Beyond a Shadow of Doubt

Are you struggling with spiritual doubts and wondering if your faith is real? This message addresses one of the most common challenges Christians face: dealing with doubt and uncertainty in their spiritual journey. Learn why doubt affects every believer and discover practical solutions for overcoming spiritual struggles. The key principle is that the closer you get to Jesus, the more you'll doubt your doubts. Pastor Matt Shackelford shares three practical ways to overcome doubt include experiencing Jesus' presence through Bible study and fellowship, examining the historical evidence for Christianity including the resurrection, and embracing the peace and joy that comes from knowing Christ personally.

Transcript

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Let's take our Bibles. Let's open to Luke 24. We're in Luke 24, the final three sermons here as we finish the book of Luke. As you're turning there, I like the story of the guy who fell off a cliff, but he managed to grab something in his fall, and it was a tree branch. He's hanging there and he starts yelling for help because he doesn't want to fall to his death. He's yelling up, help! Help! Is there anyone up there? And a voice comes, and the voice says, I'm here. It's me, the Lord. And the guy was stunned, and the voice came back and said, Look, it's me. The Lord, if you will just trust me, you'll be safe. Just let go. I'll make sure that you make it. You can trust me. And the guy in stunned silence just sat there holding on for dear life. And he said, Finally, is anyone else up there? Is anyone else available? I like that story, and here's why. I think that you and I struggle at times in our faith to trust God. We struggle with doubt. And doubt is one of those major topics that every single person in the room deals with from time to time. You and I, throughout life, will have moments of doubt, moments of disbelief, moments where it's just hard to trust God. You'll experience that, I've experienced that. And it doesn't mean that you're not saved. In fact, I would say it this way: doubt is faith that's struggling. But there's several reasons that you and I go through seasons of doubt. And this is one of the most major conversations. This is one of the most major topics that never gets addressed in the church. In fact, I did youth ministry for 15 years. And in student ministry, this was one of the most, this was probably the top topic that we dealt with, helping young people understand whether they're a Christian or not. To have assurance of their faith, to know that they're saved, and to know beyond a shadow of a doubt that it's real. There's several categories of doubters. In fact, just write these down. I think this would be helpful. First of all, there's the category of deceived doubter. You see, we live in a time where schools and classrooms are teaching young people and teaching this generation that God does not exist. That God is a fairy tale. God has been replaced by science, and the two have been placed in opposition to one another. That everything came from nothing. That's an impossibility, and yet people are taught how to doubt and how to doubt their creator. There's also another one, there's called one called wounded doubters. Write that one down. I meet so many people who had a terrible experience at a church, and all of a sudden, because their leader failed them, because something happened at their church, they're left wounded. And this is certainly, and I don't want to give into this, this is certainly a bit of the church hurt, a bit of the victim society kind of thing, but but that part is actually real. Like it happens that people go and they've had a pastor who's committed adultery or had an affair, and now they don't trust anything, or they've had some sort of abuse that has happened to them, and so now God must not be real. A leader has influenced them down this path. Third, there's casual doubters. Write that one down. For a lot of people, it's a casual doubt. Now, this person, I think I don't, I think this person may not be saved. This is the casual Christianity. You're coming to church, but but but really you're not you're not coming for a relationship with the Lord. You're not coming to develop that. This person's doubt is due to their distance. They're staying pretty far away from God. In fact, this is what you'd often refer to as the CEO, the Christmas and Easter only Christian, right? The CEO. Maybe not even a Christian. And then there's fourth, there's the fourth category of a Christian doubter. Someone who's saved, but they have their doubts. And they're not sure why. And so today what I want to do is I want to address really all of these. I want to give next steps to all of these, and we need to come back to that thought that oftentimes our doubt is not a sign that you're not saved. It's actually doubt is really faith that's struggling. And you need to embrace the struggle and you need to take next steps out of the struggle. My friend Philip de Corsi says it this way: I doubt the person that says that