Before Jesus raised Lazarus, He turned to Martha and asked her a question. Do you believe this?
Two thousand years later, that question is still pointed at you. Do you believe that He is the resurrection and the life?
Here is the verse we built this Easter on.
The Spirit of God, who raised Jesus from the dead, lives in you. And just as God raised Christ Jesus from the dead, he will give life to your mortal bodies by this same Spirit, who is living in you. Romans 8:11 (NLT)
The Spirit of God means the breath of God, the power of God, the presence of God. You cannot see it, but you can usually feel it. You know when the power of God is in a room. And it does powerful things. It raised Jesus from the dead. If you believe, that same power is in you.
That is one of the most incredible truths in the Bible, and I am not sure we really grapple with it.
But there is a condition on it, and it comes down to one word. Believe. The resurrection is not just an event to celebrate. It is power to be experienced. So I want to show you not just what that word is, but how you can believe and why you should.
Because it sounds easy on the surface. It is a short word. It sounds simple. If you have ever actually tried it, you know it is not as easy as it sounds, because there is this thing called doubt.
Help Me Believe
Mark 9 tells the story of a father whose son had been tormented since childhood. The disciples could not help him. So he brings the boy to Jesus and says something you can feel the pain coming out of.
“If you can do anything, take pity on us and help us.”
If you are a dad, one of the joys and privileges of the job is protecting your kids. This man had a child he could not protect and could not control. It had to be painful.
And look at how Jesus answers him.
“If you can.”
He just repeats it back. I think Jesus got a little sassy there, and I will admit only about seventeen percent of scholars agree with me. But He knew exactly what He could do. I think we get a picture of Jesus sometimes that is totally incorrect, like He is walking around humbly with His cheeks sunken in. I think there was some holy frustration in Him. You do realize who you are talking to?
Then He says something challenging and beautiful at the same time.
“Everything is possible for one who believes.”
And the father says one of the most beautiful prayers in the whole Bible.
“I do believe. Lord, help me overcome my unbelief!”
The reason I call that a prayer is that I have prayed it. I have had moments where I had doubts. Moments where I did not have the answers and did not know. And I just needed God to help me believe. That is where the title of this message comes from.
The father believes. But somehow, through Jesus’ questions, he realizes there is still something inside holding back his total belief and his total dependence on God.
Three Ways We End Up Doubting
We do not think God is doing the right thing. We get into a mindset where we are just not sure God is up to the right thing, when really He always is. This dad could have said, “I do not understand why You do not see the struggle I am having. If I were God, I would have already healed this boy. Why the delay?” Not knowing that the whole time, God had every intention of setting his son free.
We tried to believe and it did not work. This dad could have said, “I was all in on this. I brought my child to the disciples and they could not do it. I thought it was going to happen and it just did not. I have been praying for so long and I still do not have an answer.”
We listened to the doubts of other people. That is what I love about Jesus’ response. He looked at the whole crowd, not just the father, and He said, “You unbelieving generation.” He was not being critical. He was teaching. He was trying to help them see.
I will tell you, the generation growing up in the church right now is more on fire than any I have ever seen. The young people in our church are memorizing Scripture. They are serving on the Dream Team. Half our Rise Kids team in the back are middle schoolers who already graduated out of Rise Kids and turned right around to serve in it.
But step outside the church, and that generation is about as lost as can be. Because there are so many things you can put your faith in. You can depend on yourself. You can depend on your money. You can depend on all kinds of things. And if you have ever tried all of that, you already know it does not work. Only God is the solution.
So how do you get from doubt to real belief?
The Doubter Who Changed His Name
Let me give you a resurrection story you might not expect to hear preached on Easter.
There was a man two thousand years ago who was a disciple of Jesus. His name was Thomas. But you know him as Doubting Thomas. You do not even have to go to church to know that name. It has become an analogy for a skeptic, somebody who has questions.
Here is the part nobody mentions. He became Believing Thomas. We still call him Doubting Thomas, and I do not know why.
After the resurrection, the disciples were locked in a room. Afraid. Doors shut. They could have called on Jesus for protection, but they were trying to protect themselves in their own way. And Jesus walks in anyway.
He did not say, “You bunch of doubters, you locked the door?” In the middle of their fear, with the greatest doubter in the room among them, He said this.
“Peace be with you.”
The first thing I want you to see is that Jesus is continually searching for you. He did not wait for those men to calm down and come find Him. He popped through the wall. My dude slid down the chimney. He got in there with them and He said, “Peace.”
If you are on a journey trying to figure out whether any of this is real, I want you to know your doubts will not keep Jesus away. He is not angry at you for doubting. He understands. He never doubted, but He did live as a human being for thirty three years, and He understands what you are going through more than you probably realize. He is not saying your doubts are fine. He is saying, “I understand, and I want to help you.”
Fried Donuts at the Chinese Buffet
A few months after we launched, a couple named Ernesto and Brenda started coming to our church. They were kicking the tires. Back then, if somebody showed up, we would swarm them and they were probably uncomfortable. We have gotten a little better.
Ernesto asked if we could go to lunch. I said, “Only if I can pay.”
He said, “Deal.”
I asked where he wanted to go and he said the Chinese buffet, and I thought, I like this guy. We are going to be good friends.
