“Why Did You Doubt?”

This sermon was preached for Capital Pres Fairfax on July 7, 2024  as a part of our series “Questions Jesus Asked.” Each week we explore a question Jesus asked in the course of his earthly ministry and consider what he might be asking us today through it. This week we considered Jesus’ question to Peter “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” in Matthew 14:22-33. A recording of this sermon will be available on Spotify and Apple Podcasts. 

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22 Immediately he made the disciples get into the boat and go before him to the other side, while he dismissed the crowds. 23 And after he had dismissed the crowds, he went up on the mountain by himself to pray. When evening came, he was there alone, 24 but the boat by this time was a long way from the land, beaten by the waves, for the wind was against them. 25 And in the fourth watch of the night he came to them, walking on the sea. 26 But when the disciples saw him walking on the sea, they were terrified, and said, “It is a ghost!” and they cried out in fear. 27 But immediately Jesus spoke to them, saying, “Take heart; it is I. Do not be afraid.” 

28 And Peter answered him, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” 29 He said, “Come.” So Peter got out of the boat and walked on the water and came to Jesus. 30 But when he saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, “Lord, save me.” 31 Jesus immediately reached out his hand and took hold of him, saying to him, “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” 32 And when they got into the boat, the wind ceased. 33 And those in the boat worshiped him, saying, “Truly you are the Son of God.” 

This is a difficult passage for us for at least three reasons. Reason one: it’s a familiar passage. Everyone knows the story of Jesus walking on the water. That familiarity can result in reading this story the same way we rewatch episodes of our favorite shows. It’s fun, it’s feel-good, it makes great background noise—just mindless entertainment. To overcome that, I’m going to invite you to lean in as if you had never heard it before. If you do, or if you haven’t ever heard this story, you’ll find the second reason this is a difficult passage: Jesus is complicated. He’s doing things that aren’t easy to understand: sending the disciples away alone on a stormy night, walking on water, inviting other people to walk on water with him. What kind of person is this? What is Jesus doing here? We’ve got a lot of questions for Jesus. 

The third and maybe most difficult dynamic of this passage is it seems like a harsh question he asks Peter:  “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” It almost feels like Jesus is kicking Peter while he’s down. Is that a hard question for you, too? 

We all deal with doubt, whether you’re a seasoned Christian, you’re new to the faith, or you’re not a Christian at all. Having someone question us on our doubt can be uncomfortable. This is a difficult passage because it makes us question our own doubt, but if we can work through the difficulties, we’ll find a rich and beautiful approach to doubt that draws us closer to Jesus. And Jesus is worth it! 

We’re going to seek that approach through considering three points 

1. 1. What leads to doubt
   2. Where doubt leads us 
   3. How Jesus saves us from our doubt

What leads to doubt  

The first thing to consider is what leads to doubt. And as we see in our passage, it’s rarely just one thing that leads to doubt. If you’ve got a Bible on you, it’ll be extra helpful to find our passage there so you can see the stories leading up to all this. Matthew 14 opens with Jesus and his disciples receiving news that John the Baptist had been beheaded. Right off the bat, we have grief and fear; the disciples are probably thinking “one of Jesus’ closest friends, his own cousin, has just been killed by the government, what does that mean for us?” Then we see Jesus get into a boat to go to “a desolate place” away from all the crowds. Maybe the disciples were wondering “Is Jesus running away? Where is he going? What are we supposed to do?” 

The crowds follow Jesus, and he spends the whole day healing and teaching them until they get close to sunset, at which point the disciples start to worry “How are all of these people going to eat?” Jesus answers their worry by multiplying five loaves of bread and two fish into enough food to feed literally thousands of people, and the disciples are in charge of serving it all. That’s what leads to our passage. Before we even get to verse 22, the disciples are grief-stricken, afraid, awestruck, and physically exhausted. They’ve been weathering an emotional storm before the wind and waves rock the boat. 

It’s helpful for us to remember that because so often we consider our doubts in isolation, as if we’re brains on a stick or computers just objectively working to solve a problem. But that’s rarely if ever the case; just like temptations, doubts almost never come out of nowhere. I was reminded of a helpful acronym earlier this week you may have heard of before: HALT, which stands for “hungry, angry, lonely, tired.” Many people have learned to identify when they’re in these emotional states because they intensify temptations and reckless behavior. If I am hungry, I am way more likely to be careless; if I am angry, I am way more likely to say something rash and unkind. 

