The Journey from Doubt to Faith
John 20:24-31; 21:12
INTRO
When you and I woke up this morning, we didn’t wake up thinking that Jesus of Nazareth is still buried in a tomb in Jerusalem. We didn’t wake up in a world where death and the grave appeared to have been victorious.
But remember that on that first Resurrection Sunday so many years ago, the followers of Jesus didn’t wake up with that same assurance. They all thought he was dead.
That’s important to grasp if we are to understand the story we’re looking at today.
After Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion the disciples are broken-hearted, confused, wondering what to do next.
The gospels record that they are cringing in locked rooms, afraid they will be next, too afraid to show their faces in public, even for a funeral.
The chances of detection are too high. You’ll remember that just a few days earlier three different people had picked Peter out of the crowd and announced that he was one of Jesus’ followers. Those encounters took place at night, when it’s harder to recognize a face, and now it’s Sunday morning. So they send a couple of women alone to care for the body.
Anointing a body with spices and ointments was a last gesture of love and respect to the dead, and meant to cover the smell of the rapidly decaying body for as long as possible.
None of them were expecting the resurrection. But Jesus appears first to Mary of Magdala, and then that same evening to the apostles, huddled in a room where the doors are locked and the windows shuttered. “Shalom - Peace!” he tells them, and then he shows them his nail-pierced hands, the wound in his side. They laugh and cry together! He breathes on them and says, “receive the Holy Spirit!”
The disciples are overjoyed! Hope is rekindled! Life once more has meaning and is worth living, because Jesus is alive! It’s a new day for them – well, for ten of them. Judas is no more, and Thomas. . .. where is Thomas?
John 20:24-25 Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.
"Not with them" - different people handle grief in differing ways. Some like to find comfort in one another’s company. Others creep into a hidden corner to be by themselves.
Thomas had a lot to sort out - news of his friend Judas’ death by suicide,; and then Jesus’ death - his mentor, his master, his rabbi, the one he had given up everything to follow - all in same weekend!
Jesus had picked him – even though he was an uneducated fisherman – to be his disciple. It was the break of a lifetime! Thomas had staked the rest of his life on following Jesus – leaving his family, his business, and everything else to be his disciple. Now Jesus was dead.
Thomas had gone away and cried, and cried, and cried. It didn’t make any sense. He was as depressed as a person could get.
When he eventually returned from wherever he was, the others filled him in on what had happened in his absence.
25So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.”
Evidently Thomas was a pessimist by nature – he could always imagine the worst. E.g. - Lazarus was dead, Jesus told us about it, his response (John 11:16), was "Let’s go, too, that we may die with him!"
Also seems that he was a little slow to grasp spiritual realities. - Thursday night when Jesus was having what we refer to as "the last Passover Supper" with his disciples, he said (John 14:1-4): "Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me. In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going."
Thomas wondered, “What was Jesus talking about? His father, Joseph, had long been dead and buried. His mother’s house was a small mud affair in the shopkeepers section of a little insignificant Galilean town called Nazareth. What in the world was he talking about?”
Thomas looked at John; he shrugged. He looked at Peter, but Peter was still thinking about what Jesus had just told him about denying him three times before the rooster crowed, so Thomas said: "Whoa, Jesus! Back up here. We don’t even know where you’re talking about going, so how can we possibly know the way?"
Now in the passage in front of us, these other guys are telling him, with these rapturous religious looks on their faces "we have seen the Lord."
Don’t you just hate it when people say, "oh, you should have been there! It was just too wonderful for words. I want to say, “then why are you trying to put it into words!”
When the others tell him, "Thomas, Thomas! We’ve seen the Lord!" He thinks, "yeah. Right." Either they’re trying to pull a practical joke on old slow thinking Thomas; or they’ve gone "wacko" - mass hysteria symptoms all over the place!
As a twin (that’s what didymus means), Thomas had been the brunt of many practical jokes – probably even since he had been a part of the Twelve.
He knew that things weren’t always what they seemed to be, and that people weren’t always who you thought they were. How many times had he and his twin traded places!
No sir! He wasn’t born yesterday, and they weren’t going to pull one over on him that easily!
The other disciples tried to convince him - we know it was him - saw nail prints, wound in his side. But he doesn’t trust them.
"Yeah, sure," he replied. "Let me touch the scars, to make sure they’re not an optical illusion. Let me feel the wound in his side. [Shudder - Yuck! Who would want to that!] Then I’ll believe."
Before you get too hard on him remember that when Mary Magdalene came and told the others, they didn’t believe either!
I mean, dead people don’t just come back to life, do they!
What would be your reaction if I were to stand here and tell you this morning that I had seen one of the people we have had a funeral service for in this church down at Starbucks this morning? You’d believe me, wouldn’t you? No! You’d cough politely, and either look for the nearest exit or get out your cell phone and call 9-1-1 and call them to come and take me away!
Vs. 26-28 A week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them.
Thomas was sticking like glue to Peter, John, and James. No way would he admit it to the other guys, but – just in case they actually were telling the truth - there was no way he was going to be gone if Jesus showed up again!
Even though he still had doubts, no evidence that the others berated him or turned their backs on him. Instead they stuck with him and accepted him. I’m sure they continually spoke about their experience with the risen Christ.
