Encounter Jesus:
Doubt Destroyed

Pastor Burcham’s Sermon

Easter Service, April 8, 2007

[Video-Pastor Burcham] “They just simply can’t match the price that he’s offering to me. What do you think?” “Can you believe the deals you can get just from the comfort of your own home? I mean, it’s amazing. I’ve been watching this stuff for hours. Just when I don’t think the deals can get any better, they do. All this for $19.99 and then they throw a bunch of more stuff in. The only thing is they say this is Once in a Lifetime and I only have 20 seconds left. Should I call?” “Wow. I just received an e-mail from somebody in South Africa. Evidently, he represents a rather wealthy individual and this person wants to give a lot of money to a Christian ministry someplace. He found our website and that’s how he got my e-mail address. The problem is all of this man’s assets are locked up by the government. He tells me if I can just wire him a little bit of money as a transaction fee and then fly down there and meet him, we could get a lot of money for our ministry and he even said he’d give me a little bit for my time and trouble. I don’t know. Should I wire the money and make the airline reservations?” “So what did you think about those deals? If you’re like me, you’re more than just a little bit skeptical. You kind of doubt it. I always feel if something sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. Unfortunately, we need to be that way, don’t we? We live in a world where we have to be skeptical. We have to have some doubt on things. Otherwise, we get taken advantage of. Living in that kind of world, though, means that we might also think the same thing about our faith. This morning, we’re celebrating Jesus rising from the dead. Did He? Is it really what happened? What do we do with things like the Da Vinci Code, first the book and then the movie? Oh, I know it was fiction but they also stated a lot of historical evidence. Or maybe even more than that, what about the latest archeological evidence? They claim now they found Jesus’ family tomb, that Jesus got married, that He had kids right outside of Jerusalem. What do you do with stuff like that? I mean, did Jesus really die on Friday and come back to life on Sunday? What do you think?”

I know how Thomas answered that question. Thomas said, “I doubt it.” He’s thinking, “Come on, boys, let’s get real.” He said, “I’d like to believe you. It’d be wonderful if Jesus was alive but haven’t you learned by now if something sounds too good to be true, then it isn’t true?” He probably looked at them and said, “Boys, we watched Him die on Friday. We saw them put His body into the grave. Sorry, I can’t believe it.” He said, “I’ll tell you what. If He stands right in front of me and I can put my finger in the nail hole or maybe my hand in His side, then I’ll believe Him.”

Now before we start shaking our head in disgust and wagging our fingers at Thomas and labeling him as the doubter of the group, let’s not forget the other 11 pillars of the faith a week earlier. They weren’t so certain either that Jesus had risen from the dead. You remember the women came to them and told them, “We’ve seen the resurrected Lord,” and what were their words to them? It says they didn’t believe them. It says their words sounded like nonsense to them. In other words, they were saying if it sounds too good to be true, well, then it’s not true.

It wasn’t until they encountered the resurrected Jesus that night that they believed and it wasn’t until a week later that Thomas encountered the resurrected Jesus that he believed. This morning, I want you to encounter the resurrected Jesus and I want you to believe. Whenever we encounter Jesus, though, we always have an encounter with reality and we also have an encounter with grace. The reality is this: It wasn’t just Thomas and the rest of the disciples that had trouble with doubt. No, all of us have trouble with doubt. One time or another, each one of us, at certain times, have a little bit of doubt in our minds. “Is God really there? Does God really care?” I mean, it makes sense, doesn’t it? We’ve grown up in the world where we’ve had to live by the motto if it sounds too good to be true, then it probably is. So we don’t want to be made a fool of. We don’t want to be caught off guard. Maybe most of all, we don’t want to be disappointed. Isn’t it true just about the time when you say to yourself, “Maybe this one’s true,” or “Maybe I can count on this one,” that somebody pulls the rug out from underneath us and, boom, we’re disappointed. We’re humiliated.

