John Chamness
The Lord Jesus Christ was nearing the end of His earthly sojourn and appointed a place into Galilee where His eleven disciples would meet.
Matthew 28:17 records these words, “And when they saw him they worshipped him: but some doubted.” What a strange statement.
Through three and one-half years these disciples have walked with Jesus. They witnessed – with their own eyes – every kind and type of miracle.
They were the ones who did the serving when He took a small boy’s lunch and blessed it to feed five thousand men (possibly as many as twenty thousand in total attendance).
The disciples were present when a funeral procession stopped outside the gates of Nain and a young man, who had died came alive.
Forty days and nights have passed that first Easter or Resurrection Sunday morning.
Jesus had showed Himself to be alive in many infallible and demonstrative proofs.
“… but some doubted.” This produces some interesting questions. How can I handle doubt? How can it be overcome? Is doubt always bad?
My experience is that doubt is not always bad. It merely depends upon how we handle it. If we live in doubt, our life will become negative, fearful and unfruitful. However, if we use it as a vehicle to drive us on a search for truth, doubt can be a wonderful tool.
There came a time in Martin Luther’s life when he doubted the doctrine of his church.
He seriously questioned the selling of indulgences, and the worshipping of canonized saints.
The further he searched the more he became convinced his church was wrong.
That began as doubt on the part of a German monk and became a positive revelation in the Protestant Reformation.
Millions would one day come to hear the message, “The just shall live by faith,” simply because a man doubted.
Christopher Columbus doubted the end of the world lay off the coast of Portugal.
He also doubted the world was flat as most of the “learned men” of his day believed. His doubts drove him to a long and desperate search for men, ships and finances. In 1492, he made the longest journey that had ever been taken at that time – tiny specks on a trackless sea for days and days, weeks and weeks, months and months – but a new world was born.
John Wesley was another man who doubted. He doubted the Anglican Church had all the answers. In a compelling search for truth, Wesley brought a revival to the world that ultimately became the Methodist Church.
I repeat. Doubt can be a wonderful tool.
Some time ago upon rising one Sunday morning, my wife made the statement, “I believe we (meaning the church) are going to have a great day.”
“I doubt today will be much different from what we experience every Sunday” said I.
That was very negative, or at least according to my wife. However, we went on to church as usual.
That day did turn out to be a very good day. God’s presence and approval of the church’s efforts at worship and praise was clearly manifest.
There were testimonies of His miracle working power in people’s lives, blessings, healed infirmities and afflictions, deliverance from addictions, and even God’s guiding hand in the little things of life.
We might say “I doubt it” when told that God really does love us and wants to bless us when we come together in His house.
But if that doubt can be used to motivate us to come and see, to join ourselves together in worship, we may soon discover that doubt has turned into faith.
Now faith is something pleasing to God. Check out what He said in Hebrews 11:1, 6. I once doubted, but now I know.
Won’t you attend a good Bible-believing church this Sunday, and every Sunday thereafter? Even if you doubt it now, you won’t regret it later.
Remember to love your neighbor as yourself. Don’t doubt it. It really works. See you in church.
I’m believing for you and not doubting.
Rev. Dr. John I Chamness is pastor of the Family Worship Center A/G in Chester. He may be reached by phone at 573-547-7634 or by email at johnchamness@att.net.
