How Do Christians Deal with Doubt?

Matthew 11:2-11

When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his
disciples 3 to ask him, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”

4 Jesus replied, “Go back and report to John what you hear and see: 5 The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. 6 Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”

7 As John’s disciples were leaving, Jesus began to speak to the crowd about John: “What did you go out into the wilderness to see? A reed swayed by the wind? 8 If not, what did you go out to see? A man dressed in fine clothes? No, those who wear fine clothes are in kings’ palaces. 9 Then what did you go out to see? A prophet? Yes, I tell you, and more than a prophet. 10 This is the one about whom it is written:

“‘I will send my messenger ahead of you,
who will prepare your way before you.’

11 Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.

How Do Christians Deal with Doubt?

A couple weeks ago, I heard a story about a schoolmate of mine. We were in college at the same time studying to serve in the full time ministry. He was smart, talented, a standout student and a standup guy. Without a doubt, someone I respected and admired.

It turns out that he doesn’t believe in Jesus anymore.

What do you do with that information? What about his family – what does this do to them? If a smart, talented, grounded guy like him who went through the same training that I did, had the same faith that I do, if he could doubt God so much that he stopped believing altogether, what does that mean for me?

I think I’ve shared with you – if not in a sermon, at least in personal conversation – a few anecdotes in the last couple months about pastors and prominent Christians who have almost started a trend of renouncing Christianity. They’ve given up their faith and denied Jesus. It’s one thing to hear about celebrities in the news, people you’ve never met before; it’s another when it’s someone you know and respect.

Imagine being one of John’s disciples and being tasked to ask Jesus the question we heard in our Gospel Lesson for today, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”[1]

John the Baptist was asking this question! Of all the people to have their doubts, how could John?

Where was the John we met last week, who was so sure of his message that he called out the spiritual leaders of Israel, calling them a brood of vipers and threatening them with judgment?[2] Where was the John who – not once but twice – pointed people’s attention to Jesus and said, “Look, the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world” [3]? Where was the John who baptized Jesus and heard the voice from heaven say, “This is my Son, whom I love; with him I am well pleased”[4]?

How could John the Baptist – whom Jesus, in this same passage, calls the greatest man born of woman – how could John fall so far as to doubt the truth that he spent his adult life preaching?

As strange as it initially sounds, it really isn’t all that difficult to understand, when you think about it. Just compare what John prophesied Jesus would do to what John heard that Jesus was doing.

Last week we read from Matthew Chapter 3:

“His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”[5]

Those are some harsh words of judgment.

But when we read what Luke writes about today’s Gospel Lesson, Luke tells us that John’s disciples came to Jesus,

“At that very time [when] Jesus cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind.”[6]

Those aren’t the same thing. Performing miracles of mercy is not exactly putting the ax at the root of the tree and threatening to chop it down and throw it into the fire. To witness Jesus’ ministry, he wouldn’t quite line up with what John said he would. Where was the judgment that John prophesied? Jesus didn’t seem to be living up John’s expectations. So he asks Jesus the question, “Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?”[7]

I don’t know about you, but Jesus’ answer didn’t seem very helpful to me at first. Jesus said,

“Go back and report to John what you hear and see: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor. Blessed is anyone who does not stumble on account of me.”[8]

It may seem like Jesus is being evasive here, but he’s actually quoting Scripture. This is Isaiah’s prophecy that we read earlier today!

In chapter 35 Isaiah writes:

Then will the eyes of the blind be opened and the ears of the deaf unstopped. Then will the lame leap like a deer, and the mute tongue shout for joy.

And in chapter 61, Isaiah says:

The Spirit of the Sovereign LORD is on me, because the LORD has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor.

Compare that to what Jesus says to John:

The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is proclaimed to the poor.

Everything that Jesus was doing had been prophesied by Isaiah 700 years earlier as the sign that the Savior had come. So, Jesus may come and say a simple, “Yes,” but he absolutely affirms that he is the promised Messiah. It’s almost as if he says, “Look, John, I may not be doing what you expected me to be doing right now, but I am doing exactly what my Father promised I would. And you should know this, if you are a student of God’s Word.”

Isn’t that just how Jesus works? Not many straight answers. Rarely any one-word responses. Jesus doesn’t just say, “Yes.” He quotes Scripture at you. But before you get frustrated with what seem to be Jesus’ evasion tactics, think about what it’s like to learn multiplication.

You’ve seen this before, right?

