John 20:24-29 • Beyond All Doubt
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(This transcript was prepared using software tools and has not been reviewed for complete accuracy.)
Let me ask that you would look in your Bibles at John chapter 20 this morning. I'm going to ask that you stand as we read God's Word together. John chapter 20, verses 24 through 29. In your Grace Bibles at your seats, that's page 907. Before we read, let's pray together.
Heavenly Father, thank you that on this day we can celebrate the Lord of Life, Jesus Rose. And so shall we, as we trust in you, that on the cross he took the penalty for our sin, and to show that the debt was fully paid, you crushed the result, even death itself. So that when death was conquered, he would rise, and show that he would make a path for us too, as we trust in him.
Easy to say, on a day of celebration. hard to remember in everyday life. And so this day, Father, even as we prepare for everyday life, we pray that you would prepare us to face the questions, face the doubts, through a man you put in scripture, to teach us that we can. Grant us this blessing through Jesus Christ, our Lord, we pray in Jesus name.
Amen. John 20 and verse 24, as we stand together, let's read. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never forgive.
Believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Please be seated. And as you're being seated
Aren't you glad you're not like him? I mean, can you believe it? I mean, you know, he's been in the company of Jesus for three years. He's seen the miracles. He's heard the parables. He has heard the report that Jesus is risen. And he does not believe. He's a disciple, he calls himself, what a dweeb, that with so much evidence, he would not believe.
Do you think that's why Thomas is in the scriptures? So that we would be glad that we're not like him. Now why is Thomas in the scriptures? Because there's no temptation taken you but such as is common to man.
And if I had been there. I probably would have doubted, wouldn't you? Don't we? After all, think of all that we know that would have been the very same thing that Thomas faced. Jesus said, I am the bread of life. And then they took his life. He said, the truth will set you free.
And then they nailed him to a tree. He said, he was the good shepherd, but he was led like a lamb to be slaughtered. He said, I will never leave you or forsake you, but he is gone. Thomas had good reason to doubt. And of course, not just Thomas alone. When our lives take the twists and the turns that we do not expect, when, when friends betray, when spouses leave, when employers discard, when our bodies disappoint us, we have some questions too.
Claire Davis, the historian, looking back over the history of his own life, wrote, when I went to my counselor, Diane, And told her, my life was not turning out the way that I thought it should. She laughed and laughed and said, nobody's does.
We can laugh at the novelty of the plaques in the stores that say, Life is not a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely. But rather a skid in broadside, totally worn out, proclaiming, Wow, what a ride.
But if it's really that harrowing,
if it is really that disheveling, if it is really that disappointing and unpredictable, we are going to have a few questions. And even the best of us, the holiest of us, will have a few questions. Doubts. And that's why it is so important that we recognize Jesus is not the one laughing, nor the one turning away.
After all, why is Thomas in the Bible? So that we will give thanks for the knowledge that when we have some questions about what we cannot explain, cannot make sense of, Jesus does not laugh or turn away. He is not repulsed by our doubts. How do I know that? Well first, just because Jesus came near. He came near to Thomas.
He doesn't run away. You, you know just the sequence of these verses, how things unfold. Verse 25, the other disciples, because Thomas was not with them at the first appearance of Jesus in the upper room, because Thomas was not with them, they said, verse 25, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hand, in his hands, the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
And then. Eight days later, after that expression of doubt, Jesus comes and you know what happens, verse 27, He said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, put out your hand, place it in my side, do not disbelieve. Do you notice the exact words that Thomas was saying? When Jesus was not present? Jesus is gone, and yet he is quoting Thomas back to himself.
You know, there's no listening devices, no bugs, no malware. But somehow the Sovereign Lord, separate, crucified, dead, knows. And says the exact words, as if to say to Thomas, I've been here all along, and, and I'm here again. Even though I know your questions, I have not run away. I'm coming right back at you.
And that, that glory and that wonder of a God who's not going away but keeps coming near is the consistent message of Scripture, right? I mean, even when Jesus came into this world at the announcement of his birth, the angel said that he should be called Emmanuel, which means God, what? I don't know. With us.