So we are at the Chinese buffet. Dragons on the wall, the whole nine. They also have fried donuts, which is a critical part of this story. All you can eat. I am three plates in. I am not playing around. All you can eat might be my second favorite phrase in the English language, right after for God so loved the world.
And Ernesto sits across the table and tells me something.
“Some people would call me an agnostic. It means I do not believe in God, but I do not know that I should not. I am just in a place where I do not know what to believe. Part of the problem is that I have so many questions, and every pastor I have ever sat down with has never been able to answer them. I would like to believe. I really would. But I do not know how, because of all these questions.”
I looked at him and said, “I understand. I have lots of questions too.”
He paused and looked at me like he did not follow. I let that sit for a good two seconds.
Then I said, “Here is the difference. I have got tons of questions. Some of mine got answered once I started believing, because believing opened my eyes to things I could then see. But I have a whole lot of other questions I am convinced will not get answered here. They will get answered when I can sit with Jesus in heaven and ask Him.”
“The difference is that I do not let my questions become doubts.”
And then I kept eating fried donuts. So did Ernesto. That was it. We just hung out.
Two weeks later, something happened that I will never forget as long as I live.
Brenda had been praying for her husband for years. Ernesto had told me at that lunch that the only reason he was even coming to church was for her. She believed, and he was content to support her.
They come in one Sunday, and about five minutes before service Ernesto walks up to me, and I can tell he is frustrated.
“Somebody got our seats.”
I said, “Ernesto, they are guests. We give up our seats. We do not have assigned seating. It is what Jesus would do.”
He was not thrilled. So I came up with a quick solution and told him to come sit with me and Missy.
He said, “On the front row?”
I said, “Okay, how about the second row.”
And he came down the aisle a little begrudgingly and sat right on the end.
I can still see him there.
Every single Sunday at Rise Church we share the invitation to receive Jesus. We preach the gospel every week. And at the end I usually say something like, “If you are choosing today to believe, at the count of three, raise your hand.”
One. Two. Three.
And I see movement in the second row, and it is Ernesto with his hand up, and I almost fell off the platform. There were other hands that day. But I knew that one was coming from a man who had labeled himself agnostic two weeks earlier at a Chinese buffet.
Brenda had done what I asked and kept her head bowed and her eyes closed. She had no idea. As soon as the song ended I beelined down there and gave Ernesto a bear hug.
Brenda said, “What? What is going on?”
I said, “Ernesto just gave his life to Jesus.”
And she broke. Because a prayer she had been praying for years was being answered right in front of her.
The very next Sunday was Baptism Sunday, and I got to baptize him. This church was so broke back then that he was baptized in a cow trough. I went down to Tractor Supply, bought one, and told the Dream Team it was our new modern tin baptistry. They are all the rage. It was really just because it cost three hundred dollars.
Ernesto did not need an argument that day at lunch. He did not need a debate. I probably could have answered a lot of his questions, and he probably could have stumped me on a few. But if I had won that argument, some other argument would have come along eventually and sounded better than mine.
What he experienced was an encounter with God. His life changed not because a question got answered, but because he stopped letting his questions be doubts and made the choice to believe.
Take a Step
Back in that locked room, Jesus turns to Thomas directly.
Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe. John 20:27 (NIV)
Jesus just went ahead and answered him. And He was inviting Thomas to take a step toward something he had not yet accepted.
That is the second thing. You have to take a step to discover who Jesus is. In order to encounter God and say yes to Him, you have to put yourself in the room. He is already there. He is already coming after you. But belief is not going to come to you. You have to go to it.
The way I would say it around here is this. Give us a year of your life. Come back next Sunday, and the next one. Join a small group. When there is a men’s night or a women’s night or a marriage night, register yourself. Jump in.
It will not even take a year before you notice you are a different person, and that the doubts you have been sitting with for a long time have started rolling off of you.
I still have questions for God. But I do not doubt Him. I believe.
My Lord and My God
When Thomas finally touched those wounds, here is what he said.
“My Lord and my God.”
He did not say the Lord and the God. He did not revere God from a distance and keep Him over there. He made it personal. Thomas was Jesus’, and Jesus was his.
So the last thing is this. If you want to overcome your doubts, give your life to the One who gave His life. He already acted. He was the first one to take a step. And if you put your faith in Him, now you get to live your life for Him.
Christianity is not a set of beliefs to get ordered in your head. It is not belief in God, the Lord, the God. It is belief on God. My Lord and my God.
Think about the first time you flew on an airplane. You walked down that jetway without understanding how aerodynamics work. Not one of us read the Wikipedia article on jet propulsion first. You just knew a lot of people were getting to thirty five thousand feet and landing safely, and you saw enough of it that you figured you would give it a whirl. You believed on it.
You flipped a light switch this morning. Do you know how the electricity got to your wall? I do not. Something happened at the nuclear plant in Soddy Daisy and now I have power.
You got in your car and cranked it up, or pressed the start button if you are one of the fancy people. You do not know how an internal combustion engine works. A series of explosions happened under the hood and you drove here.
You believe on things all day long that you do not fully understand.
Jesus is not asking you to figure Him out first. He is asking you to take a step.
If you are carrying doubt today, that does not disqualify you. It never has. Jesus walks through locked doors and says peace before anybody has their questions sorted out. Your doubts will not keep Him away.
“Stop doubting and believe.”