The Gift of Doubt


A series for anyone who has ever had more questions than faith

2/4: Your Questions

Share how religious doubt was handled in your family growing up.

This week’s small group is all about your questions. I’ve included the questions and answers from this week’s sermon.

Choose the questions that interest your group most, or invite the group to ask and explore their own questions.

  1. In short, the answer is “no.”
  2. But neither are koalas or apples.
  3. Some ancient beasts are mentioned, such as the Behemoth and the Leviathan. But they seem to be specific creatures, not species of creatures.
  4. The Bible spares its readers of information not relevant to them. The Ancient Hebrews didn’t need to know about black holes. Early Christians weren’t concerned with car warranties. And no one needed to keep up with the Kardashians.

 

  1. Adam’s naming of the animals occurs in Genesis 2, and it’s an integral part of the story.
  2. Three things are going on in the story
    1. Adam is helping God to rule
    2. Adam realizes that he is different from all other beasts
    3. Adam is only naming animals in the Garden.
    4. We should expect life, animals, and plants outside of the Garden.
  1. I’m told it’s the Triassic period
  2. If you’re asking which creation day were dinosaurs made, I’d go with day five since raptors had feathers
  1. About 37
  2. The current year system was created around 525 and has some issues. We date Jesus’s birth around 4BC. Jesus was born during Herod the Great’s reign, and he died 4BC.
  3. Our best guess is that Jesus was crucified on April 3, 33 AD. This is calculated by comparing the Jewish calendar with modern astronomy. There is room for error based on how accurate 1st-century Jews were at the time
  1. Or 1989. Or 500. Or 1999. Or 2000. Next year according to one person
  2. Isaac Newton is still holding strong with 2060
  3. Matthew 24:36-39
36 “But about that day or hour no one knows, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. 37 As it was in the days of Noah, so it will be at the coming of the Son of Man. 38 For in the days before the flood, people were eating and drinking, marrying and giving in marriage, up to the day Noah entered the ark; 39 and they knew nothing about what would happen until the flood came and took them all away. That is how it will be at the coming of the Son of Man.

Other Scriptures that mention it

  1. The return of Christ is mentioned in several passages in Scripture. Just a few:
    1 Thes. 2:19; 3:13; 4:15; 5:23; 2 The 2:1, 8; Jas 5:7-8; 2 Pet 3:4, 12; 1 Jn 2:28;  2 Cor 7:6-7; 10:10; Phil 1:26; 1 Cor 15:20-26; 1 Tim 6:14; 2 Tim 4:1,8; Titus 2:13; Rom 13:12; 1Cor 3:13; Heb 10:25 Phil 1:10; 2:16; 1 Cor 1:8; Rev 19; 2 Pet 3:12
  2. The Bible does mention 3 things that must take place before Jesus returns
    1. The Gospel is preached to all people groups
    2. The Great Apostasy and Tribulation

The coming of The Antichrist

  1. Christianity is based on Jesus’s Resurrection
  2. 1 Corinthians 15:12-14
12 But if it is preached that Christ has been raised from the dead, how can some of you say that there is no resurrection of the dead? 13 If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. 14 And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith.
  1. 1 Corinthians 15:20-22
20 But Christ has indeed been raised from the dead, the firstfruits of those who have fallen asleep. 21 For since death came through a man, the resurrection of the dead comes also through a man. 22 For as in Adam all die, so in Christ all will be made alive.
  1. It’s hard to explain how unforeseen this idea is. No one in the ancient world considered this a possibility. But it was so radical, as were the messages of grace, love, and justice, that people couldn’t ignore it.
  1. Some background. Prior to Noah’s famous boat, there were humans who were evil. So evil that God decided to hit the reset button, brought in the flood, and restarted with Noah.
  2. Genesis 7:11-12
11 Now the earth was corrupt in God’s sight and was full of violence. 12 God saw how corrupt the earth had become, for all the people on earth had corrupted their ways.

