Sermon –Locked Doors  April 15, 2007

Big Idea:  Doubt disappears in the presence of Christ. 

In 1993 FBI agents conducted a raid of Southwood psychiatric hospital in San Diego, which was under investigation for medical insurance fraud. After hours of reviewing medical records, the agents had worked up an appetite. The agent in charge of the investigation called a nearby pizza parlor to order a quick dinner for his colleagues.

According to snopes.com, a site dedicated to sleuthing out urban legends, the following telephone conversation actually took place.

Agent: Hello. I would like to order 19 large pizzas and 67 cans of soda.

Pizza Man: And where would you like them delivered?

Agent: We're over at the psychiatric hospital.

Pizza Man: The psychiatric hospital?

Agent: That's right. I'm an FBI agent.

Pizza Man: You're an FBI agent?

Agent: That's correct. Just about everybody here is.

Pizza Man: And you're at the psychiatric hospital?

Agent: That's correct. And make sure you don't go through the front doors. We have them locked. You will have to go around to the back to the service entrance to deliver the pizzas.

Pizza Man: And you say you're all FBI agents?

Agent: That's right. How soon can you have them here?

Pizza Man: And everyone at the psychiatric hospital is an FBI agent?

Agent: That's right. We've been here all day and we're starving.

Pizza Man: How are you going to pay for all of this?

Agent: I have my checkbook right here.

Pizza Man: And you're all FBI agents?

Agent:  That’s right!

Click –

There is some doubt that is good.  This pizza guy should have doubted that story coming from a psychiatric unit. But please doubt those petitions that you get via email.  Madelyn Murray O’Hare is not going to shut down religious broadcasting in this country.  Please be a little more doubtful about these things.  Before you send them to me, do what Diane Kristenson did and ask me if I know anything about it.  That Madelyn Murray O’Hare thing has been going around for years.  Go to www.truthorfiction.com or  www.snopes.com to see if it is an urban legend before you get all lathered up and start sending it to your mailing list.

But there are other basic things that we really don’t need to doubt.  Like God’s word yet we do.  But it’s all right with God if we do.  We will see that as we look at Jesus’ interaction with Thomas.  In fact, most of us have had periods of doubt in our Christian experience.  We might not feel good about that but it is a fairly normal stage of growing in Christ. 

Doubt is tricky though.  It can seriously erode our faith if we don’t deal with it.  But how do we deal with it? 

Carl Rogers, the U.S. psychologist, was 22 years old when he entered Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1924. While there, he participated in a seminar organized to explore religious doubts. Rogers later said of the group, “The majority of members...in thinking their way through questions they had raised, thought themselves right out of religious work. I was one.”

His doubts got the best of his faith.  But that doesn’t need to happen as we will see as we look at Thomas in John 20: 19-31.

From Thomas’s experience and countless other saints, doubt disappears in the presence of Christ.  Unfortunately, if you have questioned your faith seriously, most Christian friends will tell you that you shouldn’t feel that way.    Job’s friends, like Eliphaz, in Job 4:2-6 did that.  They blamed him for 39 chapters for having the questions he had. 

When I came to Dallas Seminary I was extremely depressed. I found some friends and one of them, who meant well, basically told me I was depressed because I wasn’t letting Christ live his life through me.  If I had any problems, that was his answer.  So I was the cause of my problems because I didn’t trust Christ enough.   No one could answer my question about how much trust was enough to not feel depressed.  If I had enough I wouldn’t have been depressed.  So I was failing miserably to be a good Christian so I got more depressed with his answers.

There have been various and different times when I doubted God’s goodness.  I have thought that his plan was not best and that he was not in control.  Friday night was a good example of this.  In the midst of that bad storm all of us had a choice to trust that God was in charge and in control and that his plan was perfect or we could doubt his goodness and question if he knew what he was doing. 

I spent that time in the men’s room with 4 women.  Michele, Minuette and Karen Havens as well as my wife were in there with me.  Danyell Wilt showed up as well so he helped balance things out.  Laura Beth was not with us and Karen’s two kids, Tanner and Lauren were not with her either.  Laura Beth was texting me and Karen was calling her kids.  Minuette was keeping up with Danyell.  He was on LBJ just ahead of the storm.  As we all waited in the men’s room for the storm to pass, I wasn’t all that anxious.  I think it was a test of my faith.  Before we had gone in there, I had prayed for all our concerns.  God impressed on me that he was sovereign and whatever happened would work together for good. 

I have since realized that the Devil uses fear, uncertainty and doubt to get us to question our faith.    Even though Stephen Amdahl coined the term FUD (Fear, Uncertainty, Doubt) when he left IBM and started his own company..  "FUD is the fear, uncertainty, and doubt that IBM sales people instill in the minds of potential customers who might be considering Amdahl products.  But I think the devil is the person who coined it first

Remember in the garden, he said, “Surely you won’t die if you eat it.”  He also told them that God didn’t want them to eat it because he didn’t want them to become gods knowing good from evil.  Satan directly questioned God’s word.  He created fear – they would miss out on something, uncertainty – about God’s word and doubt – about God’s character – he didn’t want any rival gods. 

Virginia was 19 years old and pregnant when she went to live with her 15th set of foster parents. Her case file read like a textbook example of neglect, abuse and bureaucratic failure. She sat silently in a chair, hands neatly clasped, staring into her lap. The foster parents, whose three children were in school, had been apprised of Virginia’s story and promised that this placement would be “temporary.” (Temporary was the story of Virginia’s life.)

Finally, the foster mother said, “Are you frightened, Virginia?”

“Kinda,” she replied without looking up. Then, “I’ve been in lots of homes.”

“Well,” the sympathetic woman tried to reassure the bewildered young mother-to-be, “Let’s hope this time turns out for the best.”

