Word of Salvation – Vol. 36 No. 35 – September 1991

 

My Lord And My God

 

Sermon by Rev. John A. Haverland on John 20:24-29

Reading: John 20:1-29

 

Beloved in Christ,

Some names in the Bible have certain associations.  When we hear of Abraham we think of faith.  David makes us think of the Psalms and of a close walk with God.  We associate the name of Job with suffering and patience.  Luke is the historian, Barnabas the son of encouragement.

…And Thomas?  What do we remember Thomas for?

Well, we could remember him for his courage.  When Jesus set himself to go to Jerusalem, Thomas was the one who said ‘let’s go there with him.’

Or we could remember him for his honesty.  When Jesus told his disciples that they knew where he was going, Thomas was honest enough to say, ‘But Lord, we don’t know where you are going!’

But we usually don’t remember him for those things.  Instead we remember him for his doubt!  Doubting Thomas!

In some ways this isn’t entirely fair.  The other disciples also had trouble believing.  When they first heard the women tell the stories of the resurrection, their words seemed like idle tales to them.

Yet Thomas, more than the others, had a serious case of doubt.

Doubt is something all of us experience at some time or other.  Each one of us has had struggles with this.

Even that great Christian writer, C.S. Lewis, said that there were moments in which the Christian faith seemed to him to be incredible.

We have all had moments when we wondered if all that we believed was really true!

This is what doubt is: It is to wonder, to question.  Os Guiness has written a book entitled ‘Doubt’, which is subtitled, ‘Faith in two minds.’

  Doubt is being in ‘two minds’ about God;
  Having a foot in both camps;
  Suspended between belief and unbelief;
  Torn between two opinions;
  Being up in the air;
  Debating the issue with ourselves.

Doubt is not the same as unbelief.

Doubt is a temptation – the temptation to turn away from God.

But unbelief is the deliberate refusal to believe in God.  It is a wilful decision to disobey Him.  It is when we close our mind.  When we harden our heart.

Doubt can decline into unbelief.  This is what happened in this case.  Thomas had allowed his doubt to harden into unbelief.

But Jesus came to him and pulled him out of this by giving him solid, irrefutable evidence of his resurrection.  Today we want to look at the Thomas’ doubt.  As we do that we will see how the evidence of a risen and living Saviour can give us a faith that moves beyond doubt.

Let’s look at what happened:

Jesus had been crucified on the Friday morning.  As the shadows lengthened in the late afternoon of that day Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus had come along and taken his body off the cross.

Joseph had placed him in his tomb and his body had lain there during the Sabbath, the Saturday.

Very early on Sunday morning, some of the women went to the tomb, but to their horror, found it empty!  Peter and John had run to look and they too found it empty!

Later that afternoon two people were walking home to a village called Emmaus.  Jesus had joined them on the road and spent some time talking to them about the way the Old Testament pointed to the Messiah.

Then as he sat down to have a meal with them they suddenly recognized him.  Just as they did so Jesus vanished!

Leaving their meal on the table they hurried back to Jerusalem to tell the others that they had seen Jesus!  As they were telling them all these things, suddenly, He was there once again!

Jesus greeted them, and spoke with them for a while, and then later in the evening left them.

All of them had been there; all of them except Thomas.  Maybe he had to see someone, or had gone out with a message.  Where ever he was, he wasn’t there when Jesus came.

When he came back the disciples were all excited!  ‘We have seen the Lord’ they told him.  He was here!  And they told him all about it.

But as they spoke they could see that Thomas was not convinced.  He could not believe them!

You can imagine how hard they tried to persuade him.  They went over the whole thing again; told him what Jesus had said; confirmed and compared their stories with each other; gave him the details.  But Thomas remained obstinate.

Why was he so stubborn?

His unbelief probably has its roots in the events of the past few days.  It seems as though Jesus’ crucifixion had totally shattered him.  Like the others, all his hopes and dreams had been centred in Jesus.  Now all that had gone!  He was crushed.  Bitterly disappointed.

In fact, he was so disillusioned that he expressed his unbelief in a crude and shocking manner.  ‘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!’