Well, let’s face it. Jesus sounds too good to be true. Think about it for a moment. Jesus says no matter how checkered your past is, He’ll forgive you. He’ll forgive you for anything you’ve done. No matter what you’ve done, no matter how bad it may have been, no matter how heinous the crime might have been, Jesus says, “I’ll forgive you.” Then He says beyond that, “I’ll never bring it up again.” He says, “Somewhere down the road at some opportune time, I won’t throw it back in your face.” He says, “Once I forgive you, it’s gone. It’s done. It’s forgotten. It’s never to be brought up again.” Jesus says no matter how tough life gets, He says, “I promise you that you can make it through. You may not think you can make it through but I’m telling you, you’ll have a strength, you’ll have an ability that you’ll make it through.” Jesus says those low parts of your life, those disasters, those tragedies of your life, He says, “I’ll actually turn those around and make them a blessing in your life.” And He says, “The only thing I ask in return is just believe in me.” He says, “Just put your faith and your trust in me. That’s all I ask.” Now doesn’t that sound too good to be true?

Is it any wonder at times we have some doubt that creeps into our mind? You’ve been there. It’s when you’re in the hospital room sitting next to the person you love and you’re holding their hand and you’re watching the blips on the screen and you say, “Where’s God? Where’s God in all of this?” Or maybe it’s when you find a note on the kitchen counter that says, “I won’t be coming home,” or the pink slip on your desk that says, “Don’t bother coming back,” and you say, “Where’s God in all of this?” Maybe it’s in the middle of the night when you haven’t slept one wink because your mind won’t stop racing and as you stare at the ceiling, you just keep replaying again and again and again something you’ve done. You can’t believe you’ve done it. You’re filled with regret. You’re filled with shame and you’re filled with guilt and you say, “Is there really a God? Is there really a God who could forgive me of this one? Maybe all the other stuff I’ve done but could He really forgive me for this one?”

Yeah, we have times when we doubt God. Now before we beat ourselves up too much about doubting God, there is one redeeming factor about doubt. It’s not all bad news. You see, doubt says you care. Doubt says whatever you’re pulling into question, that’s important to you, it matters to you. For instance, if I told you earlier this week on the Internet, I read a scientific journal and it said there are 986,489,722,632 stars in the universe. Now would there be any reason why I would doubt that, that I’d call into question that fact? No. You know why? Because I don’t care, that’s why. Unless you’re Stephen Hawking, who cares? What’s a billion here or a billion there. But see, when you pull something into question, when you doubt it, that says it’s important to you. When you doubt it, you’re saying to yourself, “I wish it was true. I hope it’s true. It would be great if it was true but I want to know for sure. I want to have some certainty that I know it’s factual.” And, My Friends, that’s what today is all about.

That’s what Easter is all about. That’s what the resurrection of Jesus is all about. It’s the fact that we can have certainty in our faith. You see, if the resurrection is true, then everything else is true. If the resurrection is factual, then that wipes out all the doubt we might have because if Jesus rose from the dead, then everything He claimed about Himself is true and everything He promised to do, He’s going to do. It is the hinge pin of our faith. If the resurrection is true, then also is all the rest. And that’s why today Jesus wants you to know beyond all doubt that yes, indeed, He died on Friday but most certainly He rose back to life three days later. He came back to life out of the grave on Sunday morning and He gives us all of the evidence, all of the proof we would need. You see, you encounter His grace this morning, His grace that wipes out all doubt from your mind.

Did you notice how Jesus treated Thomas? It’s a very important lesson, especially when we have our own doubts. Thomas is there. He just got done saying to the other disciples, “I’m not going to believe it unless I see Him,” and all of a sudden, Jesus appears in front of him. Now what does Jesus do? Does Jesus look at him in disgust and say, “Thomas, I am so disappointed in you. I can’t believe you. You didn’t believe me?” Is that what Jesus does? No. You see, Jesus knows where Thomas is at. He knows Thomas is grieving, that Thomas is confused, that he’s filled with all kinds of doubts. I can almost imagine Thomas on Friday night walking back and forth saying, “I knew it. I knew it was too good to be true. I wanted Him to be the Messiah. I thought He was the Messiah but I knew it was too good to be true and now He’s dead. See? I’m disappointed.” That’s the Thomas we have standing in front of Jesus. He doesn’t need reprimand from Jesus, so Jesus gives him exactly what he does need. He says, “Peace be with you.” He says, “Settle down, Thomas. I accept you the way you are, doubts and all.”

