Well, good morning again. It's great to see you all.
We praise God for the people who were just up here on the stage leading us in worship in wonderful ways.
Can we just give thanks to the Lord for them and for the ability to gather?
It's been two years, three years since we've been able to gather freely to worship in Easter like this.
And so what a wonderful morning it is to do that.
And, you know, as we gather, we serve, we come to proclaim that Jesus Christ is risen from the dead.
It was the central theme of the early church.
It was the thing that they proclaimed over and over again.
And so we do celebrate it.
But as we gather this morning, I want to recognize that it's not always an easy thing to believe, is it?
That a man died and rose from the dead again.
If you've grown up in church, you've been used to this familiar language.
And so it doesn't strike you as particularly challenging.
But I think that if we sit back and step and look at it, we recognize it is challenging.
And I recognize that some of you may be here this morning facing a crisis of belief of your own.
You may be here exploring Christianity.
You may be here having gone to church all your life.
But, you know, the last couple of years have been hard in our world.
We've been shaken by many things.
So much of the fabric of our society feels like it's being rent and torn and pulled apart.
I think it feels that way societally.
I think it feels that way to us personally as well.
Our world has been shaken quite a bit.
And I think that it's very easy in that context for it to create for us a crisis of belief.
Crisis of belief comes not just for Christians.
It comes for all people.
When different things happen in our lives, it makes us reexamine what we believe and why we believe it.
Whether you're religious or not, it makes us reexamine it.
And a crisis of belief can come in many forms.
It may be because something in your circumstances challenges the things that you've assumed to be true.
So, a cancer diagnosis or an unexpected end to an engagement or a loss of a job
makes you question, where am I going and what am I doing?
Why am I doing it?
Maybe the disappointment and failure of others you've trusted make you question yourself.
Certainly for those of us in the church, we've struggled with the revelation of sin
and church leadership in the last couple of years.
If they fail, why would we continue to believe is a question that comes up in our hearts.
Sometimes, as well, it's not major crises, but little things that wear away at our faith.
The boredom of everyday life.
The in and out of doing the same thing every day.
Wondering why you've ever believed at all.
This one sneaks up on us and then crystallizes in a moment.
What am I doing with my life?
My life is meaningless, worthless.
You find yourself questioning all that you've lived for and all that you've hoped for.
It may be that you have a crisis of belief this morning
because someone's asked you a question that you don't know the answer to.
You wonder, can I still believe?
Do I really believe?
Sometimes, a crisis of belief happens when we encounter others
who believe something that you don't.
I know this was true for me, growing up in church,
but not really understanding or knowing the gospel at all,
finding it pretty empty.
It wasn't until I met some friends in high school, had something else.
I'll tell more of my story later.
But it created a crisis of belief in me.
So, as we look this morning at the resurrection of Jesus Christ,
as we think about this story and where it is,
we recognize that it is a celebration,
but it is also a great word of comfort and help to us.
The message of Easter speaks to us in the midst of our crisis of belief
in ways that maybe we aren't aware of.
And that's what we're going to look at this morning.
We're going to look at John chapter 20, verses 24 through 29.
And as we turn there in your pew Bibles,
I forgot to look up the page number.
Anyone want to?
853.
There we go.
853, if you want to look it up in the pew Bible.
John chapter 20.
John was one who knew a crisis of faith.
Because John was one of the earliest disciples.
He responded to Jesus' call three years earlier to lay down his life,
his fishing boats, his nets, and to follow Jesus.
And he had put everything into this.
And at this point in the story,
John is remembering how he,
the day that Jesus died,
faced his own crisis of faith.
What in the world is happening?
How could he be dead?
What happens now?
Did I misunderstand?
Where do we go from here?
Maybe these are questions you are asking as well.
What is my life about?
What do I believe in?
Where do I go from here?
We're going to look not at the resurrection text itself,
but the text that talks about one of his disciples
who faced his own crisis of doubt.