they have no doubts. Every one of us is going to be confronted with doubt at some point in our life. And it's not that you have doubts, it's how do you deal with it. And that's where I want to take us today. We're back in our series, The Death of Death, and today I want to preach a sermon to you. I've entitled Beyond a Shadow of a Doubt. And I want to look at Luke 24 and try to help you bring death, not just to death, but death to your doubts. How is it that we attack our doubts? How is it that we dismantle our doubts? How do we deal with it? In such a way that it's biblical next step. So let's take our Bibles, let's stand in honor of God's word, and we're going to hope and pray that the steps that the disciples went through are going to be answers for our next steps. It says this in chapter 24, verse 36. As they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them and said to them, Peace to you. Now that would have been a very customary greeting. Peace to you. This is just like saying good morning or good day. However, it was so appropriate because these are the people that did not have peace. And that might be some of you in the room today. Some of you need to hear this from the Lord Jesus Christ. Peace to you. Peace be with you. Experience his peace. Look at verse 37. But they were startled. They got anything but peace. When the dead man shows up alive, you would be too. They were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit. And he said to them, Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet. That it is I myself, touch me and see. For a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have. And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet. And while they still disbelieved for joy and were marveling, he said to them, Have you anything here to eat? They gave him a piece of broiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. What do we learn from this passage? Well, we learn how to get beyond a shadow of a doubt. And if you were to sum it up, I think the big idea is this that the closer you get to Jesus, the more you doubt your doubts. If you're feeling like you are living with doubts in this period of your life, the solution that the disciples and this passage shows us is that we've got to close the distance between you and Jesus. You've got to get closer to Jesus. And I want to give you three ways to get closer to Jesus. First, we need to seek his presence. Second, we need to seek his proofs, and third, we need to seek his peace. That's where we're going today. His presence. You can't cause the presence of God to be anywhere, but you can position yourself to be in his presence. And a lot of times, doubt comes to us because of neglect. We're neglecting the presence of God. I'm going to show you that. Second, his proofs. Christianity is a logical, factual religion. There really are proofs there. I'm going to give you some lists today of the proofs that you can see and you can evaluate for yourself. Then lastly, we're going to see the peace that passes all understanding. This passage ends with the disciples living out peace, but also marveling. And today that's how it's going to end for all of us, Lord willing. So may God bless the reading and the preaching of his word. May God bless all of you. You may be seated. Why do people doubt? Where does doubt come from? We need to know this. Those of you in student ministry, those of you in college ministry, this is one of the top subjects that you will face and talk to each other about. For some reason it comes to those who are younger at age. I'll touch on that. Let me give you several reasons at the very beginning that people experience doubt. Write these down, please. Number one, spiritual attack. I think a lot of times the reason that we experience doubt is because we have an enemy and he wants to hurt us and he wants to hunt us. In fact, if you read Ephesians chapter 6, we realize that we do not battle against flesh and blood. But there are principalities, there are demonic forces, there are doubts that will come to us because we're under attack. And far too often we forget that you are being hunted, right? I like putting up that picture on the screen of the far side of the two deer that are talking. How many of you are deer hunters? Anybody, anybody, yeah, I gotta respect that. You guys who go out and get a deer, uh, respect that. But I like the what the far side with the two deer, and one of them's talking to the other one, the two deer are talking to each other, and one has a target like on his chest, and the one deer says to the other deer, that's a bummer of a birthmark, Hal. And uh I like that a lot. That's a bummer of a birthmark. You're being hunted, like you just are. You are absolutely under attack, and some of you just have to acknowledge this. Part of the reason for your doubts is because you are being hunted. Satan wants to cause you to doubt. He wants you to doubt that God is good, that God is loving, he is hunting you. Number two, number two, write this one down. Uh, immaturity. Sometimes doubts will come to you