Man of Doubt…..Man of Faith

Pastor: 
Rev. Jon Brohn
Date: 
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Sermon Text: 

Genesis 15:1-6  After this, the word of the Lord came to Abram in a vision: “Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward.” 2 But Abram said, “O Sovereign Lord, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus?” 3 And Abram said, “You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir.” 4 Then the word of the Lord came to him: “This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.” 5 He took him outside and said, “Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.” Then he said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” 6 Abram believed the Lord, and he credited it to him as righteousness.

 

 My dear friends in Christ,
 
It had been a rough week for Abram. First he received news that invaders had attacked the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. Then he found out that his nephew Lot was among the prisoners of war. Abram called out the 318 trained soldiers in his household, and they set out to rescue Lot. They routed the enemy forces, set the prisoners free, and recovered all their goods and possessions. When the king of Sodom tried to reward Abram with all the goods he had recovered, Abram replied, "I will accept nothing belonging to you, not even a thread or the thong of a sandal, so that you will never be able to say, ‘I made Abram rich’" (Genesis 14:23).
 
Abram finally arrived home. He had travelled hundreds of miles, fought a battle against an army far larger than his own, and then escorted everyone home. After all this, LORD came to him in a vision. He said, "Do not be afraid, Abram. I am your shield, your very great reward" (Genesis 15:1). Abram didn’t need fighting men to protect him. The LORD was his shield. Abram didn’t need rewards from an earthly king. The LORD was his very great reward!
 
Here’s where we expect Abram to be a man of faith. He had left his homeland without hesitation and followed the LORD’s directions to a land he had never seen before. The LORD had promised to give him a son in his old age. Even with great faith, Abram doubted. He said, "O Sovereign LORD, what can you give me since I remain childless and the one who will inherit my estate is Eliezer of Damascus? You have given me no children; so a servant in my household will be my heir" (Genesis 15:2-3). The LORD had first made this promise when Abram was 75 years old. Abram was now in his mid-eighties and still had no son. When would it happen? How could it happen? He had his doubts.
 
Abram wasn’t the only man of faith to doubt God’s Word. Think of Thomas in today’s gospel reading. Jesus had told Thomas and the others that he would rise from the dead. Thomas had watched Jesus die. He witnessed Jesus’ burial in Joseph’s tomb. He couldn’t doubt the facts: Jesus was dead and buried. Thomas wasn’t there on Easter evening when Jesus appeared to the other disciples. When Thomas’s friends told him Jesus was alive, he said, "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 it" (John 20:25). Thomas wanted proof before he would believe.
 
What about us? Are we people of doubt? Do we want some proof before we believe? The world wants us to doubt everything God’s Word has told us. Look up at the stars in the sky, the same ones Abram viewed. The Bible says, "Lift your eyes and look to the heavens: Who created all these? He who brings out the starry host one by one, and calls them each by name. Because of his great power and mighty strength, not one of them is missing" (Isaiah 40:26). Creation is a powerful witness to God’s wisdom and strength. The world ignores the evidence and sows the seeds of doubt. It places emphasis on a theory, on billions and billions of years, on a “big bang,” and points to all kinds of scientific “evidence” claims evolution is the answer to all our questions. People of doubt? Sometimes we are!
 
Last weekend we celebrated Jesus’ resurrection from the dead. Jesus’ own disciples weren’t 100% convinced that he was alive. "When they saw [Jesus], they worshiped him; but some doubted" (Matthew 28:17). Some theologians, even some who consider themselves Lutheran, help cast doubt on Jesus’ resurrection by saying that it’s just a story that teaches us a lesson about spiritual renewal. People of doubt? Sometimes we are!
 
Do you have doubts about God? Doubts about faith? Doubts about yourself? If you do, you are in good company. Abram had his doubts, as did Moses and King David, Thomas, Peter, and the other apostles. We are all people of doubt, because we are still people of sin. How can we deal with the doubts that crop up?
 
