In the Dungeon of Doubt

Jesus doesn't fail to distinguish doubt from unbelief.

Doubt is honest. Unbelief is obstinate. Doubters have trouble understanding what God is doing. In fact, you want to know what God is doing. It's an indication you care about God. Unbelievers don't care what God is doing and you don't need to tell me. Doubt is looking for the light it knows exists.

Unbelief denies the light and is content to stay in the dark. Today on Wisdom for the Heart, Stephen Davey continues his exposition of Luke 7. As Jesus continued his earthly ministry, he was visited by representatives from his cousin, John the Baptist. John was unsure if Jesus really was the Messiah. Even though John the Baptist was commissioned to prepare the way for Jesus as the Messiah, even he had his doubts about Jesus. In this section of scripture, you'll watch as Jesus acknowledges his doubts, confirms his identity as Savior, and promises to be a help in time of trouble.

He is still that help for us today. John Bunyan was a pastor who lived in the mid-1600s. I've illustrated often from his writing. Because of his biblical convictions, he would be sent to jail on several occasions for preaching as an unauthorized pastor. And while serving time, he would end up writing several books.

His most famous one, published in 1678, was entitled The Pilgrim's Progress from This World to That Which is to Come, shortened now to Pilgrim's Progress. If you haven't read it, I recommend that you do. It's an extensive allegory where Bunyan writes about the experiences of a Christian.

In fact, that's his name. He comes to faith. We're at the cross. He heeds the warning that he's living in a city that will be judged. And he takes off and begins his journey toward the celestial city, which is heaven. His experiences along the way essentially reflect the trials and temptations of every Christian.

But John Bunyan includes in this allegory himself and reflects his own struggle primarily with his reoccurring battle over doubt. In one particular episode, Christian and Hopeful, his traveling companion, are traveling through a field. And they spend the night there out in the open asleep, only to be rudely awakened the next morning, captured by the giant despair who takes them to his doubting castle and throws them into a prison cell.

Over the course of several days, they are beaten regularly by the giant despair who enjoys making their lives miserable. Finally, one night, Christian and Hopeful are praying for help. And Christian remembers that when he had come to the cross early on and that burden of sin had fallen off his shoulders into the abyss, he had been given a key called promise. He remembers it at that moment and he pulls that key from his pocket and slips it into the lock of their cell door and it opens. He then uses the key again and again as they work their way to the outer edges of the castle. Finally, they reach the outer gate and it opens as well, though Bunyan in Wonderful Realism writes that that final gate was stubborn and hard to give way.

But finally it did and they ran for their lives back onto the king's highway. John Bunyan was revealing with transparency what every honest Christian I know acknowledges. A struggle at times with the giant despair and those moments when you feel incarcerated in doubting castle. Even William Carey, another man I illustrate often from his writings, the man called the founder of modern missions, I mean how great would that be?

Used wonderfully in India, planning churches, starting schools, in fact that country's first university. He writes this in 1794, I am defective in all my duties. In prayer I wander, I soontire, my devotion languishes, my soul is a jungle when it ought to be a garden. I am perhaps the most inconsistent Christian I can scarcely tell if I have the grace of God or not. Warren Wiersbe writes, it isn't unusual even for great spiritual leaders to have their days of doubt and uncertainty. Moses wanted to quit as did Elijah and Jeremiah.

But then he adds this really insightful comment. There is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is a matter of the mind and emotions when we cannot understand what God is doing or why he's doing it.

But unbelief is a matter of the will, the will that refuses to believe God's word no matter what he says or does. I want to show you that lived out in the life of a great spiritual leader who is now languishing in a literal dungeon accompanied by despair and doubt. He happens to be the last Old Testament prophet. And he's imprisoned because he courageously told King Herod that he was sinning and having taken his own brother's wife as his own. And of course that wife isn't going to appreciate that sermon and she grows to hate him with a vengeance. In a matter of months she'll succeed, at least earthly speaking, and his head will be delivered to her on a platter.