just because you're an immature Christian. No one has ever sat down with you and done intentional discipleship. No one's ever sat down with you with the fundamentals of the faith book or a partner's book and said, you know what, let's take 12 weeks and let's get you secure in your faith. No one's ever done that with you. You've never been in a small group where someone's building into you intentionally. And this is another good reason to be in a small group. You've not been discipled. And so, because you're an immature Christian, you're swayed very easily. You hear something new, something you've never thought of, next thing you know, you're vulnerable. Write this one down. Number three, temptation. Temptation. Sometimes you doubt because temptation is real. Sometimes you doubt because temptation has overwhelmed you and you've given in to temptation. Yeah, it was about, it was over a decade ago that that I took on a senior pastor in Ohio. It was my first senior pastorate, and this one was this one was very difficult because the guy that I followed had been there for 10 years and he committed adultery. And the church was just broken over it, filled with suspicion, full, filled with pain. Um, there's just a lot of trouble there, but I met with the guy, and I sat with him, the former pastor, and I said, What happened? And so here's here's intimate details of that conversation, all right? He said to me, In the midst of my five-year adultery, I started having the craziest thoughts. And I kind of lean in and he says, I started thinking thoughts like, Well, maybe God's not real. This is a guy preaching in the pulpit every single week. And he's thinking thoughts like, well, maybe God's not real. You see, it showed me in that instance how sin and how how temptation, when you give in to temptation, what it does is it twists your mind, it twists your heart to believe impossibilities. He's like, I was so in darkness, I was so in the depth of my sin that Satan was twisting my mind, and it all went back to I gave in to temptation. For some people, doubts come because they've given in to sin. They've given in to temptation. Write this one down. Sometimes it's suffering. Suffering. It's like water torture. Some of you have chronic illnesses, some of you have chronic diseases, chronic pains, and you're saying to yourself, this isn't fair. I mean, honestly, I think that probably has to be something of what John the Baptist was feeling. Remember, John was a doubter. John the baptizer, one of the most famous guys in the New Testament. And he is the last prophet before Jesus, and he is doubting. Really? John who baptized Jesus? John who heard the voice from heaven? John who saw the dove descend. John sends his disciples to ask Jesus, are you the one, or shall we look for another? Why? It's because John was in jail. John wasn't having a good time anymore, right? And life had beat him down. And Jesus says, I'm the one, all right? Quotes Isaiah. But some of you, you are at an incredibly vulnerable place when you're in a season of pain. And you need to recognize that. Sometimes constant chronic suffering will push you into doubting. Number five, write this one down. So we have attack, immaturity, temptation, suffering, drifting. Drifting. If you skip this book enough, you will grow into doubt. If you skip coming to church enough, you will become a doubter. You will grow cold. It's kind of like the coal that gets away from the rest of the coals. When they're together, they heat each other up. But whenever you depart from it, what happens is you grow cold. You skip fellowship, you skip your small group, you skip God's word. Number six, last one, write this one down. Sometimes doubting comes because of expectations. Or say it this way, unmet expectations. In Proverbs 13, 12, I've given you this verse before, I love it. It says, hope deferred makes the heart sick. How does your heart grow sick? How does your heart start doubting? Whenever you get the no over and over and over, and life doesn't go your way, when your hope is deferred, you grow sick. Life hasn't turned out the way you thought it would. All of that should encourage us that the problems of life are not are not unique. That every single one of us, and maybe for a different reason, but every single one of us experiences the problems of life. And we ought to be encouraged that the presence of doubt doesn't mean that you're lost. Oftentimes it's the path to a greater faith. In fact, think of doubting Thomas, right? He gets that nickname, but this is also the guy that right before Passion Week, right before Jesus goes to the cross, he literally says, Let's go to Jerusalem and die with him. Thomas was ready to die. Then he had his faith shaken, right? And we'll see him in this story. But did you know that Thomas, in addition to his name doubting Thomas, did you know he had another name? Remember what it was called? He was called Didymus, which means the twin. So Thomas was a twin. Thomas had a twin running around somewhere out there. And I think that's so uh uh such a great illustration for