It's, it's the great expression of Scripture. Not that somehow we have to rise above all our questions and doubts. That we have to work our way to Him. But that God comes to be with us in our brokenness, in our doubts, in our questions. Here He comes. It's, it's the message from the beginning when, when he had created the universe with, with galaxies that had the quasars and the quarks, things so much greater than we and so much smaller than we, that he would still walk in the cool of the garden with Adam and Eve come that close.
When he was establishing a people from whom he would come in his earthly manifestation as Jesus. He would show his great power by leading them, not only out of slavery, but through the desert with a pillar of fire at night and cloud by day. Wow, what great power! And yet he said, and yet I will tabernacle with you.
I'm going to put my tent with yours. I'm going to be with you. So much so that when Jesus himself would come to the earth to be that God present with us, incarnate in the flesh, that the gospel writer of John, the same book that we just read, would say, Jesus came to tabernacle with us. To be with us, to be present with us.
So close, that ultimately we recognize that he would be present inside of us, indwelling us by his spirit. Amen. We think of the Bible so often as this, this great parade of pageantry, right? Armies and kings and choruses. And yet what you have is you have this great march of intimacy as Jesus just keeps coming closer and closer and closer to people with questions and doubts and all kinds of brokenness.
It's the wonders, the goodness of the Bible that we celebrate this day. Not, not just that he rose, but that he rose to keep coming closer and closer and closer. Even we think our doubts should isolate us and push him away. In one of the oldest churches of Western culture, in the north of Spain, There is a, a relief statue showing this moment that Thomas is meeting Jesus.
All the other disciples are lined up to one side of Jesus, kind of almost hidden behind him, as if to say, we got the news. We're, we're on this good side over here. And Thomas alone stands isolated on the other side of Jesus. He, he hasn't got it yet. But the beauty of the image is that though the other disciples are moving away, Jesus is moving toward.
I know your questions. I know your doubts. But I'm not, I'm not going to move away because you feel isolated even away from me. It's, it's not just a picture in statuary somewhere. It's, it's the consistent message of Scripture. Think of what you know. If you, if you went to what many people think is the oldest book in the Bible, the book of Job.
How does God introduce himself to the realities of our lives? He talks to Job, a man who has lost possessions, and stature, and family, and health. And what does Job say to God in God's own word? Job says, In the midst of my suffering, I called to you. And God answered me, but I could not believe that he was listening to my voice, for he bruises me with a tempest and multiplies my wounds without cause.
God allows himself to be addressed that way in his own word. Asking the question from the very beginning, why is this? Why is this happening? If you're here, why am I going through this? Jeremiah. The great prophet of the Old Testament who's actually telling the rest of the church that the Messiah is coming to rescue them from their great disasters and sin.
What does Jeremiah himself feel as he is persecuted for his message? He writes it. Oh Lord, you have deceived me. You have overcome me and prevailed against me. You I have become a laughing stock all day. Everyone mocks me. A father, in the time of Jesus himself, comes and says, Jesus, my boy falls into convulsions.
He falls into fits. He wants to throw himself into the fire because we can't control him. Jesus, will you help him? And Jesus said, do you believe? And what does the Father say? I believe, help my unbelief. And Jesus helps him, even in his unbelief. Thomas, when we see, he's just the last in a long list of people.
Um, God is saying, you can tell me that you question, you can tell me that you doubt, that you wonder, even in the, in the midst of the great things I'm promising you, and I'm not going to laugh, and I'm not going to run away, I just keep coming near. And if it's true in Bible times, you know it has to be true in our times.
Sometimes, sometimes people who don't. Really square with the honesty of their own hearts, have trouble recognizing how great people of faith so wrestle at moments when, when calamity comes, when life is not working out the way you predicted that it would, how questions just, just can't be kept down. How, how rational thinking people necessarily have some questions.