Here’s a picture of the Andromeda galaxy. Astronomers can only estimate the number of stars in one galaxy, let alone count all the stars in the universe. There are too many to count. The LORD used this object lesson to get rid of Abram’s doubts. "Then the word of the LORD came to him: ‘This man will not be your heir, but a son coming from your own body will be your heir.’ He took him outside and said, ‘Look up at the heavens and count the stars—if indeed you can count them.’ Then he said to him, ‘So shall your offspring be’" (Genesis 15:4-5).
 
The LORD would make Abram’s descendants uncountable! The man of doubt could still be the man of faith. "Abram believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness." (Genesis 15:6). The apostle Paul explains that phrase for us. "Against all hope, Abraham in hope believed and so became the father of many nations, just as it had been said to him, “So shall your offspring be.” Without weakening in his faith, he faced the fact that his body was as good as dead—since he was about a hundred years old—and that Sarah’s womb was also dead. Yet he did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God, but was strengthened in his faith and gave glory to God, being fully persuaded that God had power to do what he had promised. This is why ‘it was credited to him as righteousness’" (Romans 4:18-22). God’s promise—his Word—drove out Abram’s doubts. The man of doubt was the man of faith!
 
Thomas had the same experience with doubt and faith. Jesus, whom John referred to as “the Word made flesh” (John 1:14) appeared to him in the upper room a week later and said, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe" (John 20:27). When Thomas saw Jesus and heard his words, he fell to his knees and confessed his faith in the Savior: “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28). The Word, Jesus himself, drove out Thomas’ doubts. The man of doubt was the man of faith!
 
How about our doubts? God uses the same Word to drive away our doubts and strengthen our faith. His Word convinces us, even though we haven’t seen the things that we’ve read about. Jesus told Thomas, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (John 20:29). There are a lot of things we haven’t seen that we could doubt, but the Word has convinced us to believe. Have you seen God? Have you seen the creator of the stars who calls them by name? We haven’t, but the Word tells us he exists, and shares who he is and what he’s like. The Word convinces us to believe in God.
 
Have you seen Jesus? Artists have tried to portray what Jesus looked like for 2000 years, but no one really knows. The only place to see Jesus is in God’s Word. The Word says, "Today in the town of David a Savior has been born to you; he is Christ the Lord" (Luke 2:11). The Word says, "And the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him" (Luke 2:40). Throughout the Gospels we hear what Jesus was like, what he said and did, and finally how he saved the world by dying on the cross and rising again from the dead. That’s how we see Jesus. The Word introduces him to us, and it convinces us to believe that he is the Savior.
 
Are your sins forgiven? Can anyone to prove it scientifically? Of course not! We can’t see forgiveness. But the Word convinces us. "I write to you, dear children, because your sins have been forgiven on account of his name" (1 John 2:12). We catch a glimpse of that forgiveness in the water of Baptism. The LORD tells us to look at that water, just like Abram looked up at the stars. Then the LORD promises, “Baptism … now saves you also—not the removal of dirt from the body but the pledge of a good conscience toward God. It saves you by the resurrection of Jesus Christ" (1 Peter 3:21). The Word convinces us it’s true! The LORD also tells us to eat bread and drink wine. With his Word he gives us yet another glimpse of forgiveness. He tells us, "Take and eat; this is my body…. Drink from it, all of you. This is my blood of the covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins." (Matthew 26:26-28). The LORD uses his Word to drive away our doubts and convince us it’s true. We believe it!
 
How about heaven? Have you seen that place? Not with these eyes, but with the eyes of faith. The Word says, "Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away" (Revelation 21:3-4).
 
People of doubt…people of faith. That describes us as we struggle here on earth. We will have doubts. When we do, we need to go to the only thing that gets rid of doubt—God’s powerful Word! Believe it, people of faith! Amen.
 
To God alone the glory!                Pastor Jon Brohn
Sermon Audio: 
20100411 Sermon.mp3