 
  1. The Bible doesn’t give us an exact reason why they were so ruinous, except that this happened from a long line of evil begetting evil. Adam and Eve had three sons that get mentioned. Able died, but Cain and Seth have kids. All of Cain’s kids are evil, but Seth’s kids are a mixture. Noah is in line with Seth, so God eliminates all of Cain’s descendants. Noah has three kids, 2 good and 1 not so much. You see this pattern of one line of descendants being chosen until Jesus. After Jesus, you see the righteousness spreading from one to all.
  2. Romans 5:19
19 For just as through the disobedience of the one man the many were made sinners, so also through the obedience of the one man the many will be made righteous.
  1. Get or fit? The animals came to Noah. We assume by some miraculous force.
  2. How did they all fit?
  3. This is a difficult question if you believe that it was a planet-wide flood. Many solutions have been proposed
  4. The animals were babies and slept.
  5. The animals were DNA, but this doesn’t make sense. It is only mentioned, given the mass number of species.
  6. Only the core species of animal is preserved. There are over 17 types of
    finches. One type could have produced the other types.
  7. It was simply a miracle with supernatural causes.
  1. No matter your position on human origins, incest had to be part of the equation. Adam and Eve had several children and these would have had to marry and produce offspring.
  2. The command against incest wouldn’t come until Moses, several of thousands of years later.
  3. As far as genetic mutations. The reigning theory is that Adam and Eve’s DNA would have been untouched by the Fall and sin. Therefore, their DNA would be less likely to cause harmful mutations. As the groups grew, new births and new changes would create the variety of human variables we experience today.
  1. Yes and no.
  2. All sins are a failure of the perfect standard that God has set out.
  3. It’s like taking a test. Some questions are easy and are worth 1 point. Some are hard and worth 10 points. Let’s say you get just one wrong. It doesn’t matter which, a 1-pointer or a 10-pointer, your score will not be 100.
  4. On the other hand, different sins have different motives and consequences. Taking a cookie doesn’t destroy lives the same way taking a life does.
  5. In the Old Testament, we see that God treats sins based on the damage they do to the community.
  6. When it comes to our place in heaven, one sin is as effective as one million in making us unworthy. That is why Jesus died in our place.
  7. When it comes to our community and our lives, different sins have different impacts. And God recognizes it.
  8. Different sins also require different treatments.

 

  1. This is a good question. Was Jesus forced to the slaughter, or did he go willingly?
  2. We get a snippet of the struggle in Matthew 26 at the Garden of Gethsemane
  3. Matthew 26:42
42 He went away a second time and prayed, “My Father, if it is not possible for this cup to be taken away unless I drink it, may your will be done.”

 
  1. So Jesus wanted out of the suffering. But not out of purpose.
  2. Hebrews 12:2
For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

 

What is the joy that drove Jesus to the cross? You are.

  1. Is it ‘fair’ that God forgives sinners? Which we like when it’s us. But not so much to think that God may also let in serial killers, violent dictators, and clowns into heaven. Can someone do unimaginable evil and not be punished? Is that just?
  3. First, God is the standard of justice. So what he does is just.
  4. But Paul addresses this issue in Romans 3 in what can only be called a baller move.
  5. Romans 3:25-26
25 God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, m through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—26 he did it to demonstrate his righteousness at the present time, so as to be just and the one who justifies those who have faith in Jesus.
  1. If not Judas, then someone else.
  2. Judas made a decision that we’ve all made. Judas felt following Jesus was too hard and chose an “easy way out.”
  3. The consequences of his actions led to the torture and death of the Son of God.
  4. I don’t know if Judas is forgiven. But he is forgivable.
  5. Being forgiven requires an element of acceptance on the part of the forgiven.
  1. Anyone who’s been a Christian for a while has struggled with this question.
  2. The answer is no. God is more merciful than us.
  3. The trouble comes when we conceive of a plan that seems more merciful than the one God offers. We imagine a place where everyone, regardless of their decisions, gets to go into heaven.
  4. That’s because we never have to put that plan into action. It’s like deciding to do some home remodeling yourself. Easy to plan, hard to do.
  5. Would you send Hitler to heaven? Or people who cause children pain? What if they never say sorry?
  6. Most of us struggle to forgive our parents, spouses, and friends. People who have been 80% amazing.
  7. There’s a story in the Bible about a similar situation. A guy named Abraham finds out that God is going to go and destroy the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah. He pleads with God to spare the city. He offers a solution. If God can find 10 righteous people in the whole city and suburbs, then God will back off.
  8. He seals his argument with this verse
  9. Genesis 18:25
Will not the Judge of all the earth do right?”