It’s the multiplication table. How many hours did you spend memorizing these numbers? It’s a useful tool and something I still use every day (thank you, Mr. Grambsch). But multiplication is not simply a matter of memorization. It may start with that, but ultimately you want to be able to understand why 7x8=56, because there may come a day, God forbid, when you don’t have your phone handy and you can’t ask Google. You may have to make a simple multiplication calculation that doesn’t include one of these 100 numbers that you’ve diligently memorized. Would it be easier to just get the answer? Of course, but it wouldn’t equip you to solve the problem.

In a similar way, could Jesus have simply told John, “Yes, I am the one who was to come; no, you should not expect anyone else”? Of course, he could have! But what Jesus did was better, because just providing the answer doesn’t solve the problem. The roots of John’s doubt went deeper than whether Jesus was the Savior or not. John doubted because Jesus’ version of the Christ didn’t match with his expectation. Jesus needed to address that expectation, so he quoted Scripture to reassure John that even though he didn’t look the way John thought he might, he was still doing exactly what the Savior was supposed to do.

There’s a tension in this passage that we cannot ignore. On the one hand, John doubts the most basic fact of Christianity – whether Jesus is our Savior or not But then, by the end, Jesus says: “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist.”[9] How can John be both? How could John doubt but still be praised by Jesus?

Let me tell you a secret about Christianity: you don’t escape doubt or uncertainty the longer you believe. It’s not as if trusting in Jesus gets easier as time goes on. Trouble, temptation, doubt don’t disappear. It’s just that you develop the ability to respond to them.

We are all weak in our own ways. What’s important is not whether we fail – we’re going to do lots of that. It’s not even particularly important how you are weak – Lord, let me count the ways. What matters is that, like John the Baptist, you know where to go for strength.

When John felt that self-doubt, what did he do? He went to Jesus. And how did Jesus respond? “Oh John, you blockhead! Don’t you know better by now?” No! He brought John back to the foundation of God’s Word, and let John see for himself how Jesus was doing exactly what God said he would.

And that’s still what God does for us today. Maybe you’re not at the point that my schoolmate reached, where you’re ready to renounce Christianity and deny Jesus altogether, but maybe you still have your questions:

“God, you promised to give us peace, but I don’t feel particularly peaceful.”

“Jesus, when exactly will the meek inherit the earth and stop being a doormat for the wicked?”

“Lord, you promised to work all things for my good, but I’m having a hard time seeing it right now.”

There are so many doubts, so many anxieties a Christian can feel, but that doesn’t make you a bad Christian for feeling them. Nor does it make God insufficient for you. It may just mean that you have this opportunity like John to go straight to the source for strength.

We may not be able to send a delegation to ask our questions of Jesus, but we have the same thing that Jesus used to answer John’s question. Jesus quoted Scripture. We have that. 5 minutes and a free download later and you have it in your hand wherever you go.

I think that’s why Jesus says what he does at the end, “Truly I tell you, among those born of women there has not risen anyone greater than John the Baptist; yet whoever is least in the kingdom of heaven is greater than he.”[10]

The best explanation of this riddle that I’ve heard is that, in a way, you are greater than John. John would envy you.

John had his doubts because he was in prison and he would not live long enough to see Jesus finish the work of our salvation. So John had to live by faith in an as-of-yet unfulfilled promise. He didn’t have the benefit that you and I do – 4 Gospels, 1 History, 21 Epistles and a prophecy that all explain at great length how Jesus is our Savior. John had the scroll of the prophet Isaiah and a bunch of murky messages; you have the New Testament whose sole purpose is to answer John’s question: “Are you the one who was to come?”[11]

The answer, of course, is yes. Jesus is what we’ve been waiting for. He’s the answer to our doubt and the reason for our hope. He’s the assurance that God keeps his promises and he is our Savior.

Jesus didn’t come at Christmas to cavort with confident Christians who never wavered in their faith. He came to forgive our weakness and sin. To meet us in our low spots so he could lift us up in his love. To preach the good news to us that even when we are weak, he is strong. Even though we sin, he saves.

John didn’t live long enough to see the cross and empty tomb, but you and I have – not with our own eyes, but through the pages of Scripture. We have a treasure John wished he could have possessed. We have the very words of God himself. We have the first-hand testimony of many reliable witnesses. But most of all, we have the record of Jesus, our Savior, from beginning to end.

