Northside Church - Sydney
Roadblocks Week 1: DOUBTS – What if I have them?
You're listening to another great message from Northside Community Church. Hey, I love National Geographic. National Geographic on foxtail, not the magazines, that was sort of old school and I love watching the documentaries on National Geographic because they have all sorts of incredible things and one of them was, for me, a whole hour and a half program of someone, after years and years of various research and that sort of stuff claiming that the moon landing was indeed a conspiracy, it was a fake, it was something that the US government had just drummed up, they'd made up all sorts of photographs and they'd all sorts of police and attachments to stop the guys from looking like they're on earth and it was all one big conspiracy and I don't know where you stand at the spectrum of moon landing conspiracies, but for me by the end of an hour and a half, there was at least a little bit of a 1% chance in my mind that that could be true and what is ironic is, regardless of all the evidence for the Apollo moon landings that has been taken in America, that say between 6 and 20% of Americans surveyed believe that the man landings were faked rising to 28% in Russia, that means one in three Russians are running around thinking that man never walked on the moon, even after space shuttles have gone there and taken photos and all that sort of stuff, now what am I getting at here, is it just me or are we living in an increasingly skeptical culture, it's just, it can't be true, there's all this skepticism and conspiracy theories and doubt really is all of our problem, whether you're a Christian or not tonight, we live on this continuum of skepticism, whether it's 1% or 28% if you're in Russia, we live in this world of increasing doubt and skepticism and the question for us in this new series is where does that leave Christianity, I was the whole cross thing faked, Christian set up some backdrops down there in Calvary or was it the real deal, you see it's part of the reason for this next six week series called Roadblocks, we're going to look at some of the roadblocks, the barriers to belief in Christianity, now it's based on the book by Tim Keller, the reason for God, a book that is profoundly shaped, my Christianity, last year as I was reading through this, it's 15 bucks from Kirong, I really encourage you to grab a copy of this over the next six weeks and read through this and we'll really leverage off many of the key concepts in this book but why, why look at this sort of stuff, well look first of all it's a great opportunity to invite your mates who might be a bit skeptical, I can't answer the moon landing stuff but we are going to be able to talk about what the Bible says to some of the great objections in the Bible but also for you if you're a Christian it's an opportunity to strengthen your faith, to strengthen your faith and your ability to speak into a world that's so skeptical and so we'll be looking at these barriers to belief, barriers like exclusivity is Jesus the only way to God, barriers like hell, why does God seem so angry all the time, barriers like truth, you know why is it that Christians seem to claim that they've got truth on everything, aren't there lots of different truths, suffering, if God is so good then why does he allow bad things to happen to good people in this world, why does he allow it to go on, now there's a common theme, there's a common thread through each and every one of these objections, these roadblocks and that is doubt and that's what we look at first tonight, it's doubt at the heart of this general objection that we might hear from friends and family members and coworkers is this, I've got one or two doubts about Christianity so therefore how can God exist, how can it be true and tonight we'll learn, we'll learn about doubt, two simple things, your need for doubt and what you can do with doubt and we go to a guy in John's Gospel that is Mr doubt himself, Thomas and so in John chapter 20 verses 30, 20 sorry, 24 through to 30, it says here that Jesus appears to Thomas, now Thomas called Dinnamis one of the 12 was not with the disciples when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him we've seen the Lord but he said to them unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side I will not believe it, a week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them and though 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 see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side stop doubting and believe Thomas said to him my Lord and my God and then Jesus told him because you have seen me you've believed the blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Travolta is known for many great movies staying alive, Greece, one they might not have seen because it went straight to TV movie was the boy in the bubble and in that movie, Portravolta was a young boy who was born with an improperly functioning immune system and so therefore if he had any contact with the air around him then it would kill him and so he had to live in this plastic bubble in incubator type conditions and part of the whole movie tracks his desire to move out into the outside world and the impending fear that this outside world and contact with air would pierce his precious bubble and kill him and he inevitably falls in love with the girl next door Gina and at the end of after having this discussion with his doctor realizes he's just going to take the risk and he gets out of his bubble and he rides off into the sunset on the back of a horse. I love TV movies. I was what I want to say tonight first thing you need to know is you need doubts in your faith. You need doubts because a faith without doubts is like a body without antibodies in it without thinking through the objections to the faith that has the ability to crumble our faith underneath us. You know I think about the concept of vaccination. I mean that is a ludicrous concept right