[The
following posts are adapted from a sermon preached on March 7, 2010. Scripture references are from the ESV[1]]
Our
hope in the Lord is based on this thing we call faith. Faith is, as the writer of Hebrews tells us, “the
assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” (Hebrews 11:1)
Holding
onto this ‘faith’ is not always easy.
The world often throws things at us, which force us to hold our faith up
for examination and inspection. We are
faced with the hard question as to whether or not our ‘faith’ can stand up to
the tests.
Let
me make one thing perfectly clear. Doubt
does not equal disbelief. When those
times come, and they inevitably do, which cause us to question the strength and
legitimacy of our faith we must take this challenge head on. We cannot ignore or push off the struggle and
‘just believe’ (this is what I see as ‘blind faith’), nor can we fall into some
guilt-laden despair as if our questions somehow disqualify us from enjoying God’s
promises. Our ‘doubt’ should be a catalyst,
driving us to explore more deeply our beliefs.
These force us to ask genuine, profound and meaningful questions, and
hopefully come away with a stronger and more stable faith.
Many
persons in the Scripture had these moments.
One such character was John the Baptizer.
John
knew his place in the wider plan of God.
He knew he was a ‘herald’ of the coming Messiah. When John recognized Jesus as the promised
One, he knew his time would be drawing to a close (John 3:30). John was happy with this. When his own disciples asked him about Jesus’
increasing popularity, John responded, “The one who has the bride is the
bridegroom. The friend of the bridegroom, who stands and hears him, rejoices
greatly at the bridegroom's voice. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.”
(John 3:29) From John’s perspective, he
was full of joy that with the arrival of the groom, the wedding, the Kingdom of
God, could begin.
Not
long after, John was arrested and thrown into jail under orders from Herod Antipas. While in his prison cell, John continued to
hear of the ministry of Jesus. Yet the
seeds of doubt began to gnaw at John.
When
we consider John’s early preaching, it is clear that he believed the great and
final judgment of God was imminent. He had
declared, “I baptize you with water, but he who is mightier than I is coming,
the strap of whose sandals I am not worthy to untie. He will baptize you with
the Holy Spirit and with fire. His
winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the
wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire.” (Luke
3:16-17)
John
had been completely convinced that Jesus was the promised Messiah; the winnower
and the kindler of God’s fire. He was
the Bridegroom. With His coming, God’s
people would partake of the wonderful wedding supper, as God’s Kingdom became
reality. “[But] Jesus…carries no ax or
winnowing fan, [He] cleans no eschatological threshing floor and burns no
chaff.”[2]
John
seems to have had certain expectations of Jesus; reality wasn’t meeting
expectation. He had questions; ‘doubts’. Had he been wrong? Was Jesus the person John had thought He was?
Was his own ministry a failure? If the bridegroom has arrived, why hasn’t the
wedding begun?
When
reality does not meet expectation, doubt often follows.
If
our faith is built on unrealistic expectations or misunderstandings, it is
almost a given that we will experience some type of doubt or ‘faith crisis’.
As
we work through these struggles it is hoped that our expectations will be corrected
and we will be able to see the reality of our faith. And we will find it to be much more than what
we expected.
In
the next post I will explore John’s question to Jesus.
Be
blessed
No comments:
Post a Comment