Sermon John 20:19-31

Let’s play a word association game this morning. I am going to say a name and you speak out the first thing that comes to your mind. The first thing, there is not right or wrong answer. OK. Peter. John. Matthew. Judas. Thomas. Most people when they hear the name of Thomas the apostle they automatically think…doubter. That is what Thomas has become famous for; in fact he has become a phrase that you can find in the dictionary, the definition you will find is “One who is habitually doubtful”. Habitually doubtful, now we don’t know much about Thomas, but I don’t think that one act of doubting should make someone a cliché for 2,000 years. But it is this one account in John that has makes Thomas one of the more famous disciples of Jesus. Does Thomas deserve this notion? Can his doubt provide a lesson for us today?

Thomas is not the only person in the Bible to have doubts. You can go all the way back to Adam and Eve. They doubted the seriousness of God’s commandment to not eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. Abraham doubted God’s ability to provide him and Sarah with a child. Moses doubted God’s ability to use him as a tool to lead Israel out of Egypt. Gideon doubted God’s ability to use him. Job, I mean come on, the entire book of Job is about doubting the goodness and the power of God. Even the disciples themselves doubted the resurrection of Jesus until they saw him first hand. If they had all believed they would have been waiting outside the tomb on Sunday morning instead of hiding in the upper room. So we really can’t put ole Tom down like we do as the famous doubter.

Imagine if someone you knew well, your spouse, one of your kids came up to you and said, “I just saw so and so the Wal-Mart and she looks great you would have never imagined that she died last week.” If someone had said that to you, you’d probably think that person was nuts, maybe overcome with grief and hallucinating. So we can see that Thomas is put into this position that he really can’t help. He is a reasonable person, not to excitable, very practical and he was loyal to Jesus, in fact the only other story we have about Thomas is when Jesus decided to return to Bethany, a town near Jerusalem, to bring Lazarus back to life. Now the last time Jesus was near Jerusalem he and his whole following almost got stoned to death. So the rest of the disciples were, understandably, a little leery to go. But Thomas said “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” So Thomas had loyalty, although his faith might have wavered. But I think we are all guilty of that from time to time.

I can remember as a child and as an adult asking questions and yes even having my doubts. I remember asking God, “If you are real, cut out the lights in my room” and things of that nature. We live in society that demands proof. America is full of Missourians, who want you to “Show me” first. And so doubt and questioning what we are told is nothing new to us. I have heard it said of some people, “If they told me it was raining I would go outside and check.” So I think we can all identify, in a certain way, with Thomas.

Let’s go back to the story of today because Jesus is doing something here. Jesus chooses to appear to his disciples when Thomas wasn’t there. I mean Jesus is the Son of God, I don’t think Jesus was caught off guard by the absence of Thomas. And so appearing while Thomas was out was done deliberately. But why did Jesus do this? Jesus as he always does wanted to teach something. Even as the Resurrected Savior of the world, he was still a teacher. Jesus first appeared to the disciples on the same Sunday he was resurrected, but waited a week to return for Thomas. Now can you imagine that week. All week long the other disciples were trying to tell Thomas that Jesus had resurrected, “Thomas, really, we aren’t kidding, He’s alive” and there is poor ole Thomas, “I am not going to believe until I can’t touch the scars.” But then, a week later Jesus appears and Jesus offers Thomas exactly what he was looking for. Thomas had said that he would not believe until he felt the scars on his hand and place his hand in Jesus’ side and that is what Jesus offered. Then an amazing thing happens, Thomas not only believes but goes a step further in his praise of Jesus by saying “My Lord and My God” so not only does Thomas believe that Jesus has risen but that he is indeed God. Jesus took doubt of Thomas and made it belief and not just ordinary belief but super-faith, because Thomas has gone above and beyond anything that the other disciples had said. God had taken the weakness of a man and made it strength. But this is nothing new. God has always chosen the weakness to prove his strength.

We remember Abraham, he was older and thought that he and Sarah would not bear any children, but God took that weakness that doubt and made Abraham the father of nations. Moses had a speech impediment, he stuttered, but God took that weakness and that doubt and made Moses the deliverer of his people. God takes what is weak and makes it strong. Why does God wait until we are at our weakest and when our doubts are the highest? I think it is only in our weakness can we put ourselves aside enough to see God working. We are a culture of do-it-yourselfers. I can remember about a year ago I was putting together a bookshelf and I though I could do it myself, I mean I am not Bob Villa but I know my way around a hammer and screwdriver. Well after about two hours, I had decided that I couldn’t do it and I had to ask for help. I had to humble myself and ask for help and so we must be humble before God to ask for help.

Also we see that Jesus provide specifically what Thomas needed. Thomas made specific requests and Jesus met each one. It is ok to doubt and it is ok to question because God will provide you with what you need if you are willing to receive it. But it might not happen instantaneously, because remember Jesus waited a week to appear before Thomas. So we have to be patient, but I want you to know that Jesus is always working on us, even when we don’t realize it. If there is a person that you have been talking to about Jesus, and I hope you have been talking to people about Jesus but that’s another sermon, but those people whom you have prayed for and have hoped would see the light, let me tell you, Jesus is already at work. The Spirit is already there and Jesus will provide what they will need. I remember in my evangelism class at Vandy, my professor said that acceptance of Christ is not a choice, it isn’t, it is a surrender. I want to repeat that because it bears repeating, the acceptance of Christ is not a choice, it is a surrender. We surrender to a work that Christ has already been doing in our lives and that work began on the Cross. If you have doubts this morning, its ok, it is only natural to doubt, but Christ will provide you with what you need to believe.

All of the stories we have heard this morning have one thing in common. Abraham, Moses, and Thomas needed a personal experience with God because that is where faith begins. We might not get a burning bush or a personal appearance of Christ, but Christ still gives us personal encounters. I might be a feeling, it might be a moment looking into the eyes of your children, but there comes a moment in every Christian’s life when the risen Savior makes himself known to us personally. There comes a moment in which we let our guard down just enough, we humble ourselves just enough to see that Christ doesn’t come to us, but he has always been there. There is a poem that I am sure we are all familiar with, called Footsteps, there have been several variations but the one I will read is from Mary Fishback Powers, and it was written in 1964.

One night I dreamed a dream.
I was walking along the beach with my Lord. Across the dark sky flashed scenes from my life. For each scene, I noticed two sets of footprints in the sand, one belonging to me and one to my Lord.

When the last scene of my life shot before me I looked back at the footprints in the sand. There was only one set of footprints. I realized that this was at the lowest and saddest times of my life. This always bothered me and I questioned the Lord about my dilemma.

"Lord, You told me when I decided to follow You, You would walk and talk with me all the way. But I'm aware that during the most troublesome times of my life there is only one set of footprints. I just don't understand why, when I need You most, You leave me."

He whispered, "My precious child, I love you and will never leave you, never, ever, during your trials and testings. When you saw only one set of footprints, It was then that I carried you."

Jesus is always there with us. He has always been there, even in our doubt and even in our weakness. The sealed tomb could not hold him back, Satan could not hold him back, death could not hold him back, our hearts cannot hold him back. Jesus is the master locksmith and will break into our hearts. Even as Christians sometimes we shut him out, we want to do things our way but he never leaves, he is always there, waiting to say, “do not doubt, but believe.”