that you would inject the very disease that has a potential to kill you into a five-year-old child and yet we do it all the time. We inject the very things that could kill you and crumble you and yet it gives the body its ability to build up its defenses, to build up its defenses against this attack from the outside guys you need doubt because to do so we could potentially have a faith that crumbles underneath us and look it is one of the saddest things of my ministry thus far to have watched people that I call close friends who are no longer in the church because the doubts and the probing questions of a friend or a family member has crumpled their faith. You need doubt. You need doubt because people who go through life too busy to stop and reflect about the objections to the faith will pretty much find themselves defenseless against these probing questions and the faith will crumble. Now not only that but if you witness the alternative to people that don't have a solid foundation defense for their faith they often are the Christians that become let's be real downright obnoxious. They're the ones yelling at people and having to go at people because frankly people like that who adopt that a stance where attack is really the best defense. If you're not confident in the foundation and the defense for your own faith then that's why Tim Keller says we often don't reason with the other side we attack. Why? Because we're afraid the bubble is going to burst. We're afraid we're going to have contact with the big bad outside world and and somehow these pathogens that are going to come into the very heart of our faith and we become little Christian bubble boys and girls. We're afraid to venture out into the wide world. Look see this is why we're doing this series guys. It's why we're talking through this topic be called apologetics where it deals with the defense of the faith because tonight it's about faith vaccinations. These connect group studies that we're going to have over the next five weeks in these roadblocks books when we go through our connection group studies throughout the young adult groups. I tell you what these things are not. These things are not holy hand grenades to go lobbing at your friends that don't believe. This is not a book full of ammunition that you can go start shooting people with and you've seen those sorts of Christians right? They have all their rote learned little answers and they want to go and hit people with that? No it's vaccinations guys. That's what we're doing. It's vaccination timers will become more aware of the roadblocks to Christianity and not only that our own doubts as we become more aware of our own doubts in the faith and our faith doesn't get weaker it gets stronger. So here's a side note too how did Jesus react when he was confronted by a doubting Thomas? Did he walk in like a stunned mullet or like a magician who's had his tricks exposed? He said here are my hands. Take a look Thomas he challenged him to look at the evidence. He challenged Thomas to look at the facts that were before him. In fact there's another great passage in Mark chapter 9 verses 24 where Jesus comes to a guy who who is got a boy that is demon possessed and the disciples can't get rid of this demon in the boy and Jesus comes along and he says oh you unbelievable generation and the father pleads with Jesus he says do something if you can. Jesus sort of says if I can anything's possible with those who believe and the guys says to him Jesus I believe help my unbelief and then Jesus heals the kid. What does that say about the presence of doubt and faith? He said I believe it help my unbelief did Jesus say look go back to your homework. Work on it a bit more. You need doubts in your faith. Jesus challenged Thomas in the midst of his doubts and here's the important thing I want you to get tonight. We must recognize particularly if you're a Christian because we're not going to be over there with this. It's okay to have doubts. It's okay to have an aspect of doubt within your faith. The doubts are healthy of what makes us stronger. So now the question is if we know that we need doubts what do you do with them? What do you do with your doubts? Well the first thing you can do is doubt your doubts and we'll get to this in a second. Have you ever heard had someone say to you look I can't believe in that Christianity stuff. I can't believe I'm not gullible like you faith guys. I'm a smart person I understand what's going on. You know look nonsense we've all got faith. We've got fierce faith in lots of things. You guys have got a lot of faith in the chairs that you're sitting in right now. We're placing our faith in all sorts of things every day without thinking about it and see I put it to you tonight guys that the reasons why some people or we can't believe in Jesus is not that because we're incapable of faith but because we've already got our faith locked up in and something else. Faith in our achievements faith in our circumstances faith in our bank balance and so in that way here's the thing the presence of doubt in your life is not a lack of faith it's just faith in an alternate belief. Doubt in belief A is actually faith in belief B. You get what I'm saying. Let me take you back a couple of steps and we go through the empty tomb when Jesus right before this passage had appeared to Mary Magdalene at the at the tomb she looks in she sees it's empty and the angels come up to her and say woman why are you crying who is it that you're looking for and then and then she turns around and see him confusing him with the gardener says sir if you've carried him away tell me where you've put him and I'll get him and Jesus said to her Mary and she turned to him and cried out an Aramaic wrap on eye which means holy cow that doesn't it means teacher I was just checking if you're reading with it but see well what is what is going on there look if you've got him tell me where he is you know what Mary is thinking she's thinking something that was