us this morning. That some of you are Thomas' twin, but you've got doubts. And the question is, Pastor Matt, how do I deal with my doubts? How do I put them away? What are some, come on, give me some real steps where I can take my doubts and advance the gospel on them so that I extinguish them. Number one, write it down. Number one, let's experience Jesus' presence. Pastor Justin hit on this last week. We need to experience the presence of Jesus Christ. We need to get in places where we experience his presence. Notice the fear factor in verse 36. They were talking, as they were talking about these things, Jesus himself stood among them. This is a crazy moment. In fact, this is a scary moment. Have you ever been talking about somebody, like in a group, you're all circled up, and all of a sudden that person is like over your shoulder and you're talking about them? Have you ever scared? Have you ever done that to someone? Have you ever scared someone? How many of you, let's just see a show of hands. Come on, participate with me for just a second. How many of you enjoy scaring your spouse or a family member in the house? You jump out of the closet, you scare people. How many of you just enjoy that? Me too. Can I just encourage you this morning? That is a godly thing. In fact, let me just say this to you right here. That is actually a Christ-like thing, alright? You are being Christ-like when you in fact, let me tell a story. She's not here, she was in the last service, my wife, so I'm gonna talk about it, alright? This week I tried my hand at being Christ-like. Alright, so so my wife, my wife just pulled into the garage, she was getting back from running one of the kids, one place or another, and she gets into the garage and she's closed the garage door, the engine is off, and she starts finishing the conversation of someone that she's on the phone with, and she kind of has her head laid on the steering wheel. She's just talking and just kind of finishing, and I see my opportunity. And so I very carefully go out into the garage, and I get down in front of the window, and I get right down close, right next, right next to her face, so that I'm about six inches away. There's glass between us, but six inches away, and so I'm right there, and she hangs up and she turns and she sees me and she screams and she goes, and and and she did, she wasn't even off the phone at that point. And so she had to apologize to the person on the phone. And then she says these words I will get my revenge. And all week long I've been living in fear. Hasn't happened yet. But if I die of a heart attack in the near future, I want you to know it was because my wife and I were trying to be Christ-like. All right? Jesus shows up and scares these people. Look at this. Look what it says. It says that that they were, in verse 37, they were startled and frightened. This was a double fear. This was a fear, feared. They were panicked. In fact, the the Greek construction, not to geek out on the Greek with you for just a second, but the the Greek construction for feared Phobos here, it's actually the idea that it was a sustained fear. They didn't stop being afraid. They feared feared. This was intense fear. John reports on this event, and he just says it was one of the most life-changing moments because he he says it was the impossibility of it all. The doors were locked. And he reports on that. You can go read John 20. The doors were locked, and these guys, Jesus just shows up, peace be with you. No, I do think the peace be with you. That's just a customary greeting, but I do think there's something more there. These people needed peace. Like, like just it's okay. It's alright. But what is the point of Jesus doing this? Why does Jesus do this? Well, I think this shocking event becomes the basis of their assurance. His physical presence becomes the basis of their assurance and the end of their doubting. Couple of things. Write this one down. His appearance becomes a pattern for our resurrection. Theologically, this is so important. Write down 1 Corinthians 15. Paul will use the resurrection of Christ. Paul will use this event as a pattern for what our resurrection will be like. He will say that the old body is sown in weakness and frailty and dishonor, but the new body is going to be raised imperishable, raised in glory, raised in power, raised in a spiritual body. It's a body fit for the kingdom. And so put all this together, some of you, you need to understand this that you're going to get a new body, and you need to have hope in that. In your pain. Remember, pain, suffering, this is one of the things that causes doubts. You need to realize this. And so there's a lot of applications here. The Bible's really clear. You need to take care of the body you got, alright? So I don't know, maybe maybe don't have that plate of nachos at midnight, alright? Take care of the body you got. Maybe diet, maybe exercise, all those things. I think that's a good, that's a good pattern. However, don't go overboard. Don't live like this is the only body that you will get. Alright?