So, John chapter 20, verses 24 and following.
Let's read this.
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 his hands,
see in his hands the mark of the nails,
and place my finger in the mark of the nails,
place my hand on into his side,
I will never 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.
And then he said to Thomas,
put your finger here,
see my hands,
and put out your hand,
and place it in my side.
Do not disbelieve,
but believe.
And 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.
And 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.
Will you pray with me for a minute?
Lord, we ask for your help
as we look into your word
for a minute this morning.
Lord, help us.
Help us to understand your word.
Lord, open our hearts
and our minds to your truth this morning.
I pray for your help
that you may help me
to speak your words as I ought,
that we together would hear,
receive, and rejoice
in the good news
of the resurrected Christ this morning.
And we pray this in Jesus' name.
Amen.
So Thomas, one of the twelve,
he'd walked with Jesus for three years.
He was there when Jesus taught
the Sermon on the Mount.
He was there when Jesus fed 5,000.
He was there when he raised Lazarus
from the dead.
What we know about Thomas
from the rest of the Bible
is that he was loyal.
In chapter 11 of John,
he says,
let us go to Jerusalem with him,
even though we're going to die.
Let's go and stay with him.
Thomas was also honest.
Jesus, in the night before he died,
when he was teaching his disciples
about where he was going,
said, you know the way.
And Thomas said,
uh, Jesus?
I don't know.
I don't know what you're talking about.
We don't know the way.
Thomas, in this passage,
is facing a crisis of belief.
And this is what we see.
We're going to walk through this.
In three, he said,
there's a crisis of belief,
there's a challenge to believe,
and there's a response of faith.
So we're going to look through
those things this morning.
Verse 24 and 25
describe the crisis of belief.
And here's the thing.
Thomas, as we've read about this,
we didn't see it right before this,
Jesus appeared to the rest of the disciples
when Thomas wasn't there
right after his resurrection.
So everybody else knew this, right?
He had appeared to the women,
he had appeared to the disciples,
but Thomas somehow wasn't there.
And so they came and told him about it,
and he's like,
maybe you guys saw a ghost,
maybe you guys are hallucinant,
I don't know what it is,
but I don't believe it.
No way.
I'll need to touch him
to know that this is really true.
And look, before we criticize him,
which is what we like to do in churches,
we'll say,
oh, look at him, he's so weak,
what's wrong with him?
Before we criticize him,
let's recognize how much it makes sense.
Resurrection was not on the radar
of anyone in the first century.
No religious expectation,
religious system,
it created an expectation for resurrection.
As a matter of fact,
in the Greek culture that was predominant in the,
resurrection would have been a terrible thing
because the death was freeing the body
from this terrible,
or freeing the soul
from this terrible body that we have.
Who would want to be resurrected?
That's a terrible thing.
So the Greeks didn't want this,
and even the Jewish faith,
who might have had some inkling
of a future corporate resurrection,
would never have thought
that somewhere in the middle of history,
one person would be raised from the dead.
So nobody was expecting this.
No one was looking for this.
There was no cultural framework
in which this made sense.
So Thomas could be forgiven
for not believing
what seems like an unbelievable claim.
Someone who is dead
has now been raised again
and is alive.
Now what kind of belief was this?
Was it merely rational skepticism?
Was he just an empiricist?
I need to see it, touch it.
I need to do scientific experiments
to make sure it's true.
Maybe, but maybe not.
Maybe he was also
a devastated follower of Jesus.
He'd put all his hope,
followed him for three years.
He didn't want to look foolish
by continuing to hope
when that hope had been crushed.
He didn't want to be disappointed again
by putting his faith in something.
That seems to have been robbed from him
and taken out from under him.
In his grief and his pain,
holding on to belief
that Jesus was raised from the dead
would have just made it worse.
I think it's,
to be sympathetic to Thomas,
there are a lot of reasons,
good reasons why
he had this crisis of belief.