This gives me hope. That whatever plan I can come up with, Jesus is far more gracious and merciful than I. So, if I think sending everyone to heaven regardless of their decisions is the most merciful thing to do – I can be assured that the reality is more merciful than even that.

1/28: The Problem with Evil

How has God used suffering in your own life to shape or bless you?

The Problem of Evil has been around long before Christianity. This should give us comfort that it is not based on our faith, but rather, it is a conundrum of logic. Simply put, if God is all-loving and all-powerful, then he wouldn’t allow evil. Yet, evil exists. Therefore, God must not.

Though the argument has philosophical merit, most of us feel it on a deeper level. We feel the evil of this world and witness God’s inaction to eliminate it. Our real problem with evil is, “Why does an all-loving and all-powerful God allow us to suffer?”

To this end, the whole Bible seems to be written. Abraham dealt with barrenness and doubt. David was chosen by God but hunted by Saul. Job was a righteous man with a run of very bad luck. At the top of this sits Jesus. A miracle-working Rabbi, sinless, killed because he challenged a religion that was neither loving nor worshiping.

The Bible doesn’t give a straight answer on why God allows suffering. But it does tell us what God intends to do with our suffering.

  1. God joins us in our suffering – consider Jesus’s tears at Lazarus’s tomb
  2. God uses our suffering for our good – this is the story of Joseph, Samson, Paul, David, and more
  3. God promises to end pain, evil, and suffering – Revelation 21

Perhaps most profound is that God promises to ‘wipe away our tears.’ That God takes our pain and suffering seriously. We are not faceless names to him. Our stories don’t become white noise that the heavens tune out. Rather, name by name, face by face, and tear by tear, God cares for them and wipes them away.

Then I saw a new heaven and a new earth (21:1). The transformation of the universe was prophesied by Isaiah: “Behold, I will create new heavens and a new earth” (Isa. 65:17; cf. 66:22). Its inhabitants would be the nations from the far corners of the earth, including Lydia and Javan (“Greece,” niv; 66:19). Ionia, a region on Anatolia’s western coast, is the Greek equivalent of Javan. Ephesus and Smyrna were geographically located in ancient Ionia; Sardis and Philadelphia in Lydia. This Old Testament prophecy was being fulfilled through the believers in these churches. Following the day of God, the early church was “looking forward to a new heaven and a new earth” (2 Peter 3:13). “New” (kainos) is an eschatological catchword in Revelation that speaks of the kingdom of God and the coming age when all things become new (Rev. 21:5). Other “new” spiritual realities include a new name (2:17; 3:12) and the new Jerusalem (3:12; 21:2). Irenaeus likened the new order to the resurrection body, an apt analogy since John deals with it first in Revelation 20:5–6. The spiritual body has both continuity and discontinuity with the natural body, according to Paul (1 Cor. 15:42–44). The spiritual body necessarily follows the natural body (15:46), but they are of two different worlds—the first heavenly, the second earthly (15:48). Heaven and earth will undergo a similar transformation when the new order arrives.