When you have your doubts, don’t you feel guilty? That’s why you don’t want to admit it to anybody else. That’s why you don’t want to show it on your faces right now. You don’t want to admit that times you have doubts about God because you feel guilty and you wonder, “How is God going to react to this?” The same way He did to Thomas. He’s not going to shake His head and say how disappointed He is. He’s going to say, “Peace be with you.” And the same thing He did for Thomas He’s going to do for you. He said, “Thomas, whatever you need, I’m going to supply it for you. I’m going to erase all doubt. I’m going to destroy all doubt in your mind. Whenever you need facts, Thomas, you need proof?” He says to Thomas, “Come here. I don’t mind. Here’s my hand. You need to put your finger in the nail hole, then you go right ahead and do it.” He takes His side and He says, “You need to see the wound in my side? Come here, Thomas, go ahead. Put your hand in there. Whatever it takes, Thomas, stop doubting and believe. I’m going to do whatever it takes so we can wipe out that doubt and you, too, can believe, Thomas, that I am alive.”

Jesus offers the same proof to you this morning, the same evidence He gives to you. He says, “Whatever it is you need, whatever proof you need,” you need to look at His hands, you need to look at His side, Jesus says, “I’m going to provide it for you,” and He has provided it for us. My Friends, He has left us all the proof and all the evidence we need that Jesus died on Friday and He indeed came back to life on Sunday. I don’t care how many specials they run on the Discovery Channel. I don’t care how many books they write as they twist the facts around to say what they want to. God has provided us all the evidence and all the facts we need that Jesus indeed rose from the dead.

He’s left us the biblical evidence, the biblical evidence that testifies Jesus died on Friday and came back to life on Sunday. Oh, I know, I know, I know. Some are going to cry, “Foul. Oh, you can’t use the bible to prove that Jesus died and then came back to life again.” Why not? Have you ever asked that question? Why not? The bible is one of the most accurate historical documents we have to date. For some reason, as a world and a society, we’ve put a bias against the bible saying we can’t use it. In reality, it’s the most reliable and the most accurate historical document we have.

F. F. Bruce from Manchester University said, “If the New Testament were treated like any other secular historical document, then it would be beyond doubt. It has that kind of authenticity to it.” And we have the bible from Genesis to Revelation that points to Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of God, the scriptures that say unequivocally that He died on Friday for our sins and He rose back to life on Sunday. We have historical evidence outside the bible. We have historians from the 1st Century that testify about Jesus, people like Josephus that talk about this teacher, Jesus, in and around Jerusalem who was condemned to death by the Roman governor and even about the rumors that He came back to life again. We have all the eye witnesses, the eye witnesses to Jesus’ resurrection. Certainly, He appeared to the disciples but if we were going to look in 1 Corinthians, we would find a passage there where the writer says, “He appeared to the apostles and then He appeared to over 500 of the brethren at one time, most of whom are still alive. Then He appeared to James and last of all, He appeared to me.” The writer is saying to the Church at Corinth or to the people at Corinth, “You don’t have to take my word for it. You want evidence, you want proof Jesus came back to life, there were over 500 people He appeared to and most of them are still alive. So you don’t believe me, go ask 500 people. Tell me how I convinced 500 people to have the same story.” And then the real punch to that is he says, “He appeared to me.” Understand who the writer is. The writer is Paul. Paul used to be Saul. Paul saw it as his number one mission in life as to wipe away anybody who was a follower of Jesus Christ. He saw to it that Christians were put in jail. He watched as they were put to death as people stoned them. This is the one who is writing this and he says, “Jesus appeared to me.” He goes from the number one enemy of Christianity to the number one advocate and the number one missionary.

