“Believing is Seeing”
-All Things With God are Possible-
John 20:24-31
For the average person when it comes to Christian Faith the person says “I’ll believe it when I see it.” This morning we’re looking at the life of Thomas (called Didymus) – meaning the Twin.
I remember talking to one of the Directors of a Funeral Home in Taylor Michigan. I asked him about his faith in Jesus. He said he had trouble believing in someone he could not see. He said, “If Jesus would sit down with me and have a cup of coffee then I would believe.”
Many of us can identify with Thomas the Twin also known as “Doubting Thomas.” Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my fingers in the nail homes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe he rose from the dead.”
This coming Friday is “Good Friday” the day we remember as the Death of Christ on the Cross of Calvary. Next Sunday we celebrate the Resurrection of Jesus from the Grave.
John 20 – On the first day of the week after His resurrection Jesus first appeared to Mary Magdalene. Matthew, Mark and Luke report that Jesus appeared to Mary Magdalene, Mary mother of James and John and Salome and the women ran and told the other disciples but the disciples did not believe her story. To the other disciples – “Seeing would be to believe.”
Later on that same day, the disciples had gathered together, but fearful of the Jews, had locked all the doors in the house. Jesus entered, stood among them, and said, ‘Peace to you.’ Then he showed them his hands and side.
The disciples, seeing the Master with their own eyes, were exuberant. Jesus repeated his greeting: ‘Peace to you. Just as the Father sent me, I send you.’
The he took a deep breath and breathed into them. ‘Receive the Holy Spirit,’ he said. ‘If you forgive someone’s sins, they’re gone for good. If you don’t forgive sins, what are you going to do with them?’
But Thomas, sometimes called the Twin, one of the Twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples told him, ‘We saw the Master.’
But he said, ‘Unless I see the nail holes in his hands, put my finger in the nail holes, and stick my hand in his side, I won’t believe it.’
Eight days later, his disciples were again in the room. This times Thomas was with them. Jesus came through the locked doors, stood among them, and said, ‘Peace to you.’
Then he focused his attention on Thomas, ‘Take your finger and examine my hands. Take your hand and stick it in my side. Don’t be unbelieving, Believe.’
Thomas said, ‘My Master! My God!”
Jesus said, ‘So, you believe because you’ve seen with your own eyes. Even better blessings are in store for those who believe without seeing.”
John 20:30-31, “Jesus provided far more God-revealing signs than are written down in this book. These are written down so you will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and in the act of believing, have real and eternal life in the way he personally revealed it.”
As you prepare for the Easter Celebration Jesus wants you to have faith to believe that He is who He said He was and that it is a fact of history that Jesus has risen from the dead.
1. Jesus had patience with pessimistic doubting Thomas.
Some people require extra grace because by their nature and temperament they tend to be negative and pessimistic.
# One of my favorite stories is about a farmer that purchased a hunting bird dog. He told his neighbor about his dog and how his dog was a great hunting dog. The neighbor said, “You mean that mangy dog I saw tired up behind your house. I don’t that dog knows the difference between a duck and a raccoon.”
The two farmers went duck hunting together and the bird dog owner took the bird dog with them. The owner of the dog shot a duck and he sent his bird dog to fetch the duck. The bird dog walked on top of the water to the duck and put the bird in his mouth and brought it back walking on top of the water all the way. The owner said, “Now what do you think of my bird dog now.” “Ummmm he can’t swim can he?”
# Some people are like Pessimistic Eeyor in Winnie the Pooh. Eeyor anticipated the worst all the time. “It won’t work!” “We will never be able to do.” “We will never find our way back.”
Thomas the Twin had the tendency to look into the dark corners of life. He had the propensity to anticipate the worst of everything.
Thomas did have some good character qualities.
John 11:7-8, 16. Jesus was told that his good friend Lazarus was ill and dying. Jesus planned a trip to go to Bethany near Jerusalem to see Lazarus, but some of his disciples were quick to remind Jesus that the last time he was in Jerusalem the religious leaders tried to stone him to death.