really common in Jerusalem in there she looked in the empty tomb she thinks grave robbery and this is someone that had been with him and lived with him and sat with him and heard on the how on the third day the son of man must rise again and yet at that point doubt in belief A was actually faith in belief B doubt in the resurrection was actually a stronger faith in grave robbery so doubt is not a lack of faith it's just a faith in in alternate belief and so when some people say oh doubt Christianity and because they're saying oh there's you know there's no moral absolutes or there can't just be one truth in the world there's lots of truth you know part of our questioning to that is well how can you prove that that's something we'll process in the coming weeks but how can you prove that you see doubts often are just inherited unprovable beliefs and so on one hand we must acknowledge our doubts as Christians but you know and also so that we're not believers just on the basis of mum and dance faith and what they told us that's why we should look at the faith but on the other hand those who don't believe in Christianity must also check to see that they themselves haven't inherited that alternate belief like for example you know it could have be possible that atheism is an inherited belief atheism the belief that there's no god can you really 100% prove that there's no god I mean mr dorkins himself the author of the god delusion in he's talking about the spectrum of the realistic theistic probability in his book describes himself as a de facto atheist in fact he's got a cool little scale from one to six of some of the ways that it can be an atheist and number six the de facto one has a very low probability of god but short of zero and so he says here I don't know for certain but I think god is very improbable and I live my life on the assumption that he is not there did you guys just hear that I live my life on the assumption that he's live my life on the assumption what's that faith dorkins himself mr atheism himself is saying I live my life on faith and so doubt actually is as Kelle says doubt's actually a leap of faith in and of itself and therefore if anyone's out there saying I'd love to believe in Jesus but I'm skeptical and I'm suspicious and I'm doubtful that we need to ask him this question maybe you need to ask yourself this question if you're skeptical of Christianity are you applying as much skepticism to the alternate belief under your doubts as you are that you're demanding from Christianity in other words are you are you requiring the same evidence of your alternate belief then you are of Christianity itself it's the only fair way to treat Christianity has dorkins done all his research I'm sure he's a research guy but he's still a de facto atheist very low probability but short of zero so guys therefore you need to doubt your doubts when you analyze your doubts when you analyze the belief under your doubts you often find that they're not as strong as you first thought and in that we recognize that whether Christian or non-Christian like Richard himself we're all people of faith we're all people of faith so you've got to doubt your doubts but here's the thing where if we're people of faith then it's not the size that matters but where you directed I learned that the hard way in Mount Useli sort of north of Wollongong if you guys ever been up Mount Useli very steep part of the world and it was all right because at the time I was it wasn't that good I was driving a 1963 MGB convertible at 11 o'clock at night in the middle of the rain and as I was pouring up in third gear up Mount Useli there I began to get a bit of a shutter and look at the gauge everything looked fine there got another shutter well it's not feeling too good pumped the accelerator bit more until good rain's pouring down everywhere it's almost like the prayer meeting on Thursday and um and I get out of the car I I I go through all my mind of the things that could have happened because the gauge has fallen yet I went down I grabbed a spanner out of the boot and then I went and sort of shimmy underneath the back of the car and tapped on the tank and dink dink dink dink and this wonderful echo and rumbled of an empty fuel tank I was out of petrol and so in that sense it's not about the size of your faith but it's the size or the capability of the object of your faith and so I had an incredible faith in my fuel gauge that night over when I got through and and and and when it failed me I realized that I could have had the biggest faith in the world and that wouldn't have saved me from those conditions and so let me try and put another way for you faith is like a light switch it's it's the connected to the power like look lights come on not because the switch is powerful but because the switch is connected to the power source right faith acts exactly the same way you don't need to have a powerful faith but faith in that which is powerful are you with me. So guys faith is always a transfer of trust not a creation of trust you know Kierkegaard said it's a leap to faith not a leap of faith you don't have to try and conjure up all this faith you just need to trust redirect your trust trust in what faith from the biblical perspective in what Jesus has done not what he said look you guys know how the modern thinking goes right people say look I look I can't believe all the legendary stuff all the legends to do with Jesus you know his birth and his death and his resurrection but I know it's important to believe in his teaching you know love people and live a good life and heal the world and all that sort of stuff but look the disciples the disciples Mary was out of a brain Thomas and the rest of the boys were out of their brain when he died and they were the ones who lived and breathed with him they're the ones who saw the miracles they're the ones who tasted the wine at the party they're the ones that saw the incredible things in his life in that their life was a mess why because