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A new body. Alright? So hope in that day, trust in that day, believe the promise of the resurrection and all that it means for us. Paul will say that bodily exercise profits a little. I mean, it's worth something, so do it. But don't put your hope in that. Put your hope in the resurrection of the dead. A second sub point I think his presence is doing here is this is the main point. He's addressing their doubts. In fact, look at verse 38 with me. In verse 38, it shows that his presence is there. Why? For what purpose? To address the doubts that have arisen in their hearts. Jesus lost every single disciple. And now his resurrection is getting them all back. This is exactly how Jesus alleviates doubts today. His presence. His presence. What do I mean by that? Well, here's what I mean. Okay. If God's presence is the thing that alleviates, alleviates our doubts, how do I experience God's presence? I can't demand God's presence. I can't cause his presence to show up anywhere, but I can position myself to be in the presence of God. Like, like, are you serious about wanting to be close to God? Are you serious about wanting to have a relationship to God? Now follow me on this, okay? I I remember a few years ago, another church, not this church, I remember a young adult coming up to me and saying, I would really like to be married. And I said, that's great. That's a that's a godly desire. That's a good thing. I'm I'm I'm happy for you. And I start asking questions. Well, well, have you have you met some of the young adults here at church? Have you gone to the young adults' ministry? And they were like, no, I haven't got around to it. And I said, You're not being serious about pursuing marriage. Because there's a group with a bunch of young adults who are single and ready to mingle. And you're not being serious. You say you want to be married, but but you're not being serious. Why? Because you need to position yourself. Right? You can position yourself in a place. Are you preparing for marriage? Are you saving up money? Are you meeting with someone who is married and saying, hey, would you teach me what it means and what it looks like to be married? How to be a priest, a provider, and a protector? What does that look like? Would you, you know, are you doing that? See, a lot of people are complaining about their doubts, but they're not pursuing the presence of God. They're not positioning themselves in a place to experience God's presence. For some people who doubt, they're not serious, and so are you. Well, how do I, Pastor Matt, how do I position myself to be in the presence of God? It's so easy. You're already doing it. You're here today. God indwells his people in two ways, individually and corporately. God's presence is here as we gather. And so week after week after week, you come to the service, you're experiencing the presence of God. Then you open your Bible, you're experiencing the Word of God and the presence of God. Then you get into a small group and you together talk about what God's doing in your life and you're experiencing the presence of God. You position yourself to be in his presence. That's the way out for these guys. They only stop doubting when they see the physically resurrected Christ. When he appears to them, when they experience his closeness. And so here's the question Are you doing that? Are you seriously addressing your doubts? Or are you just complaining and doing nothing to get into the presence of God? That's a serious question. When you miss that devotional, when you miss that gathering, when you miss that community, it's like isolating a coal from the fire. It's growing cold. And you drift and you drift and you drift and then you're doubting. It's God's presence. This is the path out. Number two, write this one down. It's not just his presence, it's also his proofs. We need to examine Jesus' proofs. That's the thing I love about Christianity. It's quite reasonable. It has proofs, it has facts. Yes, we need the presence of Christ, but we also need the proof of Christ. And those who have beat on the Bible, those who have hammered on the gospel, those who have tried to break it, come out the other side, broken men and broken women. Jesus will give providing, proving, evidence. In verse 38, notice he says, Why are you troubled? Why do doubts arise in your heart? Now, again, if you want the full passage, John will go into much more detail. Just write down John 20. Read that passage this week. We'll see the account of Thomas. Do you remember Thomas? Thomas said, I'm not going to believe. I refuse to believe unless I put my hand in his hands and see the wounds, right? And his feet and his side. I want to put my hand in his side and I will not believe the resurrection. And Thomas got that way because he skipped church. Fascinating. Thomas eventually finds his proof. And that's why he makes his confession in John 20, my Lord, my God. Thomas gazes on the facts and the truths of Christianity. And that's what you and I need to do. Thomas gives, is given hope for a physical resurrection. Look at verse 40 with me. He showed them his hands and his feet. Jesus is giving the details, the facts of a spiritual or a physical resurrection. Now, one of the things you'll have to be on guard in in our culture, liberalism, or and what I what I don't