, the unexplainable intervention of miracles.
All of us have seen them. The quiet advance of providence.
The ubiquitous distribution, that's a hard one to say. Ubiquitous distribution of Bibles.
That the Bible has always been the most printed book since the invention of the printing press.
Harry Potter got close a number of years back, but now everybody laughs at Harry Potter and the Bible keeps on going.
And now it's digital. Did you know that YouVersion is about to get its one billionth download worldwide?
Bibles on devices everywhere. God has always sent forth His Word. And that itself is a sign that God is providentially behind the sending forth of His Word.
The unparalleled charity of Christians. How is it that Christianity created the
Red Cross and Samaritan's Purse and hospitals all across India and across this country and around the world?
Did you know that the medical symbol itself, the snake wrapped around the pole, still used to this day, testifies to Moses lifting the serpent in the wilderness?
Which is itself a sign of Christ lifted, John 3, 15, for sinners like us.
And the charity. Why is it that we just built an orphanage in Malawi? Funding it anyway and sending our missionary to do that.
And it's getting almost window high this week. The charity of Christians around the world, surpassing any other group by a factor of many times over.
The very measurement of time, B .C. and A .D. with reference to the
Son of God, before His appearance and after. Time itself, 2024, is measured by Christ.
This is a sign that none can deny. The continued relevance of the
Jews, that you turn on the news and you watch a war in Israel, when in 70
A .D. the Jews were driven out. And yet the Word of God in Revelation says 144 ,000, 12 ,000 from each tribe, will be sealed and protected for preaching the
Word in the end times, in their homeland. The Word of God saying one thing, your sight appearing opposite in 70
A .D. and then in 1948, this people who had survived, unlike any people group in the history of the world, reconstitute into their land and are established there today.
All you have to do to know that the Bible is true, is to look at the Jewish people still in Jerusalem and turn on the news every night.
It's a sign that God is actively in the world, providentially moving.
Biblical justice for the oppressed. Notice I didn't say social justice. Biblical justice that the slave wrongly captured, unjustly treated, that it was
William Wilberforce and John Newton and Christians preaching the Bible, that God used to set the oppressed free.
That the most sung song in the history of the world is Amazing Grace, written by John Newton, the former slave trader.
If you don't see the power of the gospel in the deliverance of the oppressed, you haven't read about history.
And finally, the ones Jesus himself appeals to in John chapter 5, his own testimony.
The self -attestation of Christ. Who is it that claims to be the light of the world?
Who talks like this? C .S. Lewis rightly said, Lord, liar, or lunatic? Anyone who claims to be
God in flesh is the Lord he claims to be, or some kind of raving lunatic, or mad liar.
But there's no other options. And Jesus overtly claimed to be the Son of God.
His second appeal was to John the Baptist. Who else has a prophet to go before him and announce his coming?
To rally a nation, call them to repentance, in order to say, behold, the
Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world. The testimony of John the Baptist is a sign. And John himself was prophesied by Malachi and Isaiah.
All of these are signs to say who he is. The miracles of Jesus. Undeniable miracles, such that even his enemies did not deny he did the miracle.
All they could say was, he did it by the power of a demon. Beelzebub. His miracles testify to who he is.
The Father's testimony. This is my son. The Father's testimony through Moses, in the
Passover and in the greater prophet. The Father's testimony. And lastly, I told you it was long.
Lastly, the empty tomb. The disciples saw an empty tomb.
And to this day, the tomb is empty. No enemy of the gospel, and there were many, were able to produce a body.
Because his body rose from the dead and ascended to the right hand of the Father. The tomb is empty because he is risen.
The signs are everywhere. The weight, the proportion of these signs, utterly overwhelm those who would introduce doubt on whatever grounds.
And so we conclude with the way Thomas does. Let's finish this out.
We're in John 20, 28. Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. The fourth doubt defeater is simply to confess the
Lordship of Christ. When you come and you sing your confession. You sing about Christ on a
Sunday morning. Your faith is stirred and doubts scurry out the door. The good confession.
Notice to the one who says, Jesus never said, I am God. Worship me. Thomas said, my
Lord and my God. And Jesus affirms Thomas here in verse 29.
Have you believed because you have seen me? He affirms that he is
Lord and he is God. And in verse 29, that brings us to the fifth doubt defeater.
It is giving credit to God for opening your eyes.
This is deep. If ultimately somebody convinced you to believe in Christ.
And that was ultimately the reason why. Then somebody else could come along and argue you out of belief in Christ.
And so somebody might be somewhat convinced as a young person going to church and they go off to college and some persuasive professor convinces them otherwise.
But when you come to this place of maturity in realizing what Jesus says here to Thomas, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
You stand on solid ground because the word blessed, the greater blesses the lesser.
Gives all the glory, all the credit to God. When you begin to say my eyes were open because God graciously opened my blind eyes.
I brought nothing to the table, but my own ignorance and my sin. My deaf ears couldn't hear, he opened them.
My stone cold heart couldn't believe until he made it a heart of flesh. Here you say, blessed are those who have not seen.
You give all credit, all glory for your faith to God. This solidifies it, it's unshakable at that point.
When you come to that high view of God's saving grace, your doubt has no place to exist because your faith didn't come from you, it came from God.
Verse 30, now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in the book.
Many other signs. These are each one a testimony.
Maybe of the 30 examples that I mentioned, you were convinced by something else, that's part of your testimony.
What is it that you've seen, not recorded in the book? What part of your testimony could you share with someone else as you say it, your faith will be strengthened and their doubt very often is put away as well.
There's one time my grandmother was about 4 '10", 4 '11", and my dad was 6 '4".
So that was an interesting development. But my grandmother was the most humble, awesome
German lady with this thick accent. One time we went to see the biggest tree in North America.
