Campus Community | Tyler Staton

Overview:

This morning Pastor Tyler Stanton spoke to us about faith, tonight he spoke to us about doubt. Most doubt is not intellectual, it is personal. Doubt can be cultivated in our hardest moments. Our faith is enough, “until” … What is that “until” in our lives? Pastor Stanton took us through the life of the disciple Thomas. The “until” of Thomas’ life was when Jesus was laid in the tomb. Thomas voiced his doubt when he was among the disciples as they spoke about the risen Savior that they had seen with their own eyes. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” When Jesus arose, Jesus goes to each of His doubting disciples and completely restores them. He invites them to personally, experientially, and relationally know Him. The Hebrew word that Pastor Stanton taught us was “Yada”, which means experiential and relational knowledge. As Jesus appeared to Thomas and allowed him to touch His nailed scarred hands, Jesus was inviting Thomas to experientially and relationally know Him. Moments of deepest pain become moments of the greatest intimacy with our God. In that moment Thomas voices his belief in Jesus, “You are my Lord and my God.” This is the greatest profession of faith recorded in the Gospels. Jesus suffered so that we could know Him and experience a relationship with Him. The only thing we are seeking is the presence of Jesus. That is the miracle we are after and that is the only miracle that we need. Our God picks up all of our broken pieces and makes us whole again. He makes us more beautiful than we were before. Pastor Tyler Stanton invited us to come before our Savior and allow Him to remove our doubt and fill us with His presence.

Verses:

John 20:24-29

Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

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!” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

John 20:2

So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”

John 11:16

Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Psalms of construction

Psalm 103:1

Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name.

Psalms of deconstruction

Psalm 6:6

I am worn out from my groaning.

All night long I flood my bed with weeping and drench my couch with tears.

Psalm 10:1

Why, Lord, do you stand far off? Why do you hide yourself in times of trouble?

Psalm 13:1

How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?

John 20:15

He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?”

Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.”

Luke 24:17

He asked them, “What are you discussing together as you walk along?”

They stood still, their faces downcast.

John 21:17

The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?”

Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.”

Jesus said, “Feed my sheep.

John 20:28

Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

Quotes:

Most doubt isn’t intellectual. Doubt is personal and experiential.

Doubt is an event in my life that doesn’t line up with the story I believe.

Doubt is not an intrusion to avoid, but an invitation to follow.

Isolation is often the first symptom of doubt.

Jesus is a lot more comfortable with doubt than most of our churches.

The Bible does not avoid deconstruction, it provides a pathway through it.

The psalms of deconstruction cut a pathway through doubt to deeper faith.

YADA – Experiential & relational

Belief is buying into a theory. Knowing is lived experience.

“For what we need to know, of course, is not just that God exists, not just that beyond the steely brightness of the stars there is a cosmic intelligence of some kind that keeps the whole show going, but that there is a God right here in the thick of our day-to-day lives… It is not objective proof of God’s existence that we want but the experience of God’s presence. That is the miracle we are really after, and that is also, I think, the miracle we really get.” – Frederick Buechner

“A relationship becomes personal and real the moment you begin to single out a person from the crowd.” – Anthony Bloom

The places of our deepest pain become the places of our deepest encounters with God.

What pulls us through doubt is not God’s action, but God’s presence.

The greatest gift God ever gave us was in his restraint, not in his action. It was his willingness to be acted upon.

Doubt does not have to dilute your faith; it can deepen it.

“If we are to believe in his resurrection in a way that really matters, we must somehow see him for ourselves… It is not his absence from the empty tomb that convinces men (and women), but the shadow of his presence in their empty lives.” – Frederick Buechner

Questions:

1. What is your “until?” What is that thing that will shake your faith and cause doubt in the Living God?

2. Have you cultivated a community of disbelief, allowing doubt to rule your conversations?

3. Have you encountered the living God? Talk about a time when you experienced the presence of our risen Savior.

4. Are you allowing Jesus to make your doubt and hurt whole? How has God equipped Christians to combat doubt?

5. How could reading the Psalms help you walk through doubt rather than be stuck in it?