Maybe he's a devastated devotee.
Maybe he's a cynical rationalist.
We don't know all of his heart.
But certainly,
if we imagine these things,
we can stop and think about ourselves.
Is there anything that I've said
about Thomas that rings true for you?
Maybe you've grown up in the faith,
but you're not sure
if the evidence is there.
Maybe you've not grown up in church
and you're exploring
why in the world
people would believe
such an incredible fairy tale.
Maybe you have honest questions
about what the facts are.
But maybe your questions
aren't as intellectual.
Maybe they're more spiritual.
Maybe you don't want to look foolish
by hooking your wagon
to the wrong thing.
Maybe you've been religiously disappointed
by the failures of the church
and the scandals that have happened.
Maybe you've been so disillusioned
by your experience
of what others have claimed
to be Christianity
that you think,
why would I want to do that?
Why would I want to keep thinking this
or believing it?
And maybe you're here this morning
and your world has just fallen apart
and you don't know
what you believe today.
And you don't want to hope
against reason,
but you also don't want
to make yourself vulnerable
to being disappointed again.
Friends,
the amazing news about Easter
is that God and Jesus meets us
in these questions and doubts.
This is what happens
in verse 26 and 27.
Having exposed the crisis of belief
that Thomas is going through,
now John continues to his account
by saying,
this is what happens.
Jesus shows up
and he challenges Thomas to believe.
So a week later,
Thomas was still around,
all the disciples were still there,
and Thomas hadn't bailed
and gone back
to wherever he came from.
He was still around,
but they're afraid.
This is an echo
of verse 19 of chapter 20,
where it seems like they're afraid
because their belief in Jesus
had put them at odds
with the Jewish leaders
who had been a part
of putting Jesus to death,
and they didn't want
to be publicly identified
because they feared
for their lives.
So they're in a locked room,
they're trying to protect themselves,
and Jesus shows up.
And look, friends,
we don't know how the physics
of this happened.
Maybe Jesus miraculously
unlocked the door,
and maybe he just walked through it.
But somehow,
in a room that a normal human being
could not have walked into,
Jesus walks in.
Jesus walks in,
and in his graciousness,
he meets Thomas
in two ways.
He meets him as a skeptic,
and he meets him
as one with a wounded heart.
He walks in,
and he says,
just like he did to the disciples
back a few verses earlier,
peace be with you.
And then he looks at Thomas.
Because he's the Lord of all,
he knows what Thomas
had already said.
He knows what Thomas'
heart was like.
And he looks at Thomas,
and in love he says,
Thomas, look.
It's really true.
Put your finger here.
Put your hand here.
And you know,
when he talks about the side,
this may sound crazy,
but one of the thieves
could have been raised
from the dead,
and he would have had
holes in his hands and feet,
and it could have been like,
well, maybe you're just
one of those other guys
resurrected,
and not Jesus.
But only Jesus
had a wound in his side.
Jesus looks at Thomas
and says,
you need help to believe
here.
I will give you the evidence.
I will give you
the physical evidence
that you need to believe
that this is true.
But he also
looks at Thomas
and he says,
I know you're afraid.
I know you're afraid
to believe.
And he says,
peace be with you.
It's easy to overlook this,
but this is Jesus wishing
shalom upon Thomas
and upon the disciples.
The peace with God.
The peace that could
not have been even imaginable
for these disciples
at this time.
Jesus looks at them
and says,
I know that when I died,
you thought the world
had fallen apart,
but it didn't.
Actually,
it was the best thing
that ever happened.
By my death,
peace with God
is now possible.
By my death,
the world
that has been falling apart
by sin
is now going to live
with a new hope
that it can be held together.
Salvation is now possible
because of that.
So Jesus looks at Thomas
and he says,
Thomas,
don't hide.
Don't fear.
Come out and believe.
He doesn't even rebuke Thomas.