Virginia’s reply is one of those statements that sticks to your soul — it was flat, without change of tone and without Virginia even looking up — “Hurts too much to hope.”

I’m sure Virginia questioned God’s goodness in providing this new foster family.  It would be the same as all the rest.  Hope was hard to come by in her world.  Her experience said God wasn’t that interested in her well being.  She doubted his goodness. 

You might be there today as well.  You doubt that God will provide that great job for you.  You doubt that he is working in your marriage.  You doubt that He will ever restore your relationship with your brother.  You doubt that you will ever get that promotion even though you know God gave you the job.  You doubt that life will ever get any better because God wants to punish you for some sin in your past.  You doubt that God will ever bring your kid back to church.  You doubt that God will give you whatever it is that you have been waiting about and praying about for so long. 

We all doubt but we don’t need to because doubt disappears in the presence of Christ. 

Let’s look at Thomas’s experience with the risen Christ to help us see this truth.  I think Thomas like Virginia hurt too much to hope.  His savior had died and he, like the other disciples, forgot that Jesus had told them he would have to be killed and then he would rise from the dead three days later.  We see in verse 24 that Thomas hadn’t been there with the disciples when Jesus came to them on Easter Sunday.  I guess that says something for missing church.  The disciples were gathered together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews and Jesus showed up.  Thomas wasn’t there.  No wonder he had doubts.  Generally, God shows up when two or more are gathered in his name.  10 were there that first Easter Sunday evening and Jesus showed up.  Who knows where Thomas was.  In any event, he wasn’t having a positive experience with the other disciples or the Lord.  Jesus when he first met with the disciples said, “Peace be with you!”  Thomas had no peace because he wasn’t in the presence of the Lord that first Easter Sunday. 

The disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”  Notice we don’t read that they busted him for not being there the Sunday before.  Nor did they put his down for his lack of faith.  They were much different than Job’s friends.  They were being merciful as Jude tells us, “Be merciful with those who doubt.”  But he replied, “Unless I see the nail prints in his hands 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.  Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”  Again, the doors were locked. 

Maybe they should have been locked the first time, but not after they saw Jesus a week earlier.  They were overjoyed that the Lord had been raised from the dead but they were still fearful.  But before we think the disciples were a faithless group of disciples and that we are better than they, let’s ask ourselves a few questions.  Do you and I even though we have the Holy Spirit indwelling us, hide from encountering those in our culture who are anti-God?  Would we rather stay behind locked doors and sing Kum-ba-ya than get out and attempt to reach people for him?

Now, I admit it’s not easy to share our faith.  Yesterday, I was paying my car loan at Wells Fargo.  The tellers were in scrubs.  I asked them what it was about and the guy told me, “We are giving financial check ups.”  He asked me if I was having a good weekend. I told him I was a pastor and he asked me what church I was at.  I told him and he knew where we were. But I could have said to him, “Come by for a spiritual check up.”  It’s not easy to think on our feet and present Christ to others.  But as Jesus said in verse 21, “As the father has sent me, I am sending you.”  Jesus only did what he saw the father doing so we should only do what we see Jesus doing.  Jesus left his throne in heaven to please his father and to save us.  He didn’t consider his heavenly glory something to be held on to.  He was sent and he went.  The disciples were sent by him but as of a week after the resurrection they still hadn’t gone out.  But what about us?  He has sent us out as well.  We are his representatives here on earth.  Are we going out to all who need him?  Or are we hiding behind locked doors out of fear, uncertainty or doubt?

Maybe you are like the father of the boy in Mark 9:17-24 who had a son that had a demon that gave him convulsions. The father said to Jesus, “If you can do anything take pity on us and help us.”  Jesus replied, “If you can?”  “Everything is possible for him who believes.”  Immediately, the boy’s father exclaimed, “I do believe, help me overcome my unbelief.” 

All of us are at different spots in our faith journey.  So I don’t think any of us can put anyone down who is struggling to get out from behind the locked doors of fear, uncertainty and doubt.  If you are do what that father did.  Ask Jesus to help you overcome your unbelief.  Also, remember that apart from the Holy Spirit, you have no power to win anybody for Christ.  Maybe you have been trying to reach people without yielding to the leading of the Holy Spirit.  If you do, you will hate trying to reach people for Christ. 

But we can also see from Thomas life what helped him overcome his unbelief.  It was an encounter the risen Christ.  Jesus showed up again where the disciples were and now Thomas is with them and Jesus again says, “Peace be with you.”  Again, peace only comes through him and doubt disappears in the presence of Christ. 

Jesus could have put Thomas down for his lack of faith.  Thomas was a tactile learner. That’s ok. Jesus is not upset with him and he’s not upset with us if we need to see him up close and personal.  Jesus didn’t put Thomas down.  He met him where he was in his faith journey.  “Put your finger here; see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in to my side.  Stop doubting and believe.”  Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” 

Doubt disappears in the presence of Christ.   

But you and I aren’t the disciples and Jesus has ascended into heaven so how do we encounter the risen Christ?  How do we get in his presence for our doubt to disappear?

There are many ways you can do this.  Certainly, where two or three are gathered together in his name, Jesus is in their midst.  So being part of corporate worship is a very important way we  experience his presence.  Remember Thomas missed the risen Christ on that first Easter Sunday night worship service and he was full of doubts.  .

Bible study, prayer, seeing Christ in others, serving others, walking in the park, going camping, seeing a sunset are all ways we can experience the risen Christ.    But if you don’t make any effort to get out from behind those locked doors, you never will over come your doubts because

Doubt disappears in the presence of Christ. 

And all God’s people said, Amen. 

Rev. Bruce R. Grentz, Senior Pastor