If the greatest man born of woman struggled with doubt, we shouldn’t be surprised when we have our moments of weakness too. But be like John. When you’re weak go to Jesus. Listen to his Word and there find reason for confidence. Jesus is who God promised. He is the fulfillment of prophecy. Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away your sin. Jesus is the one who came at Christmas to be your Savior and who is coming again to bring you home. Be strong until that day, and Lord Jesus, come quickly. Amen.

[1] Matthew 11:3

[2] Matthew 3:1-12

[3] John 1:29

[4] Matthew 3:17

[5] Matthew 3:11,12

[6] Luke 7:21

[7] Matthew 11:3

[8] Matthew 11:4-6

[9] Matthew 11:11

[10] Matthew 11:11

[11] Matthew 11:3

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God Doesn't Need You

Matthew 3:1-12

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea 2 and saying,   
“Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” 3 This is he who was spoken of through the prophet Isaiah:

“A voice of one calling in the wilderness,
‘Prepare the way for the Lord,
    make straight paths for him.’”

4 John’s clothes were made of camel’s hair, and he had a leather belt around his waist. His food was locusts and wild honey. 5 People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan. 6 Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.

7 But when he saw many of the Pharisees and Sadducees coming to where he was baptizing, he said to them: “You brood of vipers! Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath? 8 Produce fruit in keeping with repentance. 9 And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham. 10 The ax is already at the root of the trees, and every tree that does not produce good fruit will be cut down and thrown into the fire.

11 “I baptize you with water for repentance. But after me comes one who is more powerful than I, whose sandals I am not worthy to carry. He will baptize you with the Holy Spirit and fire. 12 His winnowing fork is in his hand, and he will clear his threshing floor, gathering his wheat into the barn and burning up the chaff with unquenchable fire.”

 God Doesn’t Need You

John was an interesting man.  Luke tells us that he was the son of a priest and Jesus’ own relative.  His birth was announced by angels and you could make the case that he was the first person to recognize Jesus as the Savior of the world – and that before he was born, while he was still in the womb!

We don’t hear much about him until 29 years later.  Matthew writes about it wistfully, “In those days John the Baptist came.”[1] It’s like a fond family memory from “back in the day.”  You don’t need the whole story – just to remember the important piece of information, i.e. that he was preaching in the wilderness of Judea.[2] 

Who does that?  Who – if they want an audience – will go where there are no people?  What pastor preaches to an empty room, or what missionary starts out in a wheat field?  If a tree falls in the forest without anyone to hear, does it make a sound?  But that’s where John set up camp.  And despite having camel’s hair clothes and locusts for lunch, John drew a crowd. 

The Word is powerful.  It doesn’t care what clothes you wear.  It doesn’t matter what the setting is.  God’s Word makes a noise, even in the wilderness, in an uninhabitable wasteland, preached by an uneducated nobody, whose appearance was unattractive and whose diet was unappetizing.  John broke all the rules about marketing, and it didn’t make a difference.  People went out to him from Jerusalem and all Judea and the whole region of the Jordan.[3]

John drew a crowd, because the Word is powerful – powerful enough to produce fruit.  It may have started as a sideshow by the shores of the Jordan River, but when they heard what he had to say, the Word inspired them to action.  John’s message is pretty basic: “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.”[4] But the people responded: Confessing their sins, they were baptized by him in the Jordan River.[5]

That’s what “repentance” means.  The Greek word that Matthew uses in his Gospel paints a picture of a literal “change of mind.”  Repentance means that we change our way of thinking about sin, about ourselves, and about the choices that we make in this life. 

Neither John in his very brief sermon, nor Matthew in his gospel write out a detailed definition for repentance, but based on what the rest of God’s Word says as a whole, we can assign four parts to it:

1.       Awareness of wrongdoing

2.       Sorrow over sin

3.       Confession

4.       Faith in God to forgive

We can see all four of those criteria demonstrated by the people who came to hear John.  They didn’t just listen along and nod their heads in intellectual agreement.  His words struck a chord in their hearts and moved them to action.  They saw their sin, confessed it before John and each other, and were baptized in the hope of the forgiveness that God promises. 

Friends in Christ, that’s the same hope that we have.  Our church was literally built around the stone that sits as our baptismal font.  Our names are drowned in water every Sunday to remind us of our constant need for repentance and forgiveness.  And then these tiles carry your repentant hearts from the font to the cross, where all your sins are forgiven in Jesus.