mean like political liberalism. What I mean is classic liberalism of scholarship around the Bible. Liberalism actually looked at stories like this and Jonah and said, it contains truth, but it didn't really happen. It was a spiritual resurrection. It was, they just wanted him to be alive so much. And so from stories like this, what we glean are things like rising against all odds and faith and hope. We glean those things. It didn't happen back then, but it happens in us every day. That's how theological liberalism interprets the Bible. We don't interpret it that way. The way that orthodox, uh conservative, evangelical Christians actually interpret the Bible is this really happened physically. In fact, there was an article last year about this time Christianity Today put out, and it was actually attacking the idea that there were nails used on victims of crucifixion. Don't read that magazine. It's a bad magazine, right? But it's it's the idea, and they were attacking it. Bizarre stuff. But the passage of scripture, we actually read that nails were used. There were wounds in Jesus' hands. There were wounds in his feet. There was a piercing in his side. And John 20 will actually show us that. So what's he doing? Look at verse 41. Look at verse 40, excuse me. He showed them his hands and his feet. I'm not a ghost. There's a physical resurrection. This passage shows that Jesus was literally raised from the dead. And we can't lose that. In fact, I want you to notice how Jesus does this in verse 41. Take this in. It shows us Jesus' heart towards skeptics. Now I acknowledge that in every room, a room this size, there are always going to be those who are seeking Christ, those who are saved, and those who are skeptics. But I want you to see this. Jesus has an amazing heart for skeptics. He loves strugglers. He loves doubters. Notice what he does next in verse 41. He said to them, Have you anything to eat? And they gave him a boiled, a piece of boiled fish, and he took it and ate it before them. What is this? What are we to make of this little pause in the story where Jesus eats a fish? Does Jesus just have a case of the munchies? He's on the road and he just needs, he just needs a little snack, a little something. My kids do that every night. My kids come down and we got this carton of flavor blasted goldfish downstairs. And they say, Dad, can I have a snack? Can I have the fishes? Right? Is that what's going on? Is Jesus just needing a little snack? Just a little top me off. I think it's something far more than that. I think he is actually being sensitive and loving and caring towards his struggling, doubting disciples. He's essentially showing them I'm not a ghost. Ghosts and spirits don't eat food, they don't interact with the physical world. I have a new body that is both physical and spiritual. And I think this was absolutely necessary for the disciples. In fact, if you look over at Acts 10, if you want to turn there for just a minute, go to Acts 10 with me. In Acts 10, this is a moment that Peter, he realizes how important this moment was. And Peter opens his mouth and he's talking about Gentiles hearing the good news of the gospel. And let's go to verse 39. It says, We are witnesses of all that he did, both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree. Verse 40. Not to all the people, but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses. That's who you are, by the way. You are witnesses, whether you have evangelism as a gift or not, all of us are to be his witnesses. And then it says, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. Like, do you understand? Like this moment is now fueling their ministry throughout the book of Acts. Like, understand it this way. If I'm going to go to another country, give my life for a mission, harsh conditions, possibly live with people that hate me, and then eventually die a gruesome death, I need some pretty good evidence. Amen? This meal that Jesus is providing is providing all the evidence that they need that this one who is called Jesus is sovereign over all of life. He's sovereign over death. I can risk it all. I can bet the farm. I can trust him. That's what's happening. So the disciples see this and they understand the necessity of this. And this passage doesn't say that we need to just cover over the facts or neglect the facts. What this says is you need to go on a hunt for the facts. Now I'm of the generation, I grew up with a TV show called The X-Files. Does anyone know what I'm talking about here today? Come on, some of you just raised two hands. I love that. I remember Agent Mulder and thank you, Scully. And the theme of that show was, you remember it? The truth is. Yeah, all right. The truth is out there. And the whole point of this was go and explore, go and investigate. That's actually what I take away from this middle section of the passage. If you're here with doubts, the truth is out there. The question is, are you serious? Are you willing to make your investigation? Are you willing to take steps and examine the facts? And by the way, Jesus will not be offended by that. Jesus is not offended by his disciples. He's gracious to them. Hey, I'll eat a piece of fish. Hey, you know what? Look at my hands. Look at my feet. So if you're here today and you have unresolved doubt, I just want to encourage you to go investigate. Go talk to a