Jesus told his disciples that they must go openly in the daylight rather than sneak around in the dark. He started toward Bethany and Thomas declared: “Let us also go, that we may die with him!”
• Thomas was a man of courage.
From this remark we know that Thomas with all his faults loved Jesus and was willing to die for Him.
During the past couple of weeks we have seen many acts of courage as our soldiers are fighting for freedom in Iraq.
# We’ve all heard the story of POW Jessica Lynch’s rescue in an Iraqi hospital. Last week we learned a little more about how it took place.
An Iraqi lawyer told U.S. Forces where to find her. He made the decision to assist in her rescue after seeing her slapped in the face by a guard—a sight that, in his words, "cut my heart."
He and his wife, who worked at the hospital, spent the next few days gathering information and making hand-drawn maps of the building’s layout, giving the information to U.S. intelligence officers.
Why did he do it? He said he simply couldn’t watch the mistreatment of a fellow human being without taking action. Even though it could have cost him his life, he made Jessica’s rescue possible.
This young Iraqi lawyer has been an inspiration to American troops—and he’s an example for us all to follow.
There will be times when you are faced with the prospect of doing something risky--but you know it’s right thing to do. Maybe defending someone who can’t defend themselves; maybe speaking the truth when the truth is not welcome; maybe putting your life on the line for a complete stranger. Sometimes we have to take risks—both big and small—in order to what is right.
The Apostle Paul wrote: Be on your guard; stand firm in the faith; be men of courage; be strong. Do everything in love. (1 Corinthians 16:13-14)
A professor gave his class an assignment. They were to turn in a 5 page paper. The theme was "Courage." Each student was to describe the best of example of courage that he or she had ever witnessed. One student boldly turned in five blank pages. The professor gave the student an "A".
• Thomas demonstrated courage when he said, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him!”
John 14 - Jesus is facing his arrest, trail and crucifixion. He gives his disciples comfort and encouragement by saying: “Do not let your hearts be troubled. Trust in God; trust also in me…I am going…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 … where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” (John 14:1-4) After hearing this Thomas says, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” Jesus answered: “I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.” (John 14:6) Thomas is saying, Jesus, don’t leave us. Stay with us.
Then in John 20:24-29 Thomas is missing when the risen Lord Jesus appears before the disciples. The ten disciples are behind locked doors and Jesus appears and says, “Peace be with you.”
The disciples didn’t believe the words of Mary and the other women so they also needed the evidence that Jesus was alive and risen from the dead.
• Where is Thomas?
Where is missing Thomas? Thomas was missing in action. He may have been shocked and disappointed and withdrew for solitude and reflection. What people need most when goring through tough times or when life tumbles in is a loving and caring community. It was in a community of disciples that Jesus appeared to Thomas. Jesus could have found Thomas off by himself having a pity party. But Jesus waited until Thomas was with the other disciples.
Thomas returned to the house after fretting and being bewilder and the other disciples said: “Thomas you should have been here. Jesus was here. He did rise from the dead just as He said.” You note that the disciples believe but they still lacked total trust. The doors were still locked.
Thomas said: “”Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hands into his side, I will not believe.”
• Seeing Is Believing
When Jesus appeared a second time he addressed Thomas and his requests. Jesus said to Thomas, “Put your finger here see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” The scripture doesn’t say that Thomas reached out and touched Jesus. Seeing was enough for Thomas to believe.”
Aren’t you glad for Thomas? Because of Thomas we have a great promise in John 20:29: “Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and we yet have believed.”
You have the witness of Thomas and the testimony of eye witnesses that Jesus rose from the grave. By faith you can say: “My Lord and My God.”
Suddenly the negative, pessimistic and moody tendencies of Thomas were eradicated by the appearance of Jesus to Thomas. Thomas was transformed into a great evangelist and took the gospel to the ends of the earth. Ancient history suggests that Thomas carried the gospel as far as India. There is to this day a small hill near the airport in Madras, India where Thomas is said to have been buried. The Joseph family that attends our church were benefactors of the ministry of Thomas in South India.