John preached a powerful word in the wilderness to great effect – an effect that we continue to feel today.  It’s not about the clothes we wear or the place we worship.  It’s about the Word that gathers us here from Spruce Grove and Morinville and Windermere.  It’s about the Word that, like John the Baptist, prepares our hearts for the coming of Jesus.   It’s about the Word that moves not just our hearts, but our hands in action as we repent and confess our sin to God and receive his forgiveness.  It’s about the Word that teaches us that repentance is a lifelong change of mind and change in life. 

If you’re like me, then this is the hard part.  I’m on board for everything I just said (which is good, because I’m the one saying it).  It’s hard to actually do it – to live a life of repentance.  It’s so much easier to ask for forgiveness than permission, right?  How many times have you asked for forgiveness for the same sin?  Has it gotten to the point that you’ve stopped asking?  Have you begun to justify yourself and your behavior?  Are you even aware that what you’re doing is wrong? 

Or do you sometimes end up like these Pharisees and Sadducees who came out to be baptized by John?  They did everything observably right.  They performed all the functions you’d expect from a faithful believer, and yet, John still calls them a “brood of vipers”[6] and asks sarcastically, “Who warned you to flee from the coming wrath?”[7] 

They weren’t there because they were sorry for their sins.  I wouldn’t even be so sure that they thought they had any sins to confess.  They were there because they thought it would look good, because they thought this is what people expected of them – maybe even because they thought that this would earn brownie points with God. 

Whatever the case, John makes it clear that their hearts were not in the right place, and the reason he could tell was not because he could see into those hearts, but because they hadn’t produced fruit “in keeping with repentance.” 

Did you ever get in trouble with your parents for fighting with a sibling?  After they break you up and calm the situation down, they force you to say sorry.  So what do you do?  “Sorry, Mom.”  “Don’t say it to me; say it to your brother.”  “Sorry, Paul.”  “It doesn’t look like you’re all that sorry.”  And then you have to do whatever prescribed form of penance to prove that you really are sorry.  You have to hug or, as my sister recently did for her children, dance.  I won’t show you their picture because that would mortally embarrass them, but you should have seen their faces. 

The point is, words aren’t enough.  Even actions done begrudgingly or insincerely are just hypocrisy.  To come here and confess our sins to God, only to go back to that same way of life and make the same sinful decisions is not true repentance.  It’s hypocrisy.  It’s the same attitude that these Pharisees and Sadducees had, and it’s the reason John says, “And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.”[8]

The harsh reality is that God doesn’t need you.  He doesn’t need a single one of us.  Just because we come to church or contribute to the offering or hand out flyers for a food drive to benefit the community doesn’t mean that God owes us anything.

God doesn’t need you, but he does want you. 

That’s why, even though John portrays the coming Christ as the grim reaper with that winnowing fork in his hand – even though he talks about the ax being at the root of the trees and the threat of unquenchable fire for our sins – John makes it clear that God does not want that for us.  That’s why God sent John with a message of repentance in the first place – because God is not content to lose you. 

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.[9]    

Christ is coming.  God sent his Son into this world to be our Savior and to forgive our sin.  That’s why the people confessed their sins and were baptized by John in the Jordan River.  That’s why they responded to this stern message of repentance – not because John gave them an ultimatum, but because he gave them reason for hope, because he pointed them to Jesus who had the power to do far more than John could ever do, who has the power to take sinners like you and me home to heaven. 

Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.[10]  It’s just as true today as it was then.  Our Lord is coming again.  Just as Jesus came at Christmas to be our Savior, he is coming again to take us out of this world of sin and to gather you into his heavenly storehouse. 

So, prepare the way for the Lord, make straight paths for him.[11]  Take to heart the words of John.  Change your heart and your mind and your lives when it comes to sin.  Make better choices.  Don’t put yourself in the same situation and expect a different result.  Produce fruit in keeping with repentance.  It may not happen every day.  You will fail along the way.  But that’s what confession is for, and that’s why God sent his Son for you. 

Repentance is the lifelong work of a Christian, and it’s our joy because through it we experience time and again the love our God in giving us his Son.  He doesn’t need you, but he wants you and he has done everything to forgive you.  Repent.  Prepare the way for the Lord.  Christ is coming again. 

Come quickly, Lord Jesus. Amen.

[1] Matthew 3:1

[2] Ibid

[3] Matthew 3:5

[4] Matthew 3:2

[5] Matthew 3:6

[6] Matthew 3:7

[7] Ibid

[8] Matthew 3:9

[9] Matthew 3:2

[10] Ibid

[11] Matthew 3:3

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