I think verse 29,
there's some different ways
you could formulate
this sentence
and the way that
the ESV has it
is more of a question.
Have you believed
because you've seen me?
Almost like a rebuke.
But I think it's actually
better read
just as a statement.
Jesus looks at Thomas
and says,
you've believed now
because you've seen me.
And that's good.
And he says,
and there's going to be
a blessing for those
who will come
who won't get to see you
the way,
see me the way you do.
But they too will believe
because what this is
is just the beginning
of what God has
for this world.
Jesus comes
and he meets Thomas
graciously,
kindly.
He says,
I know your fears.
I know your need
for help
in believing
and I'm going to give you
what you need.
Here's my evidence.
See this.
Here's my peace
to be with you.
So the resurrected Jesus
meets Thomas
and us
on both of these levels
with the questions
that we ask
and the things
that we need.
And this, of course,
is all that what John
is doing.
As John has written
this entire gospel account,
all 21 chapters of it,
we see this
in verses 30 and 31.
John says,
this is why
I wrote this book.
Jesus did many things,
many more things
than I could even count
in this one book.
But the things
that have been written
have been written
so that you may understand
who Jesus is
and in understanding
that you may believe
and by believing
that you may have life
in his name.
John has marshaled
all sorts of arguments
and if you're here
this morning
and you're like,
I want to know
what those things are.
Here are a few of them.
One,
there were many witnesses
to Jesus
as a resurrected person
walking the earth.
Some would still
have been living
at the writing
of much of the New Testament.
The disciples saw him.
Women saw him.
The diversity of people
from various places
in the world saw him.
This was not one person's fantasy
that was then expounded
but many people
got to see him.
And the account
is written by John
in a way
that doesn't make any sense
if it weren't
a historically true account.
It includes
the testimony of women
which would have been
completely dismissed
in the first century.
And yet John says,
don't you see?
God graciously gave
these women
the grace of testifying
first
to the good news
of the resurrected Christ.
And it's included.
Some people have said
that this whole account
was constructed.
But here's a question for you.
Why would anyone
say a group of disciples
who are trying to build
a religion
out of their own heads
write a story
about how they didn't believe
that Jesus rose from the dead?
Why would Thomas
have ever let this
get through the editing process?
Some people have wondered,
well, isn't the Bible
just a really old document?
Do we really have good evidence
that the documentary,
the actual papers
are early enough
that they haven't been edited
and changed
so many times over history?
Well, friends,
these are all good questions.
But the fact is
the New Testament
is one of the best
attested documents
in the entire ancient world.
We have a book table.
I want to point you to it.
It's going to be
in the back afterwards
if you want to grab
some resources.
Tim Keller
is a great resource
to look at
to see some of those things.
There's also some
children's ministry resources
there for if you have kids
and want to help them
understand the resurrection.
We also have a book
stall downstairs
that if you really want
to dive into the deep end,
N.T. Wright,
The Resurrection of the Son of God
is the pinnacle
of good research
on the historical evidence
for why we should believe.
So John is writing this book
recounting this story
about how Jesus met Thomas
and said,
here's evidence.
John is writing this book
to say there's actually
a lot more evidence
for us to believe.
And so,
Jesus says to us,
do not disbelieve,
but believe.
This is the challenge
for us this morning.
And then we see
in verses 28 and 29
the response.
Thomas responds
with a striking response.
He says,
my Lord
and my God.
Now,
if you're writing a play
and this is the dialogue,
your editor might come to you
and say,
why this?
This is a really weird response.
How about something like,
whoa,
you're alive!
I didn't expect that.
How did that happen?
There are a lot of other
very normal responses
to this
where we would have,
where it could,
you know,
maybe he would have fallen down
on his feet in worship.
Maybe he would have fallen
backwards and faint.
Maybe,
you know,
there are lots of responses
we can imagine.