And so, so disturbed the world after Mother Teresa's death that we read her journals. And found words in it like this, Such deep longing for God, but I am repulsed, Empty, no faith, no love, no zeal, Heaven means nothing, pray for me, That I will keep smiling. Oh, we might say, that's just from a different faith tradition, But then we look to our own faith traditions.
C. S. Lewis in the famous Christmas Eve letter, the day getting ready to celebrate the birth of Christ, wrote to a friend, I think the trouble with me is lack of faith. My old skeptical habits, the spirit of the age, the cares of the day, they steal away my truth. And often when I pray, I wonder if I'm posting letters to nowhere.
Johnny Erickson Tada, close to home, from her own denomination, from her own church, the amazing Christian woman who has written so many books about faithfulness, despite the fact that in a diving accident in her teens she was made a quadriplegic and has lived in a wheelchair all of her adult life. 2004, interviewed by Larry King on Larry King Live.
She talked about her faith, she talked about faith in crisis, and he asked the awful question, Ever doubt your faith, Johnny?
She said, I have questioned God. I have wondered why. Thinking people wonder why. And just for the moment, just for the moment, We need the comfort of Thomas, who knew that when he questioned by what Jesus did next, Jesus would not turn away from the questioning. That, that in the face of doubt, Jesus would still come near.
How do I know he's not laughing? How do I know he's not turning away? How do I know he still cares? Because he did not just come near. Remarkably, he kept the wounds of his suffering. Thanks Did you note that? I mean, have you ever scratched your head about it? That Jesus says there, remember? Put your fingers here, verse 27, see my hands, put out your hand, place it in my side.
Why did Jesus keep the wounds? He didn't have to, you know. I mean, just, just think of what you know about these accounts. Eight days earlier, John makes it very clear, the disciples are in the upper room and the door is locked. And suddenly, Jesus appears. In body, the real Jesus, wounds showing it's really Him.
Then He's gone. Eight days later, knowing what Thomas has said, He comes back. John says again, the door is locked. And Jesus appears again. End. Now, you know, this is better than Star Trek Transporters, folks. I mean, you know Just, you know, this is, this is not beam me down Scotty. I mean, he just kind of comes and goes at wills.
You know, flesh is, is kind of knit and re knit and come apart. And, and this is the same Jesus who says now that when we are put in our glorified body, No more disease. No more brokenness. All that's wrong is made right. This same Jesus is already displaying his control over the universe and the body and flesh.
He doesn't need to keep the scars or the bleeding wounds, whatever. He doesn't need to do that. And yet, he kept the wounds when he comes to Thomas. Why?
Well, surely it's to convince Thomas. Same wounds. Same body. Same Jesus. It's true what they said. I am alive. You watched me die. You watched me suffer. But I rose again. I'm here. See? And it's more than that. While you recognize that he's convincing Thomas, he's convincing the same Thomas who has doubted him.
And so the wounds are not just convincing in a remarkable spiritual expression. They are also covering. Covering. The doubt of Thomas, his doubt is sinful. His doubt is wrong. It shouldn't be there. But what are the wounds all about? But to show that he was crushed for us. Do you remember the words of Isaiah?
He was pierced for our transgressions. He was crushed for our iniquities. The chastisement that brought us peace was put upon him. By his wounds we are healed. As he shows the wounds to Thomas, he is saying, Even your doubt is covered. You are made right with me, not by what you have done, but what I have done.
I have suffered for you, I have taken the penalty, I have paid the price in my suffering of your sinfulness, I even come here to cover your doubt. In an ancient woodcut from the ancient church, again this moment is depicted. And because it's an ancient woodcut, there are some of the conventions of the age that are not quite proper, you know.
All the disciples have halos, and you know, there's sunbursts and all kinds of things. Not quite appropriate, but, but there's this wonderful thing that happens. It's the only place I have seen the image of this moment shown this way. As Jesus is saying to Thomas, Look at my hands. Put your hand in my side.