Now the dwelling of God is with men, and he will live with them (21:3). God’s desire to live with his people in covenant relationship is first stated in Leviticus 26:11–12. This hope, unrealized because of Israel’s disobedience, was again expressed in the Prophets. “My dwelling place will be with them; I will be their God, and they will be my people” (Ezek. 37:27) and “Many nations … will become my people. I will live among you” (Zech. 2:11). The announcement in Revelation, given prophetically in the Old Testament and proleptically to the martyrs in Revelation 7:15–17, is now fully realized. God’s transcendence, which was part of the old heaven and earth, has given way to his immanence as he now lives with his people. He is a personal comforter, particularly to those who have endured much hardship for their faith. Death, mourning, crying, and pain—all associated with the old order—have passed away for the saints. Just as salvation is assured for the saints with Jesus’ declaration, “It is finished” (John 19:30), here their glorification is accomplished with God’s pro-nouncement, “It is done” (Rev. 21:6).

 

 

Copied from Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary

Have someone read the passage aloud while everyone sits and listens.

Ask each person to share a word or phrase that caught their attention. Don’t offer commentary but notice people who have the same word.

Have everyone read the passage themselves. Give them 2-3 extra minutes to ponder the passage. We’re cultivating a sense of listening to God. There is no need to rush this but be mindful of those who finish early.

1Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” m for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea. 2 I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. 3 And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. 4 ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ u or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”

5 He who was seated on the throne said, “I am making everything new!” Then he said, “Write this down, for these words are trustworthy and true.”

Do you know anyone who’s given up on their faith because of evil or suffering?

How were pain, suffering, crying, and grief handled in your home growing up?

Why do you think God takes our pain so seriously? How does that change your view of him?

Our first tendency is to minimize our pain. How do you think this affects our spiritual life?

What habits do you have to regularly bring your pain and suffering to God?

1/21: Miracles, so what?

What’s the most miraculous thing you’ve ever witnessed?

Miracles just seem to be part of the Bible. You can’t go more than a few pages without some sort of miraculous event being mentioned. Yet our own lives often seem quieter, less miraculous. Did God just work differently back then? Are we doing something wrong? Or maybe, miracles aren’t exactly what we think they are. Maybe miracles are meant to be answers, but signs pointing to something bigger, deeper, and even more impressive.

When Jesus first bursts on the scene in John chapter 2, he finds a party badly in need of alcohol. Not having enough wine for your guests was a major faux pas. It would have brought shame on the new family. Jesus jumps into action, turns water into wine, and the party goes on. John records this as Jesus’s first ‘sign’. For the next 9 chapters, each miracle is treated this way – as a sign pointing to a deeper truth.

An important aspect of signs/ miracles in the Bible is that they do not require a supernatural explanation. When Jesus’s birth was announced, the sign given was that they’d find him wrapped in baby clothes and lying in a food trough. When Jesus sent the disciples to get a donkey to enter Jerusalem, Jesus told them where to find one – he didn’t make one appear out of an apple tree. These aren’t the types of miracles we’re used to celebrating, but in the Bible they’re signs nonetheless.

This makes a huge difference for how we approach the miraculous in our own lives. Do we only think of miracles when it is something we can’t explain? If so, we’re missing out on the beauty and wonder of God’s work in our lives. Or perhaps we’re preoccupied asking is it a miracle, rather than asking ourselves – where is this sign pointing?

The truth is we live in a miraculous world, pointing us to something deeper.

He went to him (4:47). To travel from Capernaum to Cana involves a day’s journey of about fourteen miles. The trip is mostly uphill, since Cana lies in the Galilean hill country while Capernaum is several hundred feet below sea level. If the royal official leaves Capernaum at sunrise, he can reach Cana at noon, and at the seventh hour (i.e., 1 p.m.) hear Jesus’ comforting words that his son will live (4:50). On the way back, however, he can complete only half of his journey on the same day, so that his servants meet him at the plain of Gennesaret on the following day (4:51–52).