But Thomas actually says this,
he recognizes
who Jesus is
in a new and profound way.
The writer,
John,
had predicted this
back in John 20.
12,
16,
when he says this,
as Jesus was talking
about his coming crucifixion,
says his disciples
did not understand
these things at first,
but when Jesus was glorified,
that is,
when he was raised
from the dead,
then they remembered
that these things
had been written about him
and had been done to him.
And it made sense.
And for Thomas,
seeing Jesus
was the crystallizing factor
that brought everything
that he had seen
about Jesus together.
The resurrection of Jesus
allowed Thomas
to put together
the miracles
that he had seen,
the ways that he had loved people,
the forgiveness
that he had offered
to sinners
and undeserving people,
the way that he had called
all people to himself
and pointed them to God
in a way that no one else had
and kept pointing to himself
as the center of it.
I am the one
who's coming to save you.
I am the one
who's come to be your redeemer.
I am the one
who's come to do this.
And so he looks,
Thomas looks at Jesus
and says,
Now I understand.
You are my Lord
and my God.
My Lord,
the name that the Jews
use for the sovereign God
who rules over the world.
God,
recognizing his deity,
which would have been blasphemous
in the mouth of a Jew,
and yet he recognizes
this man standing before him
with flesh and blood
was God himself.
Thomas looks and says,
My Lord and my God.
And it wasn't just
a theological affirmation.
It was personal.
He repeated it.
My Lord,
my God.
He felt the healing touch
of seeing Jesus
raised from the dead.
He reasserted his trust in
and his love for
and his submission
to Jesus
as the one
who had come
to save him.
The things that he had hoped for
when he saw Jesus
ministering on earth,
now he saw.
It's better than he could imagine.
My Lord
and my God.
A complete turnaround.
I will never believe
to my Lord
and my God.
And if that seems sudden,
friends,
I want to encourage you,
go back and read
the New Testament.
Go back and read
the gospel accounts
of people who encountered Jesus.
Go back and read
the book of Acts
as people heard.
The preaching about
Jesus Christ
risen from the dead.
The change happens.
They go from belief
to unbelief.
And though many of us
have a process
by which we do this,
there is often also
a time where that change
becomes very evident
and very clear.
this is my own testimony
of encountering Jesus.
I said earlier,
I grew up going to church,
I knew the Bible stories,
but I didn't know God
and I didn't know Jesus.
And everything that I was taught,
it just didn't make sense to me.
I knew some of the facts,
but I didn't believe them.
Then in high school,
I met some friends
who started talking about
a personal relationship
with Jesus.
Jesus.
And honestly,
I scorned them.
I made fun of them.
But I also saw in them
something about their life
that I couldn't explain.
But the further on I saw it
and the more I interacted with them,
I said,
whatever they have,
there's something that I want.
They loved me well
and prayed
and talked to me
about Jesus and the Bible.
They gave me
Mere Christianity
by C.S. Lewis.
And I saw the facts
come together.
And I was confronted
with the trilemma
that C.S. Lewis
presents to all of us,
which is that
if the account of the Bible
has any historical reliability,
then Jesus presents to us
a number of options.
Right?
But He can't be
just a good teacher.
He can't be just a good guy
for us to listen to
when we want to.
He has to speak to us
with the fullness
of all He does.
And either
He's a liar,
that is,
He claims to be
what He's not,
or He's a lunatic,
which means He's a crazy man
who believes in His head
something that is just
outside of reality,
or He really is
who He says He is
because He claims
to be the risen one.
He receives
Thomas' affirmation,
my Lord and my God.
He says,
yes, Thomas,
that's right.
That's what I am to you.
I am your Lord
and your God.
And I was confronted
with this dilemma
and I wrestled with it
because I knew that
to believe this
would change my life.
I'd seen my friends.
They lived differently.
There was a joy
and a love
and a devotion
and a reorientation
of their lives.