it's not abstract principles that change people's lives it's relationships and so only until Mary had that encounter with the guy who wasn't the gardener and Thomas had the encounter with the Jesus that somehow got in the room even though the doors were locked realized that they could reestablish a relationship with a risen lord that's where the power is look what's the gospel the gospel is not healed the world make it a better place for you and for me and the entire human race I mean Michael Jackson's already preached that that's not the gospel is not what would Jesus do live the good life love the good life the gospel is what is Jesus done I'm saved on the basis of his work not my work I'm saved not on the basis of my behavior but his behavior I'm saved on the basis not on my goodness but his goodness and so here's the thing Christianity if you're wondering tonight doesn't tell you to put your faith in Jesus's teaching but in what he's done in the in the and this is the fact that you'll have to reconcile that what the Bible says to you tonight is that there is a person from outside of time who stepped into time and died for your sins and overcame death and showed us that there is more to this life than a bunch of atoms that will degrade and fall into the earth who return to judge the living and the dead here's your king here's your savior and you can believe in those facts you can know those facts you can know him tonight and he will transform your life I heal the world the important thing is not what did Jesus teach but what did Jesus do and so my question to tonight is what do the petrol gauges of your life look like can you really trust him can you can you be absolutely sure that the tank's not empty while your faith in your own competence says that it's full therefore the Christian is the one who simply transferred their trust away from their own gauge into God's gauge it's not about the power of your faith it's not about the size of your faith it's how you direct it doubt your doubts direct your faith and finally guys you've got to drop your conditions what did Thomas first say said to them the boys they've told him all the story the back in the room I would have felt a little bit left out because they all got the cool resurrection appearance he didn't get anything and I can relate to this guy he said unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were and put my hand into his side I will not believe it and yet the funny thing is that almost every commentator says it's possible but most commentators believe that Thomas never touched Jesus and yet we see a statement that says my Lord it's really not a fair just as a side it's not the fairest of labels or stereotypes we could give him could be doubting Thomas it didn't doubt for very long I realized when I was reading through this passage I mean it was immediate my Lord and in fact John was pointed that this is one of the greatest professions of faith that you see in the entire Bible and 2000 years later he still regarded as doubting Thomas can't even break back to it here what's what's happening what's what's happening he didn't touch him what war was happening Thomas dropped his conditions Thomas had conditions for belief in Jesus he said remember unless I sealed the nail marks in his hands I'll put my finger where the nails were then I won't believe it I won't believe Jesus until Jesus does X for me I won't believe Jesus until Jesus does X for me have you ever heard that before we do it all the time I won't believe God unless he does X for me I won't I won't believe God until he does X for me you know what's happening here whatever your X is is what you really have faith in faith is never the creation of trust remember it's a transfer of trust and so Thomas's first thing he did is he dropped his X not his ex-girlfriend I'm talking about that thing that it was for him his condition that he'd said I'd be said to the boys unless I see and put my fingers in there I won't believe it and here's the thing he did not touch so guys what is your X tonight we all have them unless God shows up gives me a cracker career unless God gets rid of this pain of unforgiveness that I'm feeling unless God blesses me financially unless God just shows himself to me gives me an angel or something like that then X and I've got to wonder tonight sometimes is it really about doubt or is it about the right to control your own life because you can't read through this book and you can't encounter this resurrected Jesus and still have that claim over your life when you encounter him and everything that he stands for I put it to you I've been processing my mind if he turned up himself would it would it change things for me he sat in my office there with the marks and hands because it's look I can't trust myself as a three-year-old kid I'm sure none of you guys sort of did this but you know you'd want to go off and play and your parents would say to you know not until you've cleaned your room and as a kid you'd look at him for a little bit and then you'd just turn around and go the other way and so they're just the boss person that's telling what to do and I don't want to do them go my way and then and yet some of us see God in that way and I think if he even turned up here on this stage tonight maybe people still wouldn't believe because it's about control and not necessarily doubt you see gospel's not just about intellect but it's about heart effect of course his content of the gospel of course there's facts of course his truth but it's a power that comes into your life and it transforms you and it changes who you are and the thing is you can't argue someone into the kingdom of God can't argue someone into the faith until it becomes real for them the way it became real for Thomas look at verse 27 again put your finger here see my hands reach out your hand and put it into my side stop doubting believe and after all that guys he never touched him what was going on how did he overcome the doubt how