How about the most powerful evidence, the lives of the disciples? Look at the lives of the disciples. After the resurrection of Jesus, they dedicated the rest of their lives to preaching and teaching about Jesus and about His death and about His resurrection. Now what did they get for that? Did they get fame? Did they get riches and money? Hardly. They were kicked out of their church. They were rejected by their people. They were tortured. They were beaten. They were thrown in prison and most of them died horrific deaths, all because of the message they were preaching. Now you tell me who would go through a lifetime of that for something that wasn’t true? Who would go through a lifetime of that and a horrible death for something they didn’t know for sure positively was true? You see, God has left no room for doubt. He has destroyed all doubt. Jesus indeed died on Friday but Jesus indeed rose from the grave on Sunday. And if that’s true, My Friends, then everything else is true. Then everything Jesus claimed about Himself is true. All the promises Jesus made will come true. Jesus doesn’t leave any room for doubt. That’s how important the resurrection is.

You see, the resurrection says you don’t have to live with guilt anymore. We all live with guilt. I have guilt because we do things that are wrong. We know that. We have regrets. We say something, we do something. The resurrection says you don’t have to live with the guilt of that anymore. You don’t have to live with the shame of that anymore because Jesus says, “I’ve not come into the world to be served but to serve and to give my life as a ransom.” The resurrection says the ransom was accepted. The resurrection says Jesus has paid the debt of our sin, that we don’t have to live with that guilt, that we are forgiven of all of our sins. That sounds too good to be true but the resurrection says it is true.

The resurrection says we don’t have to go through life alone. We don’t have to face the challenges of life by ourselves. We’ve all been there. We’ve all been at the peaks of life and we’ve all been at the pits of life. We’ve all been on the mountaintops and we’ve all been in the valleys, those days where life is just treating you rotten, where it’s just not fair. It has really dealt you a bad hand. You don’t know how you’re going to make it through the next week. Maybe you don’t even know how you’re going to make it through your current day. It’s just that tough. God says you don’t have to face that alone. Colossians 2:14 says, “I want you to know the power that is available to all of us who believe. It is the same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead.” Did you catch that? The same power that raised Christ Jesus from the dead, that’s the power which is available to you who believes in Jesus. Sounds too good to be true but the resurrection says it is true.

The resurrection says eternity is taken care of. We don’t like to talk about it. We don’t like to think about it but we’re all going to die. We can’t argue with that fact. We’re only going to have so many years in this world and we’re going to die. The resurrection says what’s going to happen afterwards. What’s going to happen after we die? You see, we have a God who loves us so much that He willingly gave His one and only Son that whoever believes in Him shall not die but have eternal life and the eternal life He’s talking about is a life in heaven. It’s a life that’s free of sickness, free of sorrow, free of pain. It’s a life that has joy and peace that we can’t even begin to comprehend. That’s what is in store for us and it sounds too good to be true but the resurrection says it is true. You see, the resurrection of Jesus says everything Jesus taught, everything that’s contained in scripture is accurate and we can count on it and it wipes out all doubt.

The gospel writer, John, ended this section of his gospel after the account of Thomas by saying, “Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not recorded here, but these are written that you would know Jesus is the Christ and that by believing in Him you might have eternal life.”

I want to share with you over the last two weeks, I’ve written this message at least six times and each time I’ve said it’s too long. You might still think it’s too long. Each time, I said, “I gotta cut it down. I gotta cut it down. I gotta cut it down.” You see, there is so much more that I want to tell you about Jesus. There are so many more reasons why you don’t have to doubt the resurrection or anything else Jesus has done but I’ve shared this much with you because I want you to know with no doubt in your mind Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing in His name, you have life. Amen.

Copyright 2007 Gloria Dei Lutheran Church