I can't remember if it was the California trip or the Olympic rainforest in Washington state. But in any case, we got there and we all got out of the car and we're seeing the biggest tree in North America.
And she got out and walked up to the tree and she said, oh, I doubt it. Turned around completely unimpressed, got back in the car and just waited and started reading, knitting, she was always knitting.
Such an amazing woman. She doubted that was the biggest tree in North Carolina, I mean in North America.
And she said so. But what did Hulda Cleaver see?
She saw the rise of Hitler. She saw her husband in a prison camp for four years.
She almost died multiple times caring for these six children. She immigrated to the United States and came past the
Statue of Liberty. She saw the Dust Bowl of Oklahoma having nothing. And then arrived in Seattle where they settled and she saw the providence of God.
And I want to tell you, if you want to talk about long obedience in the same direction, this is a woman with a testimony.
She never faltered. Her faith was never shaken. She could care less about the size of that tree.
She saw bigger in Germany, I'm sure. But you have a testimony like she did.
It's not written in the book. And the number of books that we could write collectively could fill the whole world, as John will later say.
Jesus is still alive. He's still moving. You've seen the signs. You know this.
You've seen his faithfulness. You've prayed and heard answers to prayer. When you go tell your testimony, when you tell what you've seen, when you talk about it, your faith is strengthened.
It defeats your doubt. And very often it casts the doubts out of other people as well. Lastly, the book of John.
Michael made these amazing banners for us. It's a thesis statement of the book in John 20, 31.
But these are written so that you may believe. Notice that John places this right after the doubting
Thomas story. Strategically placed right here. To overcome doubt.
This is the point of the gospel of John to bring you to faith. That you would believe he is the
Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. So I would simply say, you struggling with doubt?
Go read the gospel of John. Is your grandkids struggling? Get them a nice gospel of John.
Go to Living Waters and get those cheap blue ones that you can hand out to everybody you know.
The gospel of John was written for this very purpose. To bring people to faith.
So when doubts arise, return here to this passage. When you struggle with doubt, come back to doubting
Thomas. Realize the absurdity of the alternatives. Remember that he is risen.
So there are certain things in this world that induce doubts. Some will say science.
But the truth is, the arguments they make about science are simply an anti -supernatural bias that they presuppose.
If you presuppose that there's no divine intervention, then the distance for light to travel from a distant star is going to be billions of years.
But if you're introducing the God who makes light and can create the appearance of age by putting light in process, it's just a different starting point.
There's no reason to doubt if you believe that there's a God who made the world by speaking it into existence.
So -called contradictions, there are none. And I've read every supposed one. Never violates the law of A and not
A in the same sense and in the same time. The idea of hell, grounded in the idea that selfless, upright, morally good people should never go there.
The truth of Christianity is that there are no selfless, good, morally upright people.
And a just God punishing sin is completely consistent with the picture of who he is and who we are.
The idea of fairness, a hard time believing. He has given the means.
In his grace, he's given the gospel of John. Go read it or come talk to a pastor about any of these things that you're concerned about.
Avail yourself of the means that God gives. And lastly, unloving. There was no understanding of love until Christ came.
And no one understands love apart from the cross. Love tells the truth and warns of danger.
If there is no God and there is no Christ, and all we are is space dust floating around and evolved from monkeys, there is no morality and there is no love.
It's only in the cross that we know what love is. We have the doubt defeaters.
Humble yourself before the mighty hand of God and he will lift you up. Humble yourself.
Hear the word of the Lord. Faith comes by hearing and hearing by the word of Christ. Look at the signs, they're everywhere.
And it took me 30 minutes just to list 30 of them. Confess and praise my
Lord, my God. Speak to the one who made you. Give the credit to God.
High view of God. And go tell others your testimony and give them a gospel of John.
Let's pray. Father, we thank you for defeating our doubt by your word. We are like doubting
Thomas, but we thank you that you don't crush us like a bug or wither us like a fig tree, but God, you graciously and mercifully grant faith as we look to your word.
Thank you, God, for saving us. We give you all the glory. We don't claim anything for ourselves.
There's nothing special or unique. And any of us who believe, we give you all the credit for opening our eyes.
Thank you for defeating our doubts. Lord, I can testify that since college, when
I was in that great fit of doubt, hearing what the liars had to say, you delivered me from doubt and I haven't doubted for these 20 some years.
And I pray in Jesus' name that every believer in this room would be delivered from their doubts, that they would have no doubt that Jesus is the
Christ, the son of God, who died and rose from the dead. Grant faith to your people.
And Lord, help us to hold on to our young people, those young and unstable in the faith. Help us to give them your word that they likewise would believe.
Thank you, Jesus, for saving us. In your name we pray, amen. You make it easy to love
You You are good and You are
God You bring joy into my life
You make it easy to trust You You have never left my side
You've been faithful every time All I want is
You Jesus, all
I want is You Huge I run to You You are the fire that leads me through the night
I'll follow You anywhere There's a million reasons to trust
You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
I'll follow You anywhere
Oh, Jesus, You came to my rescue
Took my place upon that cross You redeemed what
I had lost Now my whole world's revolving around You You're the center of my life
You're the treasure, You're the prize All I want is
I want is You You are the refuge that leads me through the night
There's a million reasons to trust You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
I'll follow You anywhere Wherever You lead me
Whatever it costs me All I want is
You Jesus, all I want is You Wherever You lead me
You Jesus, all I want is You All I want is
I want is You You are the refuge
I run to You are the fire that leads me through the night
You're the million reasons to trust You Nothing to fear for You are by my side
I'll follow You anywhere I'll follow
You anywhere I'll follow
You anywhere Now to Him who is able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think according to the power at work within us to Him be glory in the church and in Christ Jesus throughout all generations forever and ever