it could have been a dream it could have been a hallucination if he didn't touch could have been just like the moon landing here's what went on guys Thomas like any other person that calls himself a Christian tonight after he stared into those wounds realized that Christianity is the faith of personal pronouns that is he looked in those wounds and he thought did he do that for me and he said my lord guys if you if you come to the Bible if you come to church if you come to a friend and you say that Jesus yep I believe Jesus was born and Jesus lived and Jesus died and Jesus ascended and Jesus is coming back that doesn't make you a Christian but if you come and say Jesus was born for me Jesus lived for me Jesus died for me Jesus ascended for me Jesus is coming back for me then that's what makes you 40 of feet and say my lord the gospel is not about intellect a three-year-old can understand it but it's about heart effect and so it's not an overly complicated set of propositions that these guys including Thomas witnessed a risen Christ it's not that intellectual rather it is the way up all the evidence that we have had today in the church and the history that is our wonderful rich history the fact that Jesus being resurrected was as ludicrous back to first century Palestinians as it is for us today looking at the facts we have to account for a movement that within a hundred years of its beginning turned what was known at the ends of the world totally and utterly upside down I mean after 64 million hits the Coney video hasn't even done that this week it's a power and it means if you want a bit of that world-changing power you need to dump your ex you got to drop your conditions on him god I'll only believe if ex what is it guys let me finish with this blaze pascal the philosopher and scientist and mathematician came up with a thing that's called pascal's wager he was a scientist that was pondering the questions of the universe and particularly this issue of doubt in Christianity and he came up with this final conclusion god is or he is not a game is being played where heads or tails will turn up according to reason you can defend neither of the propositions you must wager it's not optional let us weigh the gain and the loss in wagering that god is well let us estimate these two chances if you gain you gain all if you lose you lose nothing wager then without hesitation that he is there is here an infinity of an infinitely happy life to gain a chance of gain against a finite number of chances of loss and what you stake is finite and so our proposition is of infinite force when there is the infinite to stake in a game where there are equal risks of gain and loss the infinite is to gain held truth exclusivity was the world created in seven days wasn't not created in seven days there will be doubts but we are at a junction point where even a scientist and a mathematician like pascal says even if the whole thing was a game there is infinitely more to gain that is the story of the entire bible jesus christ said i have come to give you life and life to the full don't leave your decision just on the toss of a coin like pascal did look at the evidence listen to the apostles read through the stories it'll come alive for you guys you have everything to gain by transferring a trust in jesus christ tonight i can't do it for you nor am i here to argue with you two into it but i'm going to ask you is doubt one of your roadblocks to belief in christianity is doubt crippling your christianity then i just got to ask you have you been vaccinated maybe realize guys tonight the doubts are okay and more importantly friends to call each other christians let's not be lazy christians let's think let's reason let's find a best way a best and only way to win the world not out of attack because we have no defense but of gentleness and humility and one of the great reasons for our belief have you been vaccinated are you doubting your doubts may you recognize that you haven't got a faith issue tonight you've got faith in lots of things if you want faith in jesus christ the question is are you treating christianity fairly are you being just as sceptical as of your non-belief as you are in belief in jesus christ tonight do you need to redirect that most of all guys do you need to drop your conditions what's your ex we all got one may the truth of the gospel move you from the mere intellectual to the heart effectual it's the only way it's going to happen if something is stirred deep within you tonight if you've been asking lots of questions keep asking questions there's going to be an opportunity for that tonight but there's going to be an opportunity for you to place your faith in jesus christ realign that trust and gain absolutely everything that there is through faith in him let's pray heavily father we thank you for your revelation to us through the person of jesus christ well we pray for a church in a community tonight that reasons and that thinks and that processes those challenging questions and objections to the faith father i pray for those tonight that might still have those questions i pray for anyone here tonight that wouldn't call themselves a christian and might they see that in this place is a place of love and a warmth and of acceptance and a place in which it's okay to doubt and it's okay to ask questions and it's okay to process these bigger picture of the incredible work that you've done in this universe for father we pray for friends we pray for family we pray for co-workers that over these next six weeks over this next year the father you will all day and opportunities for us to share the greatest story in the world that there is a god that he's broken into this place in the person of jesus christ we can place out trust in him and get started on the greatest adventure we'll ever experience for all of eternity and be with us all this week reveal more of us more of you to us father god through your holy spirit and we pray this now in the name of jesus amen