By raising his hands like this, he is not only demonstrating who he is, he is covering Thomas with the cross. He convinces and covers as exactly the same moment. It is, of course, the point that we need to know that this resurrection morning that we celebrate is meant to convince us again. Lots of people apparently believe, but more than that is to say, when I struggle, when by brokenness, when my questioning, when my sin makes me wonder, am I still okay with him?
He is saying, look at the wounds. These are not meant merely to convince you they are meant to cover you. To recognize the guilt of your sin has been paid for. Put your faith in what the wounds mean. Because they weren't just something for an old time. Do you remember that this same John who wrote this gospel writes in the book of Revelation what will happen at the end of the ages.
He says, I looked and behold there was a lamb standing as though he had been slain. To recognize that though Christ did not have to have wounds at all, He not only had them, but keeps them to show us. I want you to know, I died for you, and I want you to know, the wounds are for you. They cover your questions, they cover your sin, they cover your brokenness.
The psalm writer says it right, five bleeding wounds he bears, received on Calvary. They pour effectual prayers, they ever plead for me. Forgive him, O forgive, they cry, forgive him, O forgive, they cry, nor let that ransomed sinner. Die. Why? Because I died for Him. Because I have paid the price. You know, one of the amazing hymns that Christians of all generations seem to love to sing is, is that hymn, There is a fountain filled with blood, Drawn from Emmanuel's veins, And sinners plunge beneath that flood, Lose all their guilty stains.
Now if you just think about it, that is a horrible image. But, but the graphicness of that image seemed to be needed by William Cooper, the writer of the hymn. William Cooper, one of England's greatest poets, and yet came to a deep understanding of human life and faith through great suffering. When he was six months old, he wrote this poem.
His mother died and so he was put in boarding schools all of his school life. Wrote deeply and longingly of a need for a father relationship the rest of his life. When he was a young adult he courted a young woman for seven years. Only on the eve of the wedding to have the wedding canceled by her father.
Who did not want her to marry someone like him. Into that stage of his life, Cooper's father re entered and tried to get him a prestigious job as an officer in Parliament. But on the eve of the exam that would have been necessary to qualify him for that position, so filled with questioning and self doubt was he, that in depression and fear, he sought to take his own life.
First he went to a river to throw himself off a bridge, but. the water was too low. So he went home to take poison, but he couldn't get the lid off the bottle. So he tried to hang himself with a piece of fabric which broke three times
and that broke his mind. He was put into an insane asylum. And, in the insane asylum, read John 11. From the same gospel. Do you remember what's there? John 11 is the account of Lazarus being raised from the grave. Even, even when others thought it could not be done, did not want to go to Bethany to see Jesus help his friend who was suffering.
Jesus still showed his power. But Lazarus and Jesus are not the only ones mentioned in John 11. There is a particular disciple pointed out. The disciple was Thomas. Remember the other disciples are saying to Jesus, you can't go to Bethany. It's just a mile or two from Jerusalem. And the Jews are waiting to stone you at Jerusalem.
Don't go there, Jesus. And Jesus said, I'm going to go to help my friend. And Thomas finally speaks up. Well, let's just go and die with him. I mean, it's just kind of this fatalistic, resigned, pouting. And of all things, that reached into the heart of William Cooper. Because what he said he saw when he read John 11 was the mercy and sympathy of Jesus for miserable men.
Like him. Like Thomas. Like you and me sometimes, right? When the tragedies come, when we can't make sense of it, and we are wondering, what now? Why this Lord? And in the midst of all my questions, I learned that God is merciful and sympathetic to miserable people. I need Thomas. I give thanks for Thomas, because he shows me so much of what I need to know about the nature of God in the midst of my wrestling with my God.
Because ultimately, what I learned from Thomas is it's not just that Jesus came near, nor that he kept the wounds for our sake to convince us and to cover our sin. But ultimately, I understand from Thomas that Jesus claims doubters. I mean, amazing sequence in these verses. Do you remember how it works?
Jesus Jesus comes and at the end of verse 26, before there's been any proclamation, before any touching of the wounds, Jesus says to those in the room, peace be with you. Now I recognize just a couple of verses later, there's going to be that great proclamation of Thomas, my Lord and my God, but he hasn't said that yet.