Well I want to go to John's prison cell where he has been incarcerated and let's learn some things about overcoming Doubting Castle. We're in Luke's Gospel. If you're new to our study, let's back up here to verse 14 and get a running start to sort of set the scene as Jesus interrupts this funeral. Then he, Jesus, came up and touched the beer and the pallbearers stood still and he said, Young man, I say to you, arise.

And the dead man sat up and began to speak and Jesus gave them to his mother. Fear seized them all and they glorified God saying, A great prophet has arisen among us and God has visited his people. And this report about him, Jesus, spread through the whole of Judea and all the surrounding country. Now at verse 18. The disciples of John reported all these things to him and John, calling two of his disciples to him, sent them to the Lord saying, Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another? And when the men had come to him, they said, John the Baptist has sent us to you saying, these are John's words, this is John's question, by the way, Are you the one who is to come or shall we look for another?

Now let's understand just a little background before we accuse John of utter faithlessness. John had lived his entire life in the outdoors. His diet had been locusts and honey. He wore rough tunic made of camel's hair with a leather belt.

He probably tanned himself. He would rather be outdoors than anywhere. He's been incarcerated now for a year and a half, about 18 months. He's in a prison cell located in the fortress of Makaris, near the coast of the Dead Sea.

Can't imagine a more discouraging place than this castle dungeon. John has evidently grown disillusioned, confused, discouraged during this year and a half. I mean, just think for a moment with me of all that he expected. He had preached that the golden age of the kingdom of God was dawning, right? He was the one who had introduced Jesus.

He announced, here he is, the Lamb of God, but he also preached. He's got a winnowing fork in his hand and he's going to separate the chaff. He's going to burn it in fire. That's a picture of the wrath and judgment of God.

That's what Jesus is going to do. So now, a year and a half later, where's the fire? Where's the wrath of God? Where's the conquering king? Where's the dawning of the golden age? Herod is still on the throne, looks to me. Rome is still in charge.

What in the world is going on? See, we often overlook the fact that at this point in time, you and I happen to know more about the prophetic timeline with our completed Bibles than John could have ever imagined. We know now that his announcement and the coming of that fire has been separated now at least 2,000 years. He would have never imagined that, nor did any prophet in the Old Covenant. The church was unknown to them. And keep in mind as well that he struggled with the identity even after he'd been through all he had been through, but so did the disciples.

So let's not be too hard on him. In fact, if you've ever been in a place in your life, maybe you're there right now where you're wondering what in the world is God doing or where in the world did God go? I want you to remember John when none of this made sense to him.

So eventually he sends two of his disciples and he says, guys, I want you to go find Jesus and I want you to ask him one question. And I want you to hear, because I do in this question, just pathos, just raw emotion. It makes you want to weep when you hear it. Are you the expected one? Or are we to expect, you could translate it, someone else?

Isn't that what creates the iron bars in Doubting Castle? Are we expected? God is doing something in your life that you didn't expect. God is not doing something in your life that you would expect. In fact, God isn't doing anything that you expected in your life.

None of it makes any sense. I'm so grateful that God was transparent enough in the record of Scripture that he gives us this conversation. I mean, I would have probably ended it back with John's fiery sermon period and he moves off the scene.

This is it. These are his last words. Jesus responds here in verse 22, go and tell John what you have seen and heard. The blind receive their sight, the lame walk, lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised up, the poor have good news preached to them. By the way, don't miss the point that Jesus does not tell them, you go back and tell John I'm ashamed of you. Why in the world are you saying, how could you say, should I be looking for someone else? I mean, after all you've been through, you announced me, you introduced me, you baptized me, you saw the dove come down, you heard the voice of my Father from heaven.

