Hope is the Anchor

BLACK HOLES AND ANCHOR LINES
John 20:31

One afternoon several years ago I was fishing along the edge of
Nantasket Roads-- the shipping channel that goes past the Boston Light.
It was well into the fall and past the summer heat. I had a VIP guest
in my little boat, and I really wanted to make sure he caught some
flounder. (He was Sam Hunt, the biggest line backer in the NFL and a
starter for the Patriots.) I was ready for a couple hours of good
fishing over the high tide and I swung my boat around to face the tide
and threw out my anchor. It was fifty to sixty feet deep and the tide
was beginning to run, and I let the anchor line run out through my
hands. As a matter of fact it ran out so fast that I came to the end
sooner than I thought and I watched with a sick feeling as the end went
overboard. I grabbed for it, and then I quickly started the engine and
tried to swing back and grab for it but it was out of reach and the line
was slowly sinking out of sight. We were drifting with no way to hold
steady.

How we finally got an anchor and had a good day of fishing is
another story. [Should I tell you?]

But I never will forget the sinking feeling when my anchor was
lost. It was a mini picture of what it is like whenever things we
really count on aren't there any more. Have you ever lost an anchor?

THOMAS LOST AN ANCHOR WHEN JESUS DIED. When Jesus died something in
Thomas died, too. Jesus simply had not performed according to Thomas's
idea of what a Messiah was supposed to do. Thomas thought he knew
Jesus. He found out he didn't know Jesus quite as well as he thought he
did. Thomas loved Jesus. Make no mistake about that. Do you remember
how when, before that last Passover when Jesus wanted to go to
Jerusalem, and the rest of the disciples tried to tell Him it was too
hot, too scary, too risky-- and Jesus insisted--do you remember it was
Thomas who said, "Well- let's go with Him and die!"

But when the actual death came it shattered Thomas. Thomas had
seen Jesus calm the wind and sea. He knew that Jesus had stopped a
funeral procession and given a mother back her son. He believed that
Jesus was powerful. but then Thomas had seen Jesus die in
weakness. Jesus was really dead!

Thomas really wanted to believe Jesus is alive. The rest of the
disciples had said they were convinced that Jesus was risen. They were
all hyper about it. Two men said they had met Jesus on the road to
their home in Emmaus; the disciples said that the Sunday evening three
days after the awful crucifixion Jesus had suddenly appeared in the
Upper Room with them, had actually eaten a little fish. They were so
sure. But not Thomas. "I'll have to see-- no, I'll have to feel it for
myself!" is what Thomas said.

Did you ever get the feeling that just about everybody else had a
closer, tighter faith than you? Did you ever wonder how they could be so
sure, when you have doubts? It may just be that there is more of Thomas
the doubter in each of us than we like to admit.

The fact is that Christians are not always honest and transparent
about the battles of doubt that we fight. We like to testify about our
victories, and it is right and good that we witness to our faith. But
also we need to be dead honest with ourselves and with God, never
seeking to hide the places where we fail, or where we fight a running
battle with temptation.

We think 'I am probably the only one who fights the battle I fight
like this. I am unworthy of being esteemed as a Christian.' Or, 'If
"they" knew the thoughts that come to my mind! they would never have any
faith in me.' What we may not realize is that every Christian has to
fight the good fight of faith. The wars and battles of faith are not
the neat, textbook, cut-and-dried black-and-white illustrations we hear
in sermons. They are real, and they are often confusing.

The only people who never fight battles with doubt are people who
never address the problems faith presents in a real world. There is a
name for these "ostrich people." It is "obscurantist." Only
obscurantists never fight battles of faith, and they give up their inner
core of integrity. They fight with everyone who dares to disagree with
them. They become the true fanatics. In some ways fanaticism is only
insecurity turned inside out. But genuine faith is forged on the anvil
of honest doubt. It says I wish I could believe, but here is reality I
cannot understand! Please, God, I want to know!

THERE IS A DIFFERENCE BETWEEN HONEST DOUBT AND THE SIN OF UNBELIEF.
Sometimes they superficially look alike. Perhaps sometimes they are hard
to tell apart.

Unbelief is grounded in a heart that will not give up its worship
of self. It says to God "Show me and I'll think about it and maybe I
will and maybe I won't!" Doubt, on the other hand says, "Show me and I
will gladly own You as Lord!"

I have based my entire life and my life's calling on the trust that
God answers that cry! Hebrews 11:6 says that the faith that destroys
doubt is a seeking faith. What do we do when we are seeking a Jesus who
seems hard to reach? What do we do in the dark moments of life when it
almost seems our God has failed us? Black holes of agony when we send
our desperate prayers winging their way to the Father, while NOTHING is
happening!

What sort of proof does it take to dispel doubt? How many times do
we have to break through again to spiritual reality?

THOMAS LOST HIS ANCHOR, BUT JESUS AS HE REALLY IS CAME TO THOMAS AND
BECAME HIS SURE ANCHOR!

Thomas said, "I need proof positive!" Jesus came and I think that
Thomas was almost embarrassed. Maybe not. But then Jesus told him that
there would be people who could not see or touch Him that still would be
able to believe. But still, we need that personal touch!

We need Jesus to speak salvation to us! Others can help-- we can
show you what the scriptures say. Here is where our text comes in.
John said that personal touch is the very reason that he wrote his
Gospel: "These words were written that you might believe that Jesus is
the Messiah; and that believing, you might have LIFE through His name!"
Come to the Word, come seeking the Savior. Ask the Spirit to show you
that Jesus died for YOU!

And Jesus does come! He comes with His own assurance to those who
seriously seek Him!

We need Jesus to be our anchor in the storms of life. Even after we
know Jesus, there are times when our faith is tested. It seems that
from time to time we walk as it were in the dark by naked faith. As
Dr. William Greathouse wrote years ago in a little book called The
Fullness of the Spirit, "Again and again we need to break through to
spiritual reality." In those times if we will trust Him, and cry to
Him, He will not fail us! He hears us!

I almost wish that I could share with you some of my darker
moments-- the desperate prayers that I have prayed. Some are simply too
involved with other people's lives. I have prayed those quiet prayers of
desperation. And even though at the time I could not see His hand, God
has been there.

[This past week a voice out of the past; a time when there was a
desperate prayer, and very little reason to think there was hope. After
the confrontation - and tears there were a few years of, from my
viewpoint, little spiritual progress. Imagine my joy to hear a clear
testimony from a professional person, a leader in his field of science,
saying: "My wife (he named her) and I have found the Lord. We're
teaching the fourth grade Sunday School class here in our local church!]

Conclusion

I lost the anchor on my little boat because I failed to hold on to
the end of the anchor line. But our eternal life does not depend on how
well we can hang on, but rather it depends on our saying to the Savior
who comes to us: "My LORD and my GOD!" God does not reveal Himself to
unbelief. But God always reveals Himself to seeking, honest
doubt. . . the doubt that wants to become faith.

The God of the Bible has always been a God who sets before us the
alternatives. Choose to live with CHRIST! The Resurrection is an
invitation to us to choose life!