John 20:19-29 Sermon. April 12, 2021. Grace-Benson and Grace-Vail. It’s hard to overthrow a nickname once it has stuck for a few years. It’s harder to change a nickname that has stuck for a few thousand years. The disciple Thomas has a nickname, if I tell you to fill in the blank with the nickname, ________ Thomas, what do you think? Doubting Thomas. That’s how he gets remembered. But today I’m going to suggest, that’s unfair. Really a better description is honest Thomas. Believing Thomas. By better understanding how he got his unfortunate nickname, we can better understand what to do with our doubts, and marvel at how Jesus gives us what we need to believe that he has risen from the dead. Jesus knew how to interact with everyone in such a way that they received exactly what they needed. So why does he seem to send 2 opposing messages to Thomas? On the one hand, he basically says, “You don’t need to see and touch me to believe in me.” But on the other hand he says, “Touch, see, believe.” Why do this? Notice how he said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, yet who have believed.” That means, Thomas, you shouldn’t have to insist on seeing me visibly and physically to believe that I am alive. He said to him, “Stop doubting.” You shouldn’t have doubted what they were telling you. You should have already believed. Yet then he says, “Touch my hands and my side. See me.” He gives him what he said he shouldn’t have asked for. Why? Is it because Thomas was such a great doubter? Or was it that Thomas was to be such a great apostle? While it was true that Thomas did not need to visibly and physically see Jesus to be a believer, he did need to visibly and physically see him to be an apostle. What had Thomas missed by not being there on Easter evening? He missed Jesus visibly and physically appearing to the other disciples who would become apostles. It was described in v.19-23. Jesus appeared and said, “Peace be with you.” He showed them his hands and his side. He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.” He told them how they would go out and be brokers of the forgiveness of sins that Jesus had accomplished. It was both an appearing and a commissioning. Thomas had missed it, so Jesus did a do-over just for him. To ensure that he had everything that the rest had, he would be at no disadvantage to them. Why did the apostles need a visible and physical appearing? The main job of the apostles was to be witnesses of the resurrection of Jesus. To be able to say from experience, “We saw him after he was dead, physically alive.” When it came time to replace Judas in Acts 1, one qualifications they used to select someone new to replace Judas was: he had to be a witness of the resurrection. And when Paul later defends his authority as an apostle, one thing he pointed out in 1 Corinthains 15, I saw Jesus after he rose from the dead.
It was as if Jesus knew what an important job they had, and he gave them everything they needed to do the job. The apostles got every kind of proof they could have hoped for: rational, emotional, experiential proofs. They got teaching from Jesus over a 40 day period. Ephesians 2 says that the apostles lay the foundation of our faith. We need to believe in Jesus mainly based on what people like Matthew, John, and Paul wrote down. Why should we believe them? Because they saw him. Then they went out and spoke and wrote and related their interactions with the risen Jesus with others. Consider for example how the book of 1 John starts off. “That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked at and our hands have touched—this we proclaim concerning the Word of life …… We proclaim to you what we have seen and heard, so that you also may have fellowship with us.” John wants you to draw near to Jesus because he is alive, and to know that he is alive based on the witness of people like him. Now, is that always easy? No, it can be hard. And in case any of us would ever say, the apostles must have been super men of faith who never had any doubts or struggles; this story proves us wrong. Thomas doubted at first. It’s as if for a week Thomas had to relate to the other apostles the way we relate to all of them. He was expected to believe their words, and he didn’t until Jesus showed up and gave him what he needed. How are you doing with this? How are you doing in believing what the apostles tell you about Jesus’ resurrection from the dead? Do we ever doubt what the apostles tell us? Do we ever live as if Jesus is not actually alive and present at every time and every place though invisible? This story is for those times. Because without faith in his resurrection, we’d lose the benefits. We’d be left to deal with death on our own. We’d be lost to God and that condition would last forever. To keep that from happening, Jesus rose, and then appeared to people like Thomas, and had the experience written down so you could have a place to go when you doubt. Jesus was relaying to Thomas an important lesson about the nature of the gospel. Imagine if Jesus would have never appeared to Thomas, and he went off still believing that Jesus was dead. Thomas could have told people all about Jesus’ teachings. He already had that. The words Jesus had spoken, the miracles, the love and compassion. If that was the main point of Jesus’ coming, Thomas had that. No need to appear. But if the main point was a death and resurrection, Jesus appeared to give Thomas something he didn’t have. So many people today want to say about Jesus: the main point he wanted to leave us with is love and compassion and kindness. But the miracles, the dying and rising, that stuff was all made up
