The Skeptic

Today on Summit Life with J.D.

Greer. You see, for those of you who struggle with data, I would just ask you this, have you ever considered the evidence for the resurrection? It's pretty overwhelming if you consider it by itself. And like I said, when people choose not to believe it, it's almost always not because the evidence is weak, it's because they got some secondary reason why it can't be true.

The evidence on its face is pretty convincing. Welcome to Summit Life, the Bible teaching ministry of pastor, author, and theologian, J.D. Greer. I'm your host, Molly Vidovich. Today we're continuing our series called Can't Believe. We're discovering some of the different barriers that might hold us back from truly giving our lives to God.

As always, if you've missed any part of this study, you can catch up on previous messages when you go to jdgreer.com. But right now, keep listening because we're going to learn how we can overcome doubts and fully trust in God, even when we don't completely understand. This might be one of the greatest barriers to saving faith. I just have too many doubts about who God is and what He can do. So if you're ready to tackle this one head on, grab your Bible and pen and let's get started.

Pastor J.D. titled this message The Skeptic. The subject of our weekend is doubts. And my guess is that whether you are a Christian or not, that you have dealt with doubt. Some of you who aren't Christians, I've known many people who aren't Christians over the years who come to this point where they feel like, well, I just have these questions about God and these things that are really difficult for me. And I guess nobody else has these questions. I guess I'm just not cut out for belief.

That is completely and totally not true. Every conscientious Christian that I have ever known has struggled with questions and doubts. We might believe differently, but we have a lot of the same questions.

Maybe it's questions about the Bible itself. You know, do you ever hear some stories from the Bible and you may never verbalize this in your small group, but you ever hear some of these stories and you think, really? I mean, really, like a worldwide flood and God destroyed the whole world and he saved one family in a wooden boat and in came the animals two by two and the hippopotamus and the kangaroo.

Really, did that actually happen? A Red Sea, God split the Red Sea and an entire nation walked through? Or what about the parts of the Bible that seem to contradict the other parts? Or what about difficult doctrines in the Bible, like hell? Or why, if there is a loving God, why the world seems to be in the condition that it's in?

Some of you watch the news and you're like, I don't see how there can be a loving God that rules the universe because if I were God, I would certainly keep these things from happening. There are questions about scientific discoveries and do they invalidate the Bible? Maybe we've just kind of gotten beyond the things that the Bible taught and that's, you know, that's just, we're more mature than that now. What about the dinosaurs?

Where did Cain get his wife? Or maybe you've had the feeling that some of the Bible's teachings about morality are just outdated or maybe just plain wrong. And you're like, why are Christians so hung up on all these rules about sex?

It doesn't seem to be hurting anybody. Or do you ever sometimes hear the Christian message and just think, really? I mean, sometimes those of us who have been in church for a while forget how strange that our core message actually is. You know, then you talk to somebody and they're like, okay, so you're telling me a guy who was born 2,000 years ago who saved the world by dying on a couple of sticks and he brought peace on earth even though there's been a ton of violence since then but one day he's going to come back and put the world right as he rides through the clouds on a white horse? You know, and you're like, you may never verbalize it. You're like, really? A white horse?

He's going to come on a white horse and he's going to put the world right again? You ever have some of those doubts? Some of you are like, I didn't realize I had any doubts until you just went through that list right there. Yeah, I get that. I get that. But the point is you have questions.

And I've had them too. And doubts are a reason that many people can't believe. I've known a lot of people over the years that would have liked to have believed but to do so they felt like they needed to turn their mind off and they didn't think that was the right thing to do and so they felt like they were held captive from belief by the doubts that they had.

We're going to look at one of the best can't believe stories of all time. It is the story of Thomas, Doubting Thomas. So if you got your Bible and you can still remember where the Gospel of John is, you can take it out now and open it to John chapter 20 where you're going to find the story of Thomas. John 20 24. I want to try to show you today how Jesus taught us to deal with our doubts. Now, mind you, I'm not saying how Jesus taught us never to doubt because that's not going to happen in this life. But how he taught us to deal with our doubts when they come.

Okay, you're not going to get rid of all of them but this is how you're supposed to deal with them. John 20 24. To be honest, I feel a little bit bad for Thomas because this is what Thomas is remembered for. Right, we even named it for him. Thomas, other disciples, Doubting Thomas, other disciples did not get named for their faults. Peter had a problem with fear but we don't call him Petrified Peter or Peter the pansy or, you know, Luke the lustful or James the judgmental.