Friends, doubt can work the same way. When you find yourself doubting God, take a minute to zoom out and assess how you’re doing. If you’ve been weathering some ongoing storms in life, that can make it easier for doubt to creep in, and becoming aware of that can help weaken doubt. 

Still, it’s important to address those immediate circumstances in which doubt arises. Again, look at our passage; we find a few of them. Jesus tells the disciples to go on without him. For them, no Jesus means no safety. They know they’re safe with Jesus, especially at sea. In Matthew 8, Jesus calms the storm while they’re on the Sea of Galilee. But now they’re facing a stormy sea at night with no Jesus. If that wasn’t enough, this turns into something like a ghost story—and we need to take that seriously. Imagine if you were in the boat with them! They look out on the water and see something they can’t explain, something that shows supernatural power, and it deeply unsettles them. 

Quickly they realize it’s Jesus, but for one of them, the night gets even crazier. Imagine being on a rocking boat in the middle of the stormy sea in the middle of the night, climbing up onto the side of the boat, and then stepping off the boat onto the water. It’s enough to make my skin crawl. Then imagine starting to sink when you take your eyes off Jesus. All this together, and it starts to make sense where the disciples’ doubt comes from. 

Now I recognize no one in here today has had a day quite like the one the disciples have had in our passage, but we can all still relate to the doubts that seize the disciples’ hearts. So let me ask you: what leads you to doubt? Maybe you feel like you’re facing a storm without Jesus—a family crisis, job loss, turmoil in your relationship—and you’re wondering “Where is God in all of this?” Maybe you’ve encountered something you don’t have categories to explain and it’s shaken you to your core. Probably not a ghost, but maybe you’ve had a radical spiritual experience you don’t know how to explain. Or you read something in the Bible that makes absolutely no sense to you. Here’s one Tim Keller references in a lot of his writing: you’ve met a non-Christian who seems to be way more ethical and way happier than most of the Christians you know.¹ How do you explain that? Maybe you’re in the middle of overwhelming suffering and you’re asking God “Am I going to make it through this?” 

What is it for you this morning? What has led you to doubt? Whatever it may be, it’s important for us to consider what to do with our doubts, because we can’t just ignore them. Doubt has power, it has inertia, it doesn’t let us just sit still. Lots of different things can lead us to doubt, but doubt also leads us somewhere. 

Where doubt leads us

So let’s explore that together: point 2, where doubt leads us. And before I say anything, can we have a conversation about the conversation? What do you think I’m going to say about doubt? If I had to guess, there’s probably a good number of people who’d expect me to say “Doubt leads us away from God. Doubt is bad, therefore do not doubt.” 

I don’t think that’s what our passage is modeling; in fact, I’d argue such a “blind faith” has no room in the Bible at all. The healthy Christian life isn’t marked by avoiding or ignoring all our doubts. Rather, as one Christian author put it, we have to accept that “having doubts is a normal part of Christian experience…[it’s] an ordinary dimension of spiritual experience for God’s faithful people in a fallen world.”²

Capital Pres Fairfax, this is a church where your doubts are welcome. We want you to bring them with you when you come, because our passage shows us that doubt can lead us to an amazing, powerful faith. Look at what Peter says in verse 28 “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.” Peter’s not sure if that really is Jesus out there, but he knows “If that really is Jesus, he has the power to help me walk on the water with him.” For Christians, doubt can lead to walking on water. 

You may have heard of William Wilberforce before, he was one of the primary figureheads in abolishing the slave trade in England. Wilberforce became a Christian early in his political career after discovering one of his friend that he admired was a believer. When he expressed his doubts, this friend took the time to read a book and work through the New Testament with him. Over the course of two years, Wilberforce learned to bring his doubt to Jesus and eventually he committed his life to Christ. 