And I knew it would be costly,
but it also
was compelling to me.
And when I became convinced
of who Jesus was
and specifically
when I realized
Jesus was risen from the dead
and I can't ignore Him anymore,
I have to decide
what do I believe about Him?
Either He did or He didn't.
Either He was or He wasn't
who He said He was.
And this is what Jesus does
with Thomas.
And this is what He does with us.
He calls us to believe.
Do you want to clarify
that biblical belief
is not merely wishful thinking
or hopeful optimism
about some vague future?
It's not believing
something against reason
or plain evidence.
It's not merely agreeing to facts
or sent to the reality
that facts portray.
It is trust.
It is entrusting yourself
into a belief system
whereby you reorient your life
around God
because you've trusted
that His death
and His resurrection
make all the difference
in the world.
Why do we believe that, though?
Why do we believe
that the resurrection
is such good news
that if we are convinced
of its truth
that we would want
to embrace it?
Friends, because,
just like Thomas,
the resurrection heals
our wounded hearts.
The resurrection
of Jesus Christ
from the dead
means our salvation.
The greatest enemy
of our souls,
that is,
the sinfulness
that is in us
and in our world
because of humanity,
has been defeated
in the resurrection
of Jesus.
Our greatest need
as humanity
to be reconciled
to our Creator God
has been met
by what makes it possible
for us to know
a God
whom we have
in our sinfulness
rejected Him
in independence
and pride.
Jesus,
by His resurrection,
shows us
that the God
of love
who has come
to die for us
is now a living Savior
who is able
to save us.
A resurrection,
a resurrected Jesus
also means for us
hope
that the worst of today
will not last
and the best of today
will be eclipsed
by the goodness
that is to come.
The evil of this day
will not win
even when it looks like it.
The sorrow
and the suffering
we face in this world,
the loss of a loved one,
the disappointment
of dashed dreams
and hopes,
the grinding difficulty
of daily life,
the confusion,
doubt,
and fear
that we face
in uncertain times.
A resurrected Jesus
means that we have hope
in the midst
of these things.
He is a living God
who is able
to walk with us
through these trials.
He is a living Savior
who has saved us
and will never
let us go.
He is a loving Savior
who will love us forever.
And friends,
when we look
at the end of the Bible,
we are reminded
of these amazing words.
As the Apostle John
near the end of his life
had a vision
of what would happen
at the end of times
when Jesus would return
and establish
His kingdom forever,
the risen Jesus
who is not dead
in His grave
but who is risen
and coming again,
this is what will happen
when He returns.
John writes,
Then I saw a new heaven
and a new earth
for the first heaven
and the first earth
have passed away
and the sea was no more.
And I saw the heavenly city
in New Jerusalem
coming down
out of heaven from God
prepared as a bride
adorned for her husband.
And I heard a loud voice
from the throne
saying,
Behold,
the dwelling place of God
is with man.
He will dwell with them
and they will be His people.
and God Himself
will be with them
as their God.
He will wipe away
every tear from their eyes
and death shall be no more.
Neither shall there be mourning
nor crying
nor pain anymore
for the former things
have passed away.
And He who is seated
on the throne
said,
Behold,
I am making all things new.
Friends,
this is the good news
of the resurrected Jesus.
He is a living Savior today
and one day He will come
and He will make all things
new for us.
Do not disbelieve,
but believe today
and rejoice.
Christ is risen from the dead.
He is risen indeed.
Let's pray.
Lord, we thank You.
We thank You
as we
remember these truths
and we see the gracious way
in which You meet us.
Lord,
that the story
of the resurrection
is an incredible,
towering truth
and a wonderful balm
for our soul.
God,
be our help today.
Help us,
Lord.
We believe.
Help us
in our unbelief.
Lord,
will You
today
fill us
with the joy,
the joy of knowing
that You are
a resurrected
and a living Savior
for us.
We pray this
in Jesus' name.
Amen.