Come down.… You may go. Your son will live (4:49–50). This is a rare instance of a long-distance miracle (on the unusual nature of Jesus’ signs selected by John, see comments on 2:10). Another similar remarkable incident (that of the healing of the centurion’s servant in Capernaum) is narrated in Matthew 8:5–13 (Luke 7:1–10 par.). See also the activities by the first-century Jewish miracle worker and faith healer Ḥanina ben Dosa. According to rabbinic tradition, when Rabban Gamaliel’s son fell ill, he sent two disciples to this healer and asked him to pray for his son’s healing. When Ḥanina ben Dosa had finished praying, he said to the messengers, “Go, the fever has left him.” They wrote down the hour, and when they came back to R. Gamaliel, he said to them, “You have not been a moment too soon or too late, but so it happened: at that very moment the fever left him and he asked for water to drink” (b. Ber. 34b).

 Second miraculous sign … having come from Judea to Galilee (4:54). This is the second sign Jesus performs after having come from Judea to Galilee. In the interim, other signs have been performed in Jerusalem and the vicinity (2:23; 3:2; 4:45). Thus John closes the cycle of Jesus’ first ministry circuit, starting and ending in Cana of Galilee.

Have someone read the passage aloud while everyone sits and listens.

Ask each person to share a word or phrase that caught their attention. Don’t offer commentary but notice people who have the same word.

Have everyone read the passage themselves. Give them 2-3 extra minutes to ponder the passage. We’re cultivating a sense of listening to God. There is no need to rush this but be mindful of those who finish early.

43 After the two days he left for Galilee. 44 (Now Jesus himself had pointed out that a prophet has no honor in his own country.) 45 When he arrived in Galilee, the Galileans welcomed him. They had seen all that he had done in Jerusalem at the Passover Festival, for they also had been there.

46 Once more he visited Cana in Galilee, where he had turned the water into wine. And there was a certain royal official whose son lay sick at Capernaum. 47 When this man heard that Jesus had arrived in Galilee from Judea, he went to him and begged him to come and heal his son, who was close to death.

48 “Unless you people see signs and wonders,” Jesus told him, “you will never believe.”

49 The royal official said, “Sir, come down before my child dies.”

50 “Go,” Jesus replied, “your son will live.”

The man took Jesus at his word and departed. 51 While he was still on the way, his servants met him with the news that his boy was living. 52 When he inquired as to the time when his son got better, they said to him, “Yesterday, at one in the afternoon, the fever left him.”

53 Then the father realized that this was the exact time at which Jesus had said to him, “Your son will live.” So he and his whole household believed.

54 This was the second sign Jesus performed after coming from Judea to Galilee.

How likely are you to doubt the miracles in the Bible? Are there any ones that stirs skepticism?

This miracle often stands out because Jesus healed from a distance. What else stands out to you about this miracle?

How likely are you to pray for something miraculous to happen? Has your willingness changed over the years?

One of the difficulties with miracles is why God seems to help some people out and hold out on others. How have you navigated this tension?

How sensitive are you to miracles that don’t have supernatural explanations?

From the sermon: Miracles are signs that point to a god outside of our box. How has God used the miraculous to build and shape your faith?

From the sermon: How has your god box kept you from finding God in your life? What does praying for God to take you out of your box?

1/14: What kind of God Exists?

Do you think people are naturally skeptical or do they become that way?

This week we explore the question, ‘what kind of god exists?’ When most people reject the existence of God, they have a particular picture of God in mind. Maybe this is the picture they were given as child or one they gleamed from contemporary culture. As you dive deeper, you find that it is a particular image of God that they are rejecting, but often clinging to another type of high power. That higher power may be God, Allah, a life force, the Universe, or even science. Whatever it is, there is no denying that Something is out there. Perhaps this is you.

The Bible is written not to prove the existence of God, rather to refine it. Like today, everyone in ancient times believed in higher powers. The Bible takes this for granted and then begins to hone the picture of God. From Genesis we learn that God is active and purposeful in creating the world. We learn that he cares for all life and particularly all of humanity is sacred to him. In Exodus thru Deuteronomy, we learn that God is unlike any other deity, is not petty, and values love. In the Prophets we learn that is there is only one God and he is passionate about worship and justice. In the Gospels, our picture is made clearer in the person of Jesus. Acts and the Epistles give us a glimpse of the Holy Spirit at work in the our lives.

