July 11, 2024

Matthew 28:16-17

¹⁶ Then the eleven disciples went away into Galilee, to the mountain which Jesus had appointed for them. ¹⁷ When they saw Him, they worshiped Him; but some doubted.

Sometimes there are statements in the Bible that shock me to my core. And this is one of them! The eleven disciples were looking at the resurrected Jesus with their own physical eyes. They were physically prostrating themselves before Him in worship. In fact, the word that was used for worship allows that they were probably kissing His hand as they bowed before Him.

And yet, even though they were physically looking at a live and resurrected Jesus, some of them doubted the experience. And, in fact, I cannot see where the word “some” is even in the original language. Reading in the Greek shows me that they all doubted. They just could not believe what their eyes were telling them!

This is a very strong statement about what actually constitutes faith. There are many who think that if they see something with their physical eyes that it would make it much easier to believe in something. But this is NOT the case at all.

The disciples saw Jesus with their physical eyes. And yet we are told that they doubted anyway. This word, “doubted,” is only used twice in the Bible. The other time is when Peter had walked on the water, but then began to sink when He took his eyes off Jesus and began to look at the waves and the storm. As he began to sink, he had cried out to the Lord to save him. And Jesus had asked him, “Why did you doubt?”

In that other case, Peter had taken his physical eyes off Jesus and placed his focus on the storm. It wasn’t that he was without faith. It was the fact that he had transferred his faith from Jesus and put his faith in the storm.

Now the experience of the disciples here on this mountain is quite shocking to me. Jesus is actually with them physically. And yet we are told that they doubted.

How is it that they can be looking at Him face to face, and yet be in doubt? And the answer to this question is critical to understanding why your own faith does not always work.

You see, it wasn’t that the disciples had no faith. It’s just that they still had faith in what they had seen occur a few days earlier on Passover. They had seen Jesus arrested, beaten, scourged, crucified, dead, and placed in a tomb. Their faith was still in the experience of His death. They couldn’t make the transition to His life.

And the fact that their eyes were seeing Him was not helping them to believe!

Now this tells us something important about faith. Something that we need to understand, or we cannot operate in it.

Faith has absolutely NOTHING to do with our physical sight! Rather, it has EVERYTHING to do with our spiritual sight!! The writer of Hebrews tells us that “faith is the substance of things HOPED for, the EVIDENCE of things NOT SEEN.”

Your physical eyes, as well as your other physical senses, contribute nothing to your ability to believe the promises of God. It is your spiritual eyes that must see the promises, or else you will not be able to believe them.

There are many Christians who approach God in the same way that the disciples were approaching the resurrected Jesus on that mountain. They think that the physical manifestation of their prayer request is what they need in order to be able to believe that God has intervened in their situation.

This is an incorrect way to approach and interact with God! If we are waiting for the physical manifestation of our praying, not only are we in unbelief NOW, but the physical manifestation will not help us transition into faith when we see it with our physical eyes.

We may very well be able to worship God and thank Him for the physical manifestation, but if we weren’t in belief when we couldn’t physically see the result, we are certainly not in belief when we are now able to see the physical evidence.

Physical evidence does not produce faith! But if THAT is what you are waiting for, you will be struggling in your walk with Jesus.

Your faith must be in God’s promises! The disciples had these promises. They had been told that Jesus would arise from the dead. But for three days they had doubted the promises while Jesus had been in the tomb.

If you doubt the promises when your physical eyes see nothing, the manifestation of something in the physical will not help you transition into walking by faith. You might be able to worship. But you will not leave behind your lifestyle of doubt.

The disciples saw the evidence. But they didn’t yet believe the promises. And so even when their physical eyes were showing them the truth, they couldn’t believe it.

It is your spiritual eyes that must first see the truth, or else you can never walk in faith.

Understanding this principle would help you get healed. But many people will struggle to receive their healing because they think it has something to do with what their physical eyes are seeing and what their physical bodies are experiencing. Nope!