Nobody else gets named for their flaw but Thomas did. Here's the story. Here's how it happened. If you want to skim back to the beginning of John 20, I'll just skim through the context for you. One of Jesus' followers named Mary Magdalene on Easter morning went to the tomb of Jesus to anoint the body and when she's walking there, she gets worried about how she's going to move this three-ton stone that is guarding the entrance to the tomb and there's also a Roman garrison that's standing guard but as she gets there, she notices the Roman garrison is gone and the stone has been rolled away so she peers inside and sees that the body of Jesus is gone which she assumes means that somebody's stolen the body because resurrection is not on her radar at all. So she runs back to the disciples. They were all huddled together in a room scared out of their minds thinking they're about to be crucified next and she tells them that the body's gone. Well, Peter and John run to the tomb and when they get there, see the stone rolled away.

John is so terrified that he won't even go in but Peter goes in and checks things out and there he notices a couple of things. One, the body of Jesus is missing. Number two, he notices that Jesus' headscarf that had wrapped his head and neck and upper torso is neatly folded and placed on the bench where Jesus' body had laid which showed him a couple of things. One, it showed him that this is not a burglary because thieves usually don't take time to tidy up after they're done. The other thing that it shows him is that a miracle has happened.

Actually, a couple miracles. One, Jesus' body has been resurrected. Number two, a single man has remembered to fold his clothes before he left which shows him that something divine is afoot and so he runs back and he tells the other disciples that you know that Jesus has been resurrected and the disciples sort of don't believe him so that night they're in the room by themselves still scared when Jesus, the door's locked, Jesus suddenly appears in their midst and reveals himself to them and most of the disciples believe. However, there was one disciple that was not present when that happened, Thomas. Thomas was out you know making a Starbucks run or whatever and he didn't get to see it so when he gets back and they tell him what they've seen, Thomas says, no, I don't believe that and he makes this statement in John 20 25. Look down in your Bible if you have it.

He says, no, unless I personally see in his hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Now, this has to be at the top of the things that you regret saying, right? Because I mean you say something stupid in small group and people make fun of you and forget about it in five minutes. Thomas says something stupid and it gets written down in the Bible so people could read about it for 2,000 years and he even gets named after it, all right? I feel bad for Thomas.

Here's the other reason I feel bad for him. Lots of people in the Gospels doubt it. You ever notice this? The Gospels are filled with stories of people who doubted starting with the one that Jesus called the greatest prophet of all time, John the Baptist. You remember John the Baptist, the crazy, wild-haired, wide-eyed, camel-frock wearing, homeless, living in the wilderness, eating locusts. In the middle of the Gospel of Luke, John the Baptist says, are you him or not? I thought you were the Messiah. I told everybody behold the Lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world but you're not doing what I thought you would do.

He doubted. James, Jesus's own brother. You read the Gospel of John halfway through the Gospel. James not only doubts Jesus. By the way, James would go on to write one of the books of the Bible, the book of James. James not only doubts Jesus, he actually publicly declares him to have lost his mind. One of my personal favorites, Matthew 28 17. As Jesus is ascending into heaven, here's what it says, when they saw him, they worshiped him but some doubted. I mean, how crazy is that? Here's Jesus resurrected from the dead.

He is levitating into the sky. Some of the disciples are like, yeah, I don't know. Maybe, maybe not.

I'm going to stay agnostic for a little while longer. The point is, a lot of people doubted. A lot of people doubted, not just Thomas.

In fact, here's what's significant. John tells Thomas' story last in the Gospel of John. Right before he gives the thesis statement of the book, you see, John's purpose in writing the Gospel was to give you stories of people who couldn't believe, who learned to believe, so that you will learn to believe. Here's how he summarizes the whole book. Look down in verse 30. 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.

All right? Well, John choose to put Thomas' story last, and when he does that, what he's saying is that Thomas is the best example in the whole Gospel of somebody who couldn't believe that learned to believe. Thomas, in fact, is going to make one of the clearest, boldest confessions of faith found anywhere in the Bible.

And for John, it's the ultimate can't believe story. That's why so many of you identify with it, because here's a guy who doubted, who learned to believe, so he puts it last. So I think you probably ought to not call Thomas doubting Thomas, but overcame my doubts and made one of the greatest confessions of faith in the New Testament, Thomas.

That's what I would prefer to rename you. You're welcome, Thomas. All right? Redeeming your reputation one sermon at a time. That's how you should probably think of him, and that's why you identify with him. So how did he do it? How did Thomas learn to overcome his doubts? Well, let's take a deeper look at Thomas.

All right? First, why was Thomas so stubborn to believe? I mean, 10 of his closest friends all told him the same thing.