years later. This story is proof that’s not what Jesus wanted. He didn’t come to mainly be a treacher of love, bit a dying and rising Savior from sin. The main point of the Bible is not just more religious teaching that you have to take and do something with yourself. The main point of the Bible is: look at God becoming man in Jesus, and dying for you, only to rise again to perfect physical human life. If you get rid of the resurrection of Jesus, you don’t modernize the Bible, you gut it of it’s meaning and significance. How did the early apostles do what they did? Take a very small group of followers of one man, and have it explode numerically and geographically and spread around the world? Was it by saying, be kind and loving? Or was it by saying, Jesus has died and risen again and lives right now? Which of those two would be more likely to transform the poor, the marginalized, the outcast, the lowly? Which gives a new identity, and freedom, and hope? The resurrection changes a person’s past, present, and future. Because Jesus has risen: your past has changed, past sins dealt with. In the present moment you have God in human flesh alive and available for you anytime anywhere. Your future has changed. You have reason for hope and optimism no matter what; a preview of your rehabilitated body that you will one day receive from Jesus. That’s what people like Thomas brought around the world. Thomas needed to be a witness to the deeds of Jesus, not the teachings. This story reminds you that the hope Jesus offers is rooted in historical event and fact. Thomas had been honest with the others. In his mind, he would not believe unless he saw. Was that true? Perhaps not, he was shortchanging God’s ability to change hearts any way he chooses. But he was honest with the others. Better to admit doubt than to hold it in and never talk about it. Then after Jesus showed up, Thomas was rebuked, but then he responded to that rebuke with the greatest profession of faith found anywhere in the bible. He said simply, “My Lord and my God.” No where else in the Bible does anyone have a better identification of who Jesus is. All throughout the book of John Jesus, had been trying to get people to understand who he is. In John 8 he said that he was without sin. He said, If you know me you know the father. If you see me you see the father. Before Abraham was I am. As John was writing about Jesus for 19 chapters, it’s as if the confession of Thomas is the climax. The point that John wants everyone to get to. Jesus wanted people to view him as Lord and God. Thomas got there through honesty, and rebuke, and finally faith. Jesus wants to be known as Lord and God. For Thomas his faith was evidence and experience based. It was personal, my lord and my God. It was a statement of
submission and acceptance, this is the way things are. God has become man, died, and now lives. It’s a set of facts that no one would have thought to invent. Thomas believed because he saw. Now, how can you and I get where Thomas got? This gives us several practical ways to become the kinds of believers that Thomas became. Do you believe that Jesus is who he said he is? Look at how Thomas did it. First of all, listen to the apostles. In verse 25, it says, the other apostles were continually telling him that Jesus was alive. Listen to what God is telling you. If you want to find the kind of faith Thomas ended up with, listen to the apostles. Watch Jesus talk to people in the gospels, see what he has done. Hear what Paul and the others wrote. Second, see how patient Jesus has been with you. Verse 27. Jesus got there and he let Thomas see him, touch him, and get the proof he wanted. See the patience of Jesus. He didn’t say, “why have you doubted, believe now.” He was patient. How did he know what Thomas had been saying? He had been listening all the time, seeing it all, witnessing it all. Jesus had seen it all, and when he wanted to he became visible. Jesus knew because he is alive. He knew because he was there. Jesus has been seeing everything about you, and loving you and waiting for you all along. Thirdly, look at his wounds. Jesus told him to touch his hands, where the nails had been driven in before hours of suffering, and to touch his side, where the spear had been jabbed in after Jesus was dead. Jesus did not just show up as God and say, “By my power and authority I command you to believe.” Instead, “I am God, and I have suffered for you. I’ve died for you. I’m alive again for you.” That’s how Jesus draws you close as well. You need a God with wounds. Not a wounded teacher, not an authoritative God, you need a God-man alive, but with wounds. That’s what Jesus is for you too. Finally, like Thomas you need to drop your conditions. Notice how he had said, “unless I see and touch I will not believe.” Jesus came and told him to touch, but we don’t hear of Thomas touching. Instead it just says, he answered, “My Lord and my God.” No more conditions. No more, if he does what I need him to do, I’ll believe, just submission and faith. You and I do well to drop our conditions too. To stop saying, “If God does what I need him to do, I can believe.” Instead, when we like Thomas drop our conditions and say to Jesus, “My Lord and My God,” we end up with the same amazement, the same joy, the same faith that he had. So hopefully you’ve come to appreciate Thomas as more than the doubter, but as the great believer. But more importantly, see Jesus as the one behind the amazing faith. See Jesus as the once dead but now living one who is the power source for your faith and life as well. Amen.