Soon he began to doubt over whether he should really remain in Parliament or instead become a minister, but this same friend along with many others helped him realize God might be calling him to something amazing within his current role. God used that doubt to solidify Wilberforce’s conviction that the slave trade was wrong and that he was in a place to potentially bring it to an end. Over the course of three decades of hard work, slavery was abolished in England; just three days before his death, the House of Commons passed a law emancipating all slaves in the British Empire. If William Wilberforce had never taken the time to process his doubt, he never would have become a Christian, and he never would have had the conviction to fight for abolition.³ 

So doubt can lead to an amazing, powerful faith; doubt can lead us out of the boat walking on water with Jesus. But that’s not the only place we see doubt can lead in our passage. Just two verses later, doubt leads to sinking. Verse 30 says “But when [Peter] saw the wind, he was afraid, and beginning to sink he cried out, ‘Lord, save me.’”

This is the kind of doubt most of us are acquainted with. Those things we listed earlier, the things that lead us to doubt, suck up all our attention. And the more we focus on those questions, “Where is God in all of this? How do I explain what I’m experiencing? Can I make it through this?” the more afraid we become. 

If that’s you this morning, let me encourage you: you’re not alone—even Peter, the leader of the apostles, found himself sinking in fear. But let me also warn you: sinking in doubt is a dangerous place to be, because sinking can result in drowning. That’s certainly what Peter must have been thinking. In the middle of the sea at night, no life vests, no flashlights, pounding waves and howling wind, in a boat that’s not moving; if he had gone under, he probably would have never come back up. And here’s where doubting can become deadly: you can become so consumed in your fear that you lose sight of your savior. 

I want to tread lightly here, because I have dear friends who have walked away from the faith on account of doubt. You probably do, too—in fact, maybe you’re here this morning and you feel like you are that person, that you’ve drowned in your doubts. We are not a church that will shame you for having doubts, but I want to gently investigate your doubt. 

I have a few friends who grew up in the church, they were active in their faith when younger, but as life went on they started struggling with doubts. Some of those doubts were the same things we mentioned earlier—tough Bible or theology questions, encountering non-Christians who were ethical and happy, and usually also personal suffering. As their doubt grew, they found themselves asking more and more questions, but sadly they never took the time to search for answers. Jesus wasn’t worth it, they had found alternatives that, in their view, were more comfortable and liberating. 

I recognize that’s not the case for everyone, there are many people who have thoroughly explored their doubts and have come to a well-informed conclusion that Christianity does not make sense to them. But in most cases for my friends, when they have said “Christianity stopped making sense,” it is because they stopped thinking about it. In talking through my sermon this week, our pastor Rob mentioned a quote from GK Chesterton: “The Christian ideal has not been tried and found wanting. It has been found difficult; and left untried.” 

We believe Christianity is true, and the more you explore it, the more it will make sense. I’ve found this to be true myself. I have spent eight years studying Christianity at an academic level, more than a decade in ministry leader roles, and nearly two decades as a committed Christian. Since I was eighteen, I have kept a list of questions on my phone for things that have led me to doubt. The last time I added a new question to that was this past Wednesday. But the beautiful thing is whenever I add a question to that list, I have to scroll to the bottom and look at how many of those questions I have found satisfying answers to. If you’re wrestling with doubt, here’s your invitation: come and see! The more you explore it, the more it will make sense of the world we live in. I’ve found that to be the case, I truly trust you will, too.

But even with that being the case, having your questions answered is not what will save you from your doubt. The only thing that can save us is bringing our doubt to Jesus. 

How Jesus saves us from our doubts 

That’s what our passage shows us: The common element in Peter walking on water and Peter being saved from drowning is him bringing his doubt to Jesus. So point 3, how does Jesus save us from our doubt? 

Most importantly, he saves us personally. Reflecting on our passage, one commentator writes this: “We have already seen Jesus stilling the storm [in Matthew 8]. The new development here is that Jesus comes to them in the storm. Jesus walks on the storm.”⁴ This matters for us, too. The Bible tells us we’re all in need of rescue, we’ve all sunk in the waters of doubt. In fact, the Bible tells us that the default setting of our hearts is hardwired to doubt God. This is what we call “sin.” On the first pages of the Bible, we see the serpent tempting Adam and Eve to doubt God “Surely you won’t die if you disobey God, he doesn’t have your best interest at heart.” Because they listened to the serpent and doubted God, they brought a curse upon all humanity that we would by nature not trust God. 

And so we doubt God in lots of ways. Doubting his existence: “Is there really a God? Am I just talking to the wind?” Doubting his character: “Is God really good? Is he really all-powerful? Is he really just?” Doubting his plan: “Does God know what he’s doing in my life? Is this really the best way forward? Did life really have to go this way, God?” Doubting his love: “Sure, God may be loving to some people, but does he really care about me?”