For most of you, if 10 of your closest trusted friends told you the same thing, even if it was hard to believe, you would probably give them the benefit of the doubt. So why is Thomas so reticent to believe? Let me give you a couple of reasons, I think, that are conjecture, I will admit, but if you read the Gospel of John, I think these are totally legitimate. Here's the first reason Thomas was reticent to believe. Jesus had shattered just about every category Thomas had for what God was supposed to be like. Jesus had shattered every category for what Thomas thought God was supposed to be like. In Thomas's mind, when God's Messiah came, he would crush the wicked and he would reward the righteous.

But guess what? When Jesus showed up, he was the friend of the tax collector. He was the friend of the Roman.

He was the friend of prostitutes and sinners, and he was against the religious leaders of Israel. And Jesus was crucified. And Thomas could not understand how God would allow himself to be tortured and humiliated and die in nakedness on a cross. Thomas had no category for that, and it shattered every preconception he had about God.

Here's the second reason. Jesus had personally disappointed Thomas. You see, Thomas had left everything to follow Jesus, and when he did, everybody told him he was crazy. But when Jesus suddenly got snatched away and crucified, all of Thomas's friends were like, see, we told you, you were crazy for following that fool around. And Thomas was humiliated. Plus, Thomas, for three years, has bet his livelihood on Jesus.

He's walked away from his job. He went all in with Jesus, and now Jesus has disappointed him. Thomas's mind has been blown and his heart has been broken, and when your mind has been blown and your heart has been broken, it's really hard to believe.

Do you resonate with that, some of you? Isn't that where your doubts come from? Because God has done or not done some things that you thought he should have done. God is different than how you thought he would always be, and maybe God has disappointed you personally.

Maybe you thought he should have protected somebody and he didn't. Maybe you used to thought that he should have given you something that he didn't give you, and you're disappointed, and your mind is shattered, and your heart has been broken, and for the same reasons, you're having trouble believing. That's why we like Thomas so much. Let's pick up again in verse 26. 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 he said, Peace be with you. Which I find pretty humorous, because if a guy that you think's dead suddenly shows up in the middle of a locked room, the last emotion you're about to feel is peace. I mean, if I showed up at your bedside at three a.m. and you rolled over and looked at me, there I am, staring in your eyes, peace be with you. You're not gonna be feeling peace at that moment. Verse 27, then Jesus turns and says to Thomas, Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands.

Put out your hand and place it in my side. Thomas, do not disbelieve, but believe. First of all, how did Jesus know that Thomas had made those statements? Was Jesus present when Thomas made them?

No, he wasn't. But now Jesus resurrected is omniscient, which means he knows everything, and omnipresent, which means he's present everywhere. And so Thomas realizes that Jesus heard a conversation that Jesus wasn't present for, and he realized that Jesus knows things about him that no one else should know.

And so Thomas, feeling the weight of Jesus' omniscience and the weight of Jesus' omnipresence, falls on his knees and makes this statement in verse 28 where he looks up at Jesus and he says, my Lord and my God. By the way, if anyone ever tells you that Jesus never claimed to be God, that shows you he most certainly did. Anywhere else in the Bible that someone is called God who is not God, usually a couple of things happen.

One of two things happens. Either the person quickly denies that they are not God or everyone gets struck dead. Peter, Paul, the angel in Revelation, all of them were called God at one point, and all of them were like, no, no, no, don't call me God because that's going to get you and me both in trouble.

Worship God only. Yet when Jesus is called my Lord and my God, he doesn't say, oh, Thomas, yeah, I'm glad to see you too, but calm down a little bit. Jesus receives his worship because he is Lord and God, and he says this is the greatest confession of faith that's been made in the gospels. Verse 29, Jesus said to him, have you believed, Thomas, because you've seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Thomas would go on not just to believe in Jesus, but he would go on to die for Jesus. Church history tells us, and not all church history is infallible, but this is a pretty reliable tradition, that Thomas died in India as the first missionary to carry the gospel into India. In fact, when you fly into Chennai, there's a hill right beside the airport that has a little cathedral on top of it, and that is the hill that supposedly Thomas was martyred on.

He was speared to death by a pagan priest, and he's buried right there on that hill. That's the story of Thomas. Now, let me be totally honest with you and tell you something you may not be comfortable with a pastor admitting to you, and that is that when I doubted, or even when I doubt, for a while this passage never really helped me, because I would think, well, duh, if Jesus showed up, let me touch his wounds, I'd quit doubting too. Aren't you like that? You're like, yeah, if Jesus showed up in my room tonight, you know, it's like, show me his wounds, did a little miracle for me, private miracle ceremony, I would totally believe.