pastor. Don't be afraid to ask questions. The Bible can handle it. Go read a commentary. Go watch a sermon, but keep seeking the facts of the resurrection. The facts. It's the facts that tether your faith and your feelings back to the truth. I love that old poem. Three friends were walking on a wall, feeling faith and fact. When feeling took an awful fall, faith was taken back. So close to faith was feeling, he stumbled and fell too, but fact remained and pulled faith back, and faith brought feeling too. Did you follow that? I've got it hanging on my wall. I look at it all the time. It's in my office right now. Three friends were walking on a wall, feeling faith, and fact. When feeling took an awful fall, faith was taken back. So close to faith was feeling that he stumbled and fell too. But fact remained and pulled faith back, and faith brought feeling too. Your feelings will fail. Your feelings will stumble. So much so that your faith may be shaken. But the facts remained. And as you come back to the facts, your faith will be restored and your feelings will be restored too. But it's around, it's about the facts. Let me give you nine facts. Write these down. I'm giving you the this is the list sermon. I've got lots of lists. Write these down. I'm just gonna fire them at you quick. If you're struggling here today, I want to help you. I don't want you to leave without some facts in your pocket. Number one, the empty tomb. I mean, the craziest, I didn't say this a few weeks ago, but the craziest part about the empty tomb, where did they preach first? Where's the sermon happening? Jerusalem. Jerusalem's a very small city. If you go there, old city, you walk around it. You can walk around the whole thing in a, you know, under an hour. I did that back in December. I got on top of the rampart wall and I walked the whole perimeter of Old City Jerusalem. It's pretty amazing. You don't believe the tomb's empty? Go check it out. Just walk down the street and look. The empty tomb is great evidence. The missing body. What, the Romans lost it? I don't see that happening. These are professionals. Number three, the Roman guards themselves, highly trained, highly disciplined, illogical that they failed. Number four, the broken seal. Write that down. A Roman seal could not be broken unless authorized under threat of crucifixion. No one is going to take that risk and be crucified. Number five, the stone rolled away. The women couldn't do this. This was something that several men had to be involved in. Number six, the folded grave clothes. The folded grave clothes. If it was a grave robbery, they stole his body. If it was a hoax, they would not have taken time to carefully undo all of the wrappings and all of the spice wrappings and then fold them up and lead them there. Number seven, the eyewitnesses. Five hundred eyewitnesses, Paul appeals to in 1 Corinthians 15. And he says, most are still alive. Go talk to the witnesses. They saw him. If you're inventing things, making it up, you wouldn't do that. The Christian ethic, write this one down. This is one that not too many people cite, but I think it's a really strong one. The Christian ethic. What do I mean by that? Well, in Ephesians, Paul is going to say, put away falsehood. Stop lying to each other. So you're going to build a religion on a lie and then tell people not to lie? It's absurd. The Christian ethic. Number nine, the disciples' transformation. You've got, listen to me, every disciple, every single one fell away from Jesus the night he was captured. When he was crucified, he had zero followers left. None of them. They all fell away. They all lived in fear. Three days later, they stormed the world ready to die for him. This is a massive proof. How does it happen? It's the facts. It's just the facts. The facts are quite powerful. Last point, and we're done. We need to experience Jesus' presence. If you are doubting, you need to find yourself in the presence of Christ. If you are doubting, you need to examine the proofs of Christ. Lastly, you need to experience Jesus' peace. Verse 41, and we're done. And while they still believed, disbelieved for joy, what is that? It's too good to be true. That's the word we have for it in our language. They disbelieved for joy. It's like it's like they just couldn't bring themselves to believe that it was okay. I had this experience uh just this week. Um I've told some of you that that this last week was a big week in my family because I finally finished my PhD and I graduated. All right? Yeah. Ten years coming. Wrap that thing up. This is my face after I finished the interview. I want to show you this. This is we're sitting here at this is the final picture. After uh over two hours of just answering questions, and if you if you get a question wrong, you don't pass, and it was maybe the most stressful thing I've ever done. Um wrapped it up, finished it. So thankful. But I had this experience the rest of the day where I just didn't quite believe it was real. Like I passed, but Ashley would catch me just going like this for like the next six hours. She would just find me just giving this big sigh of relief where I felt like, you know, maybe that's why she didn't scare me this week. Because she knew I was going through that. I'm just putting that together in second service, but the two could go together. Um, but I just felt like maybe