Sin leads us to doubting God, but that’s not all. It’s led us to take our eyes off of God, to sink deep and far away from him, and ultimately to drown into spiritual death. The Bible describes us as dead in our sins and alienated from God—alone, unable to save ourselves, hopeless without help. 

The beauty of the gospel is, just as Jesus comes to the disciples in the storm and reaches out to save Peter, Jesus has come to us. Jesus, the Son of God, met us in our storm. He came from heaven to earth to reach us in the form of a man. He plunged the depths of death by dying on a cross to rescue us from spiritual death, and then he rose from the dead to bring us with him into everlasting life. 

All of this is beyond the realm of raw facts and knowledge. Christianity isn’t ultimately about answering questions, it is about knowing the God who reaches out to rescue you. To know him as a Person, not just an idea or a belief, but as your friend and rescuer. Jesus tells us that we can know him in this way. If you feel like you’re sinking in doubt this morning, you can turn to Jesus in your heart and say “Lord, save me!” You may even doubt there is a Jesus who hears you; all the same, Jesus does not hesitate to reach out and take hold of you. Jesus saves us personally. 

He also saves us with questions. We’ve been exploring Jesus’ questions through this sermon series. Questions draw us out of ourselves and into relationship. Let’s look at that in our passage. Jesus asks Peter as he pulls him up out of the water “O you of little faith, why did you doubt?” When I first read it, I interpreted it less as a question and more as a comment like “Shame on you for doubting.” You know that kind of question, when your spouse says to you “You’re going to wear that?” Or you say to your student “Was that a smart choice?” 

But actually, I think Jesus is asking a non-rhetorical question. He’s inviting Peter to explore his doubts, to doubt his doubts, and see that behind those doubts lie faulty beliefs about who Jesus is. “Peter, did you really think for a second I would leave you to drown? Did you think I wasn’t good enough to reach for you, or strong enough to pull you up?” 

Jesus always invites us to examine our doubts, to engage our heads in our faith. Think of the disciple Thomas after the resurrection, who wasn’t in the room when Jesus came back. He says “Until I can put my fingers in the holes of Jesus’ hands and side, I will not believe he’s returned.” Then when Jesus appears to Thomas, what does he do? Does he shame him? Does he banish him? No! He invites him “Here are my holes, feel them for yourself!” He’s not just a ghost, he’s not just a fun fictional character, he’s not just a good moral teacher. He is God, he is alive, he is real and he reaches out to you with the question “Why did you doubt?” By asking this question he’s helping us to see himself more clearly. 

What would it look like for Jesus to ask you this question: Why did you doubt? I’ll close with three practical steps you can take to find an answer. First, be honest with your doubt. Make a list of your questions or objections. Write out your thought process for the sake of clarity. Second, explore what led to your doubt. Think through both immediate circumstances and background storms—remember HALT. I’m reminded of Elijah in 1 Kings 19 who is facing huge doubts and the first thing God does for him is give him a snack and let him take a nap. Sometimes there are practical steps to address surrounding circumstances which will help you deal with your doubt. Third and finally, bring your doubt to Jesus. Do so personally, in prayer; ask him and search his word for an answer. Also do so through other people; ask trusted friends, elders, pastors. 

Friends, our doubt reminds us that we need a rescue. We live in a world that feels a lot like a ship on a stormy sea at night, and often we feel like Jesus has left us behind. But this passage reminds us Jesus comes to us in our doubt, he saves us, and ultimately he will calm the storm. Don’t be ashamed or afraid of your doubt, bring them to Jesus and he will save you. 

 

¹ Tim Keller, “5 Ways to Doubt Your Doubts” https://www.thegospelcoalition.org/article/5-ways-to-doubt-your-doubts/ 

² Phil Ryken, “Doubting Your Doubts.” https://www.crossway.org/articles/doubting-your-doubts/

³ “William Wilberforce” https://www.wilberforceschool.org/updated-about-us/william-wilberforce 

⁴ E. Michael Green. The Message of Matthew : The Kingdom of Heaven. Revised edition. The Bible Speaks Today Series. Downers Grove, Illinois: IVP Academic, 2020.