What more could I do for you? You're questioning? No, Jesus in his response here, I love this, just simply says well let's just go over the promises again. See, what Jesus does in this response is deliver four different texts from the prophet Isaiah. In fact, passages that John had preached, Isaiah chapter 26 verse 19, the dead shall rise, their bodies shall live. Isaiah 29 18, in that day the deaf shall hear. Isaiah 35 verse 5, the eyes of the blind shall be opened.

Isaiah 61 verse 1, the poor shall have the gospel preached to them. Jesus is essentially saying John, remember the promise, I'm it, I'm doing it, your disciples are seeing it, it's taking place, it's happening, it's not on your timetable, it's going to be different than what you expected, but the promises are true. And then he says here in verse 23, this last word to John, his last words to him are tender, blessed is the one who is not offended by me. Evidently these quotations from Isaiah, while they did not set John physically free, they set his mind and heart free.

He remained faithful until his death. Now just in case somebody in the crowd might get the idea that Jesus is rebuking John, Jesus sets the record straight with an amazing tribute. He reminds the crowd that when they went out to hear John preach, what was he? He wasn't a reed shaking in the wind, verse 24, that is he wasn't a man yielding the popular opinion without any conviction, was he? Verse 25, Jesus says John wasn't bending under the pressure of the powerful and the rich, he couldn't be bribed, he wasn't going to be pampered, softened by the luxuries of life. Jesus says to the crowd here in verse 26, John was the prophet of God, and by the way, not just any prophet.

He goes on to notice, you'll notice the quotation, that's from Malachi chapter 3 and verse 1, he came to introduce the Messiah, the coming king. But then notice the encouragement Jesus adds here in verse 28, I tell you among those born of women, none is greater than John, yet the one that is among you who is least in the kingdom of God, weakest, smallest, is greater than he. Just as Thomas was blessed by believing in the resurrected Lord only after he saw him, you remember what Jesus said, you know, how much more blessed is the one who believes in me having never seen.

We don't feel more blessed, frankly, I'd like to see him, but he said we are. Now he says, you know, John has seen all the evidence and all of these signs, but how much greater is your faith? John saw me, John baptized me, John heard a voice from heaven.

I kind of like that. He says, no, your faith is greater because you've never heard that voice audibly or seen Jesus face to face. Well with that, the crowd, they're immediately polarized and on one hand you have all the sinners, you know, all those tax collectors and people that are readily admitting they are sinners. We're told here in verse 29, they went out, they were immersed by John demonstrating their repentance, admitting they're sinners. On the other hand, he got all these religious leaders that would never admit they're sinners, so they're not about to be baptized by John the prophet with his symbol of repentance, which is immersion out here in Jordan. So Jesus now turns to the crowd of unbelievers and he delivers a rather pointed message. Verse 31, to what then shall I compare the people of this generation and what are they like?

What do you unbelievers like out here? He says, you're childish. That's what he means. You're sitting in the marketplace calling to one another, let's play a game. We played a flute for you, you did not dance.

We sang a dirge and you did not weep. What Jesus is doing is comparing the unbelievers to childish little babies as it were. They're playing their games, but then they're unhappy. You're not playing the way I want you to play it. I don't like this game anymore. One author said the text reminded him of the time when he was growing up, one of the boys in the neighborhood always made the rest of us kids play his special brand of baseball. We had to use his rules and that was because he owned the bat.

So if you didn't play the way you wanted, give me my bat, I'm going home. See, Jesus refers to children playing a game in the marketplace, either pretending to be in a funeral or pretending to be in a wedding and these religious leaders just won't play. Nothing makes them happy.

Nothing cheers them up. Nothing is good enough. And verse 33 seems to apply to John being the funeral director. Why? Because his message was doom and gloom. His sign was death to self immersion. We don't believe him. He's got a demon, Jesus says. You said he had a demon.

Okay. My ministry began at a wedding and really it's been a lot of wonderful, joyful occasions since then. One feast after another, healing and resurrections and well, he says to them here, you say I'm a glutton and a drunkard.