Wherever you fall on the faith spectrum, your image of God will continue to evolve. It’s how we grow. As you engage with your own doubts and the skepticism of others, trust the God is taking your faith on a journey, honing and refining how you see Him and the world He created.

David, the shepherd-king, was accustomed to spending time outdoors. Both day and night he scanned the sky, and what he saw—the immense array of stars, the sun, and the moon—taught him to worship the Creator. The existence and structure of what we see in the heavens and sky keep on declaring God’s glory. God’s glory is His perfections revealed. All the stars, the sun, moon, and clouds are His “handiwork.” Just as an artist’s painting is his handiwork, even so the heavens and the sky are God’s handiwork.

That’s as true today as it was thousands of years ago: science continues to deepen our appreciation for God’s design. The more we learn about how the universe is structured, and how it works, the more fully we grasp the power of God. The message of this verse is also important for establishing “universal” evidence. Nature itself declares that there is a God, and tells us much about Him—this is something all people have some ability to understand.

The natural world reveals that God is wise, powerful, and eternal. Paul wrote that God’s “invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world” (Romans 1:20). He also wrote in verse 20 that God’s revelation of Himself in nature leaves those who reject Him inexcusable.

Pointing out that God made what we see in the night sky was also a statement of theology, in the ancient world. God instructed His people not to worship the heavenly objects. In Deuteronomy 4:19 He said, “And beware lest you raise your eyes to heaven, and when you see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven, you be drawn away and bow down to them and serve them.” Those stars and planets are not deities, or spirits—they are the creations of God.

Copied from Bibleref.com

Have someone read the passage aloud while everyone sits and listens.

Ask each person to share a word or phrase that caught their attention. Don’t offer commentary but notice people who have the same word.

Have everyone read the passage themselves. Give them 2-3 extra minutes to ponder the passage. We’re cultivating a sense of listening to God. There is no need to rush this but be mindful of those who finish early.

1 The heavens declare the glory of God;

the skies proclaim the work of his hands.

2 Day after day they pour forth speech;

night after night they reveal knowledge.

3 They have no speech, they use no words;

no sound is heard from them.

4 Yet their voice goes out into all the earth,

their words to the ends of the world.

Outside of the Bible and other believers, what has influenced your belief in God?

When have you experienced a time of doubt? What were you doubting about God, yourself, or the world around you?

Looking back, what are some things you no longer believe about God, that you once did? Does that surprise you?

From the sermon: Jesus believed in a god that was outside of time, space, and matter, a god that was active and relational, and a god that was love. Which of these is hardest for people to believe?

From the sermon: Why do you think people don’t want to believe in God?

Is there someone in your life who struggles with doubt that God wants you to reach out to? Do you have your own doubts that God is inviting you to confront?

Facilitation Tips

Here are some best practices for getting the most out your time together

Small Group facilitating can be flustering; it doesn’t matter if it is your first time or your hundredth. Prayer is simply talking to God about what matters. While you may have big plans and prayers for your group, God wants to also talk about your heart. Take 15 minutes during the day to review the lesson and talk with God about your hopes, fears, and stresses about the group.

Provide time for each person to participate before moving onto the next question.  It is important to build space for each person to be comfortable in sharing.  There may be individuals that aren’t comfortable or aren’t sure how to respond.  That is okay too.

Stay focused on the individual that is speaking. Being engaged will build a connection for them to feel seen and heard.

Listen for keywords/topics that relate to the question, and follow up with a question to build on. This does not have to be with everyone person; pick one or two to build engagement.

If the conversation is drifting off-topic, listen for a window to steer the group back. Ways to guide the group back could be restating the question or calling on another individual to answer the question. If neither of those tactics is successful, it is okay to politely say, “These are great conversations. To make sure we have time to make it through the full experience, I would like to shift us back.” It may be helpful to repeat the question.