If we are to complete our journey from doubt to faith, we all need people in our lives who will accept us where we are and help us through our doubts, and not treat us like spiritual lepers.
Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
As soon as Thomas heard the words, "Peace be with you!” he recognized the voice!
It was the same voice that had told the winds and waves to be still, the same voice that had shouted, "Lazarus, come forth!"
It was the same voice that had tenderly said, "Don’t prevent the little children from coming to me, for of such is the kingdom of heaven.”
It was the same voice that had told those wonderful stories that often left even the disciples scratching their heads.
It was the same voice that had whispered hope and encouragement when they were frightened.
It was the same voice that had said earlier that same week, “love one another, as I have loved you!”
Then Jesus turned and looked right at Thomas - stretched out his hands. 27Then he said to Thomas, “put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.
When Jesus looked at him and said those words – Thomas suddenly didn’t have to touch scars. Jesus knew his fears! Jesus knew his doubts! Jesus knew what he’d said to the others!
Jesus didn’t scold him, or belittle him, or write him off.
“Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told him. Literally, "stop becoming a doubter." - see, doubting is a process. You never stand still in one spot on your journey – you’re either retreating further into doubts, or growing in your faith.
"Believe!" Jesus said. And Thomas believed.
28Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas uttered words that would have been considered blasphemy by any good Jew. You didn’t call any man "God."
But Thomas knew now that this Jesus wasn’t just a good teacher. He wasn’t just a healer. Rather, like he had told the disciples, he and the father are one! Who else could conquer death?
The personal pronouns are important - my Lord and my God. Even though the other apostles had encounter the risen Savior, Thomas needed his own experience with Jesus.
So we all need a personal encounter – can’t be “momma’s Lord” or “the church’s God.”
Vs. 29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Thomas believed because he physically saw Jesus, touched him, and heard his voice after he was raised from the dead.
The real issue for us today is not what Thomas did or did not believe, but whether or not you and I believe the same story.
Do you believe that Jesus is indeed the Son of God?
Do you believe that when he died on that cross that all of your sins were forgiven?
Do you believe that when God raised him from the dead he also swung open the gates of the grave, and gave the promise of eternal life to all who will believe in him?
Maybe you’ve said, “oh, if only I could have been there!” Tour companies capitalize on our desire to get as close to the scene as possible, to walk where Jesus walked.
But the blessing isn’t reserved for those who’ve been to Israel, or limited to those who lived and walked with Jesus.
The blessing really belongs to those who can’t prove it, but nevertheless do not doubt it.
The blessing belongs to those who never saw Jesus with their own eyes, but have nevertheless invited him into their lives to be their Savior and Lord!
Not a “blind leap of faith.” Evidence for Jesus’ resurrection is overwhelming. Moving from doubt to faith involves our intellect, our emotions, and our volition.
When I talk about him being “alive” I don’t just mean that "his influence is still around."
Not like, "Martin Luther King" is alive; or "George Washington lives on as the founder of this nation." No. Jesus is alive. He ate food in the upper room. Shortly afterwards he squatted on the sand, cooked and fed fish to six of the disciples, including Thomas. Talked to them. Touched them. This time they had no doubts. When he called them to eat, John 21:12 “None of the disciples dared asked him, “Who are you?” They knew it was the Lord.”
It is commonly accepted tradition that Thomas became an evangelist to India from around 52 A.D. to 72 A.D., founding many churches there. The story is that a group of non-believers confronted him and demanded that he deny his faith in Christ.
The one time doubter said, “I will never, ever, renounce Christ.” His accusers responded by driving a stake through his body.
The one-time doubter was committed enough to die for his Lord and his God.
Why the difference? He knew without a shadow of a doubt that Jesus really is alive!
God did a stupendous act in the resurrection –he arrested the process of decay and decomposition; snatched Jesus from the realm of death and transformed his body into a remade vehicle for his personality, so now is immortal.
That day, death died.
Jesus will never face death again (not like Lazarus, who died, was raised, but had to die again). JESUS IS ALIVE FOREVERMORE!
I don’t know where you are on your journey, but this morning, will you complete your journey from doubt to belief, and declare with Thomas, “my Lord and my God”? To you who do, I declare:
“Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet believe!”
”Blessed” can be translated “happy.” Happiness begins when we believe in Jesus. Until we become a disciple of Jesus, we keep turning on the tube and laying down the green to follow what are ultimately useless prescriptions for experiencing happiness. They’re temporary at best – a band-aid approach when surgery is required. Talk shows and tabloids and bookstores have to keep coming up with new ideas for happiness to compensate for the ones that didn’t work last week.
Truth has no alternative, you see. “None but Christ will satisfy.”
Experiencing life in Jesus begins when you invite him into our hearts as Lord and Savior. It’s easy. Say something like this - “Lord Jesus, I invite you into my heart as Lord and Savior. I believe you are who you said you are – the Son of God, and that you died on the cross for my sins and that you rose again. I’m pretty much an ordinary person, and I sure have messed up my life so far! So I’m giving the reins to you. I ‘m putting you in the driver’s seat of my life from this day forward. From this day forward, you are my Lord and my God.”