All that he's in the place of being right now is the place of questioning and doubting and challenging God. And still Jesus comes and said. Peace to you Thomas. I've said it to everybody else eight days ago. I came back to say it to you, and you haven't said anything to me yet that's good, but to you I offer my peace.
Why is it important that you and I recognize that Jesus is claiming the doubter? Because we, we see the movement in the life of Thomas. He goes from powder to doubter to shouter. Let's just go die with him. Pouts. Doubts, unless I see the wounds in his hands and his side, I'm not going to believe. And then he shouts, he's here, my Lord and my God.
What do you recognize in that? But that Jesus is saying to you and me, the reason that I would claim a doubter like Thomas is because I know there may be a few more.
In fact, I think the reason that Thomas is at the end of this gospel is clear just because of its placement in this very chapter. If you're still in John 20, you know that I ended, verse 29, but the end of the chapter goes two more verses. At the end of John 20, the Apostle writes, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.
Amen. Many other signs and wonders. But the last wonder that has just happened is Thomas believes. Thomas believes. I mean, that's the miracle. You know, the last to believe, the hardest to convince, believes. And, and that's the message for us. That, that if Thomas can believe, then maybe the resurrection is real.
I mean, it's why I think Jesus saved him. Till the last so that others of us would say, if even Thomas believed, maybe there's something to this. Now, I haven't, I haven't answered all the questions that can come, all the doubts, all the struggles that you and I have and will have. But the reason that I have put this before you is to recognize that when we have the questions, we also have a decision to make.
I think of it in terms of the American author, Sheldon Van Auken, who wrote, in case you haven't read it, A Severe Mercy, one of the great love stories of our era, how he and his wife united in this shining bond where all of the things would be cut out of their lives as they focused on one another, which they did until her cancer came.
And Sheldon Van Auken writes of his journey to faith as his wife journeyed toward death. He wrote about his doubts, and he wrote these words. To move forward in faith, I had to cross a gap between the probable and the proved. If I were to step across that gap and stake my life on the risen Christ, I wanted proof.
I wanted certainty. I wanted to see Jesus eat fish, or declare himself in letters in the sky, or something. I got none of those. And then I recognized that there was another gap of faith. It was the one behind me. I recognized that, that I did not have absolute certainty that there was a God that Jesus had risen from the dead.
But to reject Christ was to cross the gap behind me to a belief that there was no God. That, that there was no guide for life, no judgment, no hope after death, no reunion with loved ones, no making things right. If I did not accept Christ, then that was the thing that I did accept. But there was no certainty that those things were true either.
And so I recognizing I could not accept hopelessness, accepted Christ instead. It's what we're called to do, to recognize I, I will have questions. You will have questions. We're united in understanding life is too complicated and difficult at times, never to have a question. But Jesus isn't running away, and He's not laughing.
Instead, He's convincing us by His resurrection that He has power, and goodness, and the willingness to cover our sin, and to make things right, if not on this earth, in eternity. And I will choose to believe that, rather than hopelessness. It is my privilege. Because of the Christ who came to be with me and to tell me and you that through the life of Thomas.
You see it every week. This church and many churches, we have that cross that's up there. Do you know that particular cross is actually known as a Thomas cross? Not because it's shaped like a T. But because there's no effigy on it. No body of Christ as the great faith of Thomas was proclaimed. He's not here.
He's not here. Not on the cross, not in the grave. He rose! I believe that now. And that's the message there. And through Thomas. And I pray in your heart that you would know new life in him because he rose for you. Father, I pray for those who gather here that you would work in our hearts and lives to teach us again of the wonder and the goodness of the gospel.
Not, not that it removes every question. Amen. , but gives us cause for real hope because of even Thomas could believe there's reason for us to grandfather that. The truth of the resurrection, sin conquered hope ahead Reunion with loved ones, life made right through you eternally Teach us that hope that we may claim the faith of Thomas and know the wonder.
This we ask in Jesus name. Amen.