|
DATE |
CHURCH |
SUBJECT |
PREACHER |
BIBLE
REF. |
|
01.03.09 |
All Saints Church |
Temptation to
Doubt |
Patricia Higton |
Gen. 3:1-15
Luke 4:1-13 |
|
Introduction
You may have heard many a sermon preached in Lent about the
importance of overcoming temptation. Various temptations will
have been mentioned – lust, greed, anger, hatred, envy, pride,
etc.
But in the reading from Genesis we heard of the very first
temptation ever to the first human beings: the temptation to
doubt God. That temptation, which can be mild or agonising
and takes many different forms, has afflicted humanity ever
since. Temptation is not sin – only if we give in to it. But we
can take comfort from the fact that this particular temptation
comes to most people at one time or another and even afflicted
Jesus.
The most fundamental form of doubt is to doubt the very
existence of God
It is a great pity that in all the focus on Darwin at the moment
because of the 200th anniversary of his birth and the
150th of the publication of The Origin of Species, in
many of the programmes on the media, commentators are featured
who are atheists or agnostics, such as David Attenborough, or a
scientist featured last week on a series on Channel 4 about the
History of Christianity. Very often such people know a lot
about Darwin and a lot about their own subject but very little
about theology – yet they consider themselves experts on making
pronouncements against belief in God or Christianity. Equally
frustrating is that we know, and they know, that there are
thousands of scientists and a large numbers of top scientists
who have no problem believing in God. One such is Dr Francis
Collins, Head of the Human Genome project, doing research at the
cutting edge into DNA – he knows most of what there is to know
about evolution and how it is possible, and his faith in
God is firm. Sadly he was not featured. But let’s not be taken
in by the media and its one-sided presentations, but try to look
at all sides of a debate.
People usually doubt God for two reasons – because they find it
difficult to believe in a Creator or because of the problem of
suffering. Tony and I watched a DVD about the life of CS Lewis
– an atheist who became a believer because he could not escape
God – who then allowed him to be tried and tested through
personal suffering. In the end he came through the dark valley
of grief with an even stronger faith than before. It is right
to face up to doubts and to do all we can to consider them
deeply, rather than gloss over them. But once we have become
convinced of the existence of God let us hold onto that and tell
the tempter, if he comes with further doubts, to get behind us.
In the wisdom of God, he chose the order of faith first before
personal knowledge of himself. We can only truly get to know
God when we have believed – and the greater the faith, the
greater the knowledge.
Another form of doubt is about Jesus – who he was and what he
did.
I
don’t know if you have noticed in the temptations of Jesus, each
time the devil whispered – ‘If you are the Son of God…’
Another fascinating thing is that when Jesus was about to ascend
into heaven, the disciples gathered round and worshipped him –
but a few in the crowd doubted. Not that it was Jesus or that
he was risen but whether to worship him. They were Jews, after
all, who believe ‘The Lord our God, the Lord is one’. Many
today believe Jesus existed – there is little doubt about that –
but who was he really and should he be worshipped as God? It is
a proper question to ask, but those early doubters did not have
the advantages we have – of the explanations in Paul’s writings
and in John, which have helped us to understand that God is
complex and Jesus is his very image, the Word or Revelation
issuing from God the Father. Once we have become convinced of
that, even though we do not fully understand, we can resist
those doubts of the enemy. Above all we can say we know God as
Father, we know that God the Son has died to save us, we have
the Holy Spirit to help and strengthen us. If that is the case
in our experience, we have the beginnings of understanding of
the Trinity and Jesus’ place within it.
The third form of Doubt is ‘Did God say…’ - the very doubt in
the Genesis story.
The Tempter whispered: Surely they misheard God or misunderstood
– or he was misleading them. Perhaps he was just a spoilsport
who wanted to curtail freedom and enjoyment. If only Adam and
Eve were to eat the forbidden fruit they could be like gods –
they would be supernatural beings. A lot of people in the New
Age Movement believe that, or people addicted to drugs. And
don’t the bus adverts say – God probably does not exist so go
out and enjoy yourself! What a con! It is not God who is
conning us but the devil – he knows that we only find true
fulfilment in God, and in following his will and walking in his
way, otherwise we live for ourselves, instead of for him and
others. Once we have discovered that ‘In his service is perfect
freedom’ to quote the collect, then we must put all doubts
behind us about that and go all out for our Lord. If we believe
in the goodness of God and that his way is perfect, we shall
find peace as we follow it.
The last form of doubt I will mention tonight is simply lack of
trust
There are the fundamental doubts that we have touched on, which
we need to think through before we become believers, or at least
at some stage in our lives. They might be fleeting doubts or
really agonising and we need to cry out to God to help us work
through them. But there are also those day to day doubts in the
Christian life. The Christian life is all about faith and
trust, but doubt is the exact opposite – so of course the
tempter will come many a time to cause our trust in God to
wobble. If he can’t prevent us becoming Christians then he will
do his best to undermine our trust so that we are weak and not
much use in God’s service.
When we are with our grandchildren it is lovely when they reach
out their hands on a walk, putting their small hands in ours.
But sometimes they want to run on ahead or lag behind, when we
can see all kinds of snares, so we reach out our hand to them –
and occasionally they pull away because they have ‘better’
ideas. On a busy road that could be disastrous.
So in our Christian life, many a time we want to do our own
thing, or we come across a problem and we begin to doubt God’s
way. This might be a small thing or it could be a time when we
cry out to God – What are you doing? – Are you asleep, or have
you led us down the wrong path – Where are you in all this mess?
At such times, it may for a while seem like the heavens are as
brass, but then God reaches out his hand and pulls us to his
side once more – looking for that response of love and trust in
his love for us, which is what the Christian life is all about.
In conclusion
It is vital to distinguish between the need to resist the
temptation to doubt – that doubt which is negative and
undermines faith – and the importance of pursuing the right kind
of questioning. The Bible describes it as seeking and promises
that those who seek will find. We need to resist the temptation
to doubt, as Jesus did but Adam and Eve failed to do, but to
pursue our honest questions about God and his ways, until we
find the answer. |