Or you're like, it wouldn't even take that, if he'd just send me an email twice a year, you know, if I got one from God at heaven.org that just gave me some instructions about, you know, like, do this, don't do that, stay away from this guy, he's trouble, I would totally believe. Right, you ever feel that? Fair enough. But think about what happened in this moment.

All right, think with me. All right, did Jesus answer any of Thomas's questions? Did he?

No. Did Jesus explain the reason for the crucifixion? Did Jesus explain why God had not done what Thomas thought God should have done?

No, he just revealed himself. And Thomas, listen, had to suspend his doubts and embrace what was revealed. In other words, Thomas, listen, in that moment, quit demanding explanation, and he submitted to revelation.

Now, you might say, why did Thomas get this vision and we don't? Because Jesus was appointing Thomas to be an apostle, and the requirement to be an apostle was that you had personally seen Jesus. We were to believe through the testimony of the apostles, listen, but the evidence that they gave us would be sufficient for all who had ears to hear. The evidence that the apostles would give would be sufficient to convince all of those who had the heart posture to believe. You see, when people don't believe, it is not because the evidence for Jesus' resurrection is not strong enough.

It is because they have some other reason, some other motive, some other question that makes them unable to believe the evidence that's there for the resurrection. Let me give you a couple examples of this, rather famous ones. Algius Huxley, who coined the term agnostic, which means, you know, I don't really know what to believe.

He wrote the book Brave New World. In 1937, a book called Ends and Means, here's what Huxley said, I had motives for not wanting the world to have a meaning, and so consequently assumed that it had none, and was able without any difficulty to find satisfying reasons for this assumption. The philosopher who finds no meaning in the world is not concerned exclusively with a problem in pure metaphysics. He is also concerned to prove that there is no valid reason for why he personally should not do as he wants to do.

For myself, as no doubt for most of my contemporaries, the philosophy of meaninglessness was essentially an instrument of liberation, liberation from a certain system of morality. Now, you know what he just said there? He didn't say that he's not intellectually convinced as an atheist, he is, but he's recognizing that prior to the reasons that convinced him atheism were true, prior to that, was a desire for it not to be true.

I'll give you another one. Bart Ehrman, our friendly neighborhood skeptic here at UNC Chapel Hill, says this, quote, in his book God's Problem, I think that if, in fact, God Almighty appeared to me and gave me an explanation, watch, that could make sense, of the slaughter of innocent children, and the explanation was so overpowering that I actually could understand, then I would be the first to fall on my knees in humble submission and admiration. Now, what he's admitted there, if you read that carefully, is that until he gets that explanation, listen, he is closed to, or at least biased against, any evidence that points to the resurrection. Because he says it couldn't possibly be true, because I'm not convinced there's an explanation to all these other questions.

You see what's going on there? What if Jesus actually showed up to one of these guys? And what if he appeared to him and said, I'm not going to give you the answer that intellectually satisfies you about why things are happening in the world the way they are?

And what if he says to Alguis Huxley, there is no question that you have to submit to my teachings on what is right and what is wrong about morality, even if you don't understand them, even if they offend you, and even if you hate them? Would you suspend your doubt and go forward then? You see, what we often call a head problem is really a heart problem. We don't want to surrender our understanding or our wills, and so our mind turns off any evidence that contradicts what we want to be true. Or in fact, you might say it like this, the mind will never accept what the heart has already rejected. The mind will never accept what the heart has already rejected. When Thomas said, my Lord and my God, what he was saying is, I know that I may not understand why you're doing what you do, but I understand who you are, and I will accept what I cannot understand based on what I can understand. You see, for those of you who struggle with that, I would just ask you this, have you ever considered the evidence for the resurrection?

It's pretty overwhelming if you consider it by itself. And like I said, when people choose not to believe it, it's almost always not because the evidence is weak, it's because they got some secondary reason why it can't be true. The evidence on its face is pretty convincing. You're listening to the first part of a message titled The Skeptic on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. We'll hear the conclusion tomorrow, but in the meantime, you can listen again or catch up on previous messages at jdgreer.com. Pastor J.D., our latest resource is a 20-day devotional that answers one of the most important questions we'll ever consider. What is the gospel? What should we expect from your new devotional? You know, Molly, my wife always finds it surprising how much I actually enjoy devotionals because I like the little kind of bite-sized things that in three or four minutes I can get my mind around a concept and something I meditate on throughout the day. It's one of the reasons we produce this.

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Box 122-93, Durham, North Carolina, 277-09. I'm Molly Vidovitch. Glad to have you with us. And be sure to listen again tomorrow when we return for the conclusion of this message titled The Skeptic on Summit Life with J.D. Greer. Today's program was produced and sponsored by J.D. Greer Ministries.