There are people around today who will not believe in God for similar reasons.  They have been through certain experiences that have left them bitter and disillusioned.  They are angry at God and cynical about faith.  Sometimes they express this strongly to try to shock others.  They seem hardened and set in their unbelief.

But there is a way out of this!  Let’s take a closer look at these events.

You can imagine that things were a little strained between Thomas and the rest of the disciples for a while.  He was sullen and silent and unyielding.  If they tried to talk to him he would get his back up.  So they tended to leave him alone.

This went on for a week.  Then the next Sunday evening saw them all in that room once again.  No doubt all the disciples were hoping and praying that Jesus would come again.  And He did!  And this time Thomas was there!

Jesus’ first words were for him.  “Thomas, put your finger here – see my hands.  Reach out your hand and put it in my side.”

So Jesus knew what he had said!  He had heard!  He wasn’t dead in the tomb any longer!  He was alive and well and listening and speaking!

Having offered him this evidence, Jesus then said: ‘Stop doubting and believe.’ (NIV).

A more literal translation would read: ‘Be not unbelieving, but believing’.

This was a rebuke to Thomas.  Jesus told him off because he had reason enough to believe.  For one thing Jesus had often spoken of his coming death, and of his resurrection.  Then there was the united testimony of the other ten disciples, plus the women who had seen Jesus as well.  He should have believed, but he didn’t.

This put him in quite a serious position.  He was on the road to despairing unbelief.

But Jesus reached out in grace and pulled him back.  In love Jesus gave him all the evidence he needed.  He bent over backwards for him, as it were.  He gave him solid proof that He was alive.

As He did so, Thomas believed.

Jesus calls each one of us to this faith as well.  He applies this incident to us living all these years later: ‘Because you have seen me,’ He said, ‘you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.’

Thomas came to faith because he had seen Jesus physically and visibly.  But we can’t see Jesus because He is in heaven.

But we are still called to believe!  How can this be?  How can we believe in him without seeing Him?

Is Jesus calling us to a leap of faith?  To step out into the dark?  To an irrational belief that has no proper foundation or reason?

Not at all!  While we cannot see Jesus we have reason enough to believe.

It is important to emphasise this.  Many people today think of the Christian faith as being mere speculation; unscientific; illogical.  They regard it as mythological, far-fetched fantasy, on the same level as believing in UFO’s and fairies.

But this is not so!  Our Christian faith is rooted in historical fact!  There are good reasons for believing.  There is solid evidence for the truth of the Christian faith; evidence that can be checked, tested, examined.

Of course there are things we cannot understand.  The Christian faith is reasonable, but it is also beyond reason.

So as we examine this evidence we need a mind that is open to God; a heart that is receptive to his truth.  We need to believe that He exists and that He is a rewarder of those that seek him.

If we truly seek him we will come to the unshakable conviction that there is a God who has raised the Lord Jesus in power!  We will come to believe that Jesus has risen!  That He is alive!

This is what Thomas came to believe.  He didn’t need to put his finger on the marks in Jesus’ hands.  He didn’t have to put his hand on the gash in Jesus’ side.

He had seen enough!  He had seen Jesus!  His doubt and unbelief disappeared.  The faith that lay buried there was kindled to life!  Those dying embers of belief were fanned into flame by the breath of the Holy Spirit!

He responds with that beautiful confession: ‘My Lord and my God”!

This is the closing climax of this gospel.

Here Thomas expresses his conviction about Jesus in personal words of faith.

This is his statement of belief.  ‘You are my God, my Lord.  I have seen you and now believe in you.  I now accept who you are and what you have done.  I now worship you as my Lord.’

Do you have this kind of faith?

Do you believe in a Jesus who has risen, bearing marks in his hands?  A Jesus who left a tomb empty and grave-cloths folded neatly on the rock?

Is the confession of Thomas your confession?  Is Jesus your Lord?  Your God?

Are these words your statement of belief?  Your testimony of faith?

Without having seen him do you believe in him?

Blessed are you, who have not seen, and yet have believed!

AMEN