John 20:24-25 CSB – But Thomas (called “Twin”), one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.  So the other disciples were telling him, “We’ve seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in his hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

John 20:26 ESV – Eight days later,his disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.”

Is it possible that the sincerest doubters become the strongest disciples?

Jude 1:22 ESV – And have mercy on those who doubt

  • Everyone Lives by Faith

Doubt is Natural

  • To Live is to Doubt

Hebrews 11:6 Without faith it is impossible to please God.

Without faith, it is impossible to please anybody.

Romans 1:17, the righteous will live by faith.

(The unrighteous do, too!)

“In faith there is enough light for those who want to believe and enough shadows to blind those who don’t.” – Blaise Pascal

“if you don’t have doubts you’re either kidding yourself or asleep. Doubts are the ants-in-the-pants of faith. They keep it alive and moving.” – Frederick Buechner

What Drives Our Doubts?

  • Lack of Information

Luke 24:11 – these words seemed like nonsense to them.

“Those who seek to adduce Mithra as a prototype of the risen Christ ignore the late date for the expansion of Mithraism to the west” – Dr. Edwin Yamauchi

Matthew 22:29 CSB – Jesus answered, “You are mistaken, because you don’t know the Scriptures or the power of God.

2 Timothy 2:14-15  Remind them of these things, and charge them before God not to fight about words.

  • Fatigue

John 11:16 ESV – So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

But everyone must have experienced days in which we are caught up in a great wave of confidence ordown into a trough of anxiety though there are no new grounds either for the one or the other.

Of course, once the mood is on us, we find reasons soon enough. We say that we’ve been `thinking it over’: but it is pretty plain that the mood has created the reasons and not vice versa.- C.S. Lewis

  • Sociological Influence

How Doubt Can Lead to a Stronger Faith

  • Be Open to the Truth

Belief is always influenced by desire

Does anything block you from being open?

“it would require radical change in my way of life, a basic alteration in the direction of my day-to-day choices…. The simple truth of the matters is that I did not wish to live up to being a genuinely religious person.”

John 3:19-20 – This is the judgment: The light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than the light because their deeds were evil. For everyone who does evil hates the light and avoids it, so that his deeds may not be exposed.

  • Courageously Seek the Truth

Psalm 10:4 – In the pride of his face the wicked does not seek him;
all his thoughts are, “There is no God.”

Faith does not feed on thin air but on facts. Its instinct is to root itself in truth, to earth itself in reality, and it is this which distinguishes faith from fantasy, the object of faith from a figment of imagination. – Os Guinness

Deep questions require deep study

  • Weigh the Evidence. Make a Decision to Believe

John 20:26b – 29 – Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”