2. Jesus says to us today, “Believing is Seeing”
• Testimony of Lew Wallace
#Lew Wallace, Governor of New Mexico, over a century ago started out to write a book against Jesus Christ and in the process was converted to Christianity. "After six years given to the impartial investigation of Christianity as to its truth or falsity, he have come to the deliberate conclusion that Jesus Christ is the Messiah of the Jews, the Savior of the world, and his personal Savior."
Wallace had always been an agnostic and denied Christianity. Robert C. Ingersoll, a famous agnostic, was one of his most intimate friends. Ingersoll suggested that Wallace gather material and write a book to prove the falsity concerning Jesus Christ, that no such man has ever lived, much less the author of the teachings found in the New Testament. Such a book would make him famous. It would be a masterpiece, and a way of putting an end to the foolishness about the so-called Christ."
The thought made a deep impression on Wallace, and they discussed the possibility of such a book. He went to Indianapolis, his home, and told his wife what he intended. She was a member of the Methodist Church and naturally did not like his plan. But he decided to do it and began to collect material in libraries at home and in the lands of the Bible. He gathered everything over that period in which Jesus Christ, according to legend, should have lived.
Several years were spent in this work. He had written nearly four chapters when it became clear to him that Jesus Christ was just as real a personality as Socrates, Plato, or Caesar. The conviction became a certainty. Lew Wallace said: “I knew that Jesus Christ had lived because of the facts connected with the period in which he lived.”
“I was in an uncomfortable position. I had begun to write a book to prove that Jesus Christ had never lived on earth. Now I was face to face with the fact that he was just as historic a personage as Julius Caesar, Mark Antony, Virgil, Dante, and a host of other men who had lived in olden days. I asked myself candidly, ‘If he was a real person (and there was no doubt), was he not then also the Son of God and the Savior of the world?’ Gradually the consciousness grew that, since Jesus Christ was a real person, he probably was the one he claimed to be. “
“I fell on my knees to pray for the first time in my life, and I asked God to reveal himself to me, forgive my sins, and help me to become a follower of Christ. Towards morning the light broke into my soul. I went into my bedroom, woke my wife, and told her that I had received Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior.”
"O Lew," she said, "I have prayed for this ever since you told me of your purpose to write this book, that you would find him while you wrote it!"
The evidences of God’s Word, fulfilled prophecy, personal experience, and history give us all the proof that we need to prepared to celebrate Easter and say from our heart: “My Lord and My God.” For us today, “Believing is Seeing.”
Thomas saw the nail prints and scar of the spear that pierced the side of Jesus. Thomas knew the sacrifice Jesus had made for him and he believed.
Think of it! Jesus died for you. The tomb is empty. Jesus is alive. With God all things are possible.
• Experience of a Missionary Doctor
# A man who had grown up in North Carolina was called by God into Christian service, so he decided to become a missionary doctor. He studied theology as well as medicine so he would be prepared to be a missionary. He ended up with three doctoral degrees, one in medicine and two in theology. Then he and his pregnant wife headed into the remotest part of Africa. They worked with one tribe for four years without any response. Every week they would mee4t for worship, but no African ever joined them. Then one day their son became very ill and died. That missionary made a coffin for his boy and carried him out to bury him. He was all alone except for the presence of one African man. When he shoveled the soil onto the rude casket, he was overcome with grief and buried his face in the fresh dirt and sobbed. The African man picked up the missionary’s head by the hair and looked into his face. Then he lowered the man’s head carefully back into the dirt and ran into the village, crying. “The white one cries like we do.” The next time the husband and his wife met for worship, the place was packed. Now a church exists because of the family’s suffering.
How do you feel when you celebrate Easter. Is it “Ho Hum a time to celebrate and have fun eating chocolate Easter bunnies? Do you pass through Good Friday with a day as usual with no thought that Jesus died in your place.
This coming week is Holy Week. Why not take some extra time to reflect on Christ’s death, burial, and resurrection. Remember that “Believing is Seeing.” With God all things are possible. With Thomas you can say, “My Lord and My God.”
Closing – Power Point
He is Lord, He is Lord! He is risen from the dead and He is Lord! Every knee shall bow, every tongue confess that Jesus Christ is Lord. (Repeat)