she's like, one more thing, he's gonna have a heart attack. I can't do this to him. But next week, next week, yeah. Um, I don't know. I disbelieved for joy that it had actually happened. I want you to see the two words that are really powerful for these disciples. They disbelieved for joy and they were marveling. They were marveling. It's too good to be true. You see, this is this is the mark of what it means to be a Christian. It's that you live with this in this constant state of joy that God accepts you. I accepted Christ in the third grade. It was the summer of my third grade year. I became a Christian. I believed. I really believed that was the time that I believed the gospel. And every day since I've lived with this thought: I can't believe that God accepts me. I can't believe that he allows me to be one of his own. This is a perpetual pattern for the disciples. But it's like it's too good to be true, and then they they just continue on marveling. And this should be the pattern for your life. That everywhere you go, you are marveling and you are sharing the reality. God accepts us, that God is willing to accept sinners, not by our doing, not by our trying to earn our way into heaven, not by trying to be a pretty good person better than my neighbor. No, it's by the merit of Jesus Christ, and it's guaranteed to us because Jesus rose from the dead. That marveling action should be happening in your life. In fact, the next book is the book of Acts, and that's what they're gonna be doing. They're gonna go everywhere in joy, marveling. That's what this peace looks like. It's the peace that brings joy and marveling. The Bible is full of doubting disciples, but this passage reminds me that Thomas is my favorite. Thomas, who said, I won't believe until I've looked at his hands and his side and put my hand there. Did you know that church history tells us the rest of the story with Thomas? It says that he actually, in 72 AD, he goes to India. And in India, he is persecuted for preaching the gospel, and he is speared. He is a spear is driven through him. You got a guy who's denying Christ and saying, I will never believe. And now he's being willing to suffer and to be martyred for Jesus Christ. That's a pretty amazing transformation. So if you're here today and you're doubting, be encouraged. You would make a great disciple of Jesus Christ. Because all of these disciples had that trajectory. Heads bowed, eyes closed, let's end in this way. Doubts do not disqualify you. In fact, they they're oftentimes the very method of you getting closer to Jesus and learning more about Jesus Christ. Are you far from Jesus today? Are you far from Christ? Are you living with doubts? In your life right now, there is a way out. Let's answer this question. What step do you need to take this week to draw near to the presence of God? For some of you, it may be that you need to open up your Bible, and before you read a single word, you need to pray, Lord, speak to me. Father, I just want to get into this place where I'm being ministered to in the word and I see your word come alive. Would you make your word alive to me this week? Would you just pray that right now? Right where you're sitting? For others of you, maybe you need to have a conversation with a pastor. Maybe you need to meet with one of our elders after this service. We're going to have an elder standing on this side of the stage and this side of the stage, and we're going to have somebody over here meet the pastor, but maybe you need to stop by and just have a conversation. Do it. The truth is out there. Your feelings may fail, your faith may falter, but the facts remain. Make your next step. And for some of you, you need to believe the gospel. You need to cry out to God and say, God, have mercy on me. I repent. I have faith in Jesus, that He is my Savior and my Lord. In fact, you can do that right now. You don't need a priest, you don't need a confessional booth, you don't need to do something to earn it. It has been earned for you by faith in Christ. And so you can cry out to God and say, God, I believe. I believe that Jesus really did die. He really was resurrected to life. I trust him. You can say that right now. You can enter into a relationship. So, Father, I lift up all these dear people. We thank you. We thank you for the truth of the gospel. We thank you that Jesus Christ did the work for us. We don't have to earn it. We thank you that his resurrection preaches that reality to us. And now, Lord, we ask that you would be glorified in this service. But most of all, you'd be glorified in each of our lives. And Father, as we leave, may we leave today preaching the truth of the resurrection to someone in our circles. The next few Sundays, these are resurrection Sundays. And Father, as we leave this place, may we identify someone that we can go and we can marvel at Jesus Christ in joy and in hope. And Father, if there's someone here struggling and suffering and disease or sickness, Father, may we be just reminded today that our new body is coming because of Jesus Christ. Our new reality, our resurrected body. We will have a body like his. And Father, we long for that day too. We love and praise you. We ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen. Church family, let's stand together. Let's conclude today by worshiping him. We'll be back with a benediction.