So on either spectrum, a funeral and a wedding and everything in between, you stomp your feet like babies, you can't be satisfied. Wow. I'm sure they love this sermon. Jesus then concludes with this pointed statement in verse 35. He says, look, you just need to wait. Be patient.

This is more to us than them. Wisdom will be justified in the end. The truth will be proven right in the end. Just wait. We're still waiting. Two thousand years later, we're waiting. Generations of believing children are going to grow up and follow true wisdom. Think about it. Even now, millions of people around the globe know the name of Jesus.

Even though to them it might be a swear word. But I guarantee if you go out there on the sidewalk in this town, you won't find one person that probably even knows one name of one of these religious leaders. So it is already being vindicated in a way. Their problem wasn't doubt. It was unbelief. Unbelievers have trouble understanding what God is doing. In fact, the fact that that troubles you, you want to know what God is doing, is an indication you care about God. Unbelievers don't care what God's doing and you don't need to tell me.

There's a vast difference. In 1887, Henry Drummond wrote on this text, Jesus doesn't fail to distinguish doubt from unbelief. Doubt is honest. Unbelief is obstinate. Doubt is looking for the light it knows exists.

Unbelief denies the light and is content to stay in the dark. While most people are familiar with Doubting Castle and Pilgrim's Progress, the first book actually written by John Bunyan when he was imprisoned 12 years earlier is lesser known. I also recommend you read it. It's called Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners.

It's just a little paperback about 60 pages. This is his spiritual autobiography. And again, one of the recurring themes in this little book is his struggle with doubt and discouragement. He repeatedly leads you back to the key of promise, which is the Word of God.

Let me read you just a little paragraph from this. He writes this, I had no sooner begun to recall my experiences of the goodness of God than there came flooding into my mind the remembrance of my sins, especially my coldness of heart, my weariness in doing good, my lack of love for God, his ways, his people and along with these sins came this question, are these the fruits of a true Christian? I became sick in my inward man and my experiences of God's goodness were taken from my mind as though they had never existed. As I was walking up and down in my house in the most dreadful state of mind, the promise of God came to my heart, you are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. Romans 3.24.

You are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus. What a promise and what a turn this made that day upon me. Oh, what a change it made. Have you ever thought about the fact that John's disciples never came back to Jesus in the weeks that he had left? After delivering these verses to John from the book of Isaiah at this point in his life that was enough. And I want to tell you that you and I escape Doubting Castle time and time the same way. Not by some heroic, you know, deed, not by some heroic act of faith where we kill the giant. Let me tell you, that giant is going to chase you and me all the way to the celestial city. We don't overcome it by some inner determination.

I'm going to get better. Yeah, we want to please him. Like Paul, our ambition is to please the Father. He grieves us.

Well, we don't. No, we escape by reaching again and again for the key, which is the Word of God helplessly, weakly. We reach again. Beloved, don't forget to use your key. So are you learning this key? Are you memorizing this key? Are you praying this key?

Are you a close friend of this key? Is it close to you, as it were, in your pocket as you walk with Christ? One author, after reading John Bunyan's writings, wrote this prayer many years ago. I have already prayed it for you today. Here it is, and with this I close. Lord, we pray for every believer caught by despair, whose struggles and grief locked in doubting castles, dungeons, stripped of hope and its relief. Father, help them to remember that your promise is the key that unlocks the cell that holds them, and by your truth sets them free.

Thanks for joining us today here on Wisdom for the Heart. Steven Davey is in a series called Demonstrations of Resurrection Power. This message is called In the Dungeon of Doubt.

During the month of April, we have a free resource that we're making available. Steven has a booklet called Resurrection Power. In the time it would take you to read that booklet, over 400 people across the world will enter eternity. That's why Jesus claimed to be the resurrection and the life is such good news. This resource will help you or your friends understand Jesus' resurrection power. This is a free digital download that you can access from our website. Go to wisdomonline.org for information. Get your free resource today, then join us again next time here on Wisdom for the Hearts.