Jesus Encounters An Agnostic

Title: “Jesus Encounters an Agnostic” Script: John 20:24-29

Type: Expository Series Where: GNBC 4-23-23

Intro: What is an agnostic? An agnostic is a person who believes that nothing can be known of the existence or nature of God or of anything beyond material phenomena; one who neither claims faith nor disbelief in God. One of the greatest apologists for the Christian faith in all of history was CS Lewis. Lewis was born in Belfast in 1898 and had an idyllic childhood until his mother died with he was 9 yrs. of age. His grieving father immediately sent Lewis and his brother to a boarding school in England, where the headmaster was later verified to be insane! By the age of 17 yrs. Lewis wrote the following: “I believe in no religion. There is absolutely no proof for any of them, and from a philosophical standpoint Christianity is not even the best.” Over the next decade Lewis would serve as an officer in WWI, surviving the war go into academia. God began to work in his heart when picked up a book by George MacDonald to read on a train ride. By 1929 Lewis declared himself to be “the most reluctant convert in all of England” when he shifted from atheism to theism. Two years later, after an uneventful visit to a zoo, while riding in the side car of his brother’s motorcycle, Lewis came to full faith in Christ. Lewis wrote to his lifelong friend, Arthur Greeves the following profession, “Christianity is God expressing Himself through what we call ‘real things’. . . namely, the actual incarnation, crucifixion and resurrection (of Jesus Christ)”. Today we will examine the conversion of a one time agnostic whose encounter with Jesus left him forever a changed man.

Prop: Today we’ll notice 3 important elements of Jesus’ encounter with an agnostic.

BG: 1. John alone, of the Gospel writers, records this event. The 11 surviving disciples together.

2. Encounter is with Thomas, the disciple with whom “Doubt” is ascribed. Agnostic.

3. In this passage Jesus adequately addresses Thomas’ doubts about the Lord’s Resurrection.

Prop: Let’s examine Jn 20:24-29 to notice 3 important elements of Jesus’ encounter with an agnostic.

I. Thomas Becomes an Agnostic When He Misses Xst’s Easter Evening Appearance. Vv.24-25

A. Alienation from Fellowship Feeds Doubts and Fears.

1. We are negatively introduced to the Absent Disciple in this Encounter.

a. Thomas isn’t present when the Lord appears to the rest of the disciples on the evening of the Resurrection. We do not know where he was. There is no indication given in the text. There is also no criticism offered in the text. He simply wasn’t there when Christ miraculously presented Himself alive to the 10 disciples.

b. We do not read many words ascribed to Thomas in the Gospels. We know he was zealous and passionate, by the first words recorded are in Jn. 11:16 when Jesus says He must go to Jerusalem to die. "Let us also go, that we may die with Him", but because of his doubt in this passage about his colleagues' enthusiasm concerning the resurrected Christ, tradition has dubbed him Doubting Thomas. Assuredly he was a twin. His Hebrew name, Thomas, comes from the root for “twin” and of course, “Didymus” meant twin in Greek.

2. Thomas Allows His Unbelief to Overpower the Appeal of the Evidence.

a. Thomas has enough evidence to be a believer, but he choses to be a doubter. I believe this is to greater or lesser degree the case with everyone who is an atheist or agnostic. We know from General Revelation (That which is given to all men at all time.) that there is a God. Ps. 19:1 declares: “The heavens tell of the glory of God; And their expanse declares the work of His hands.” But our response is: “There is no God and random, unintelligible chance and time created everything out of blobbish goo.”

b. Illust: In the words of a certain assistant pastor this past week: “I may not be a smart man, but I do know that a theoretical and purposeless random explosion o mystery matter does not give rise to intelligibility, truth, knowledge, natural laws, logic, the uniformity of nature, morality, and human values.” (Zach Ilten meme). Thomas has done, like many of has done in the past and many today, checking our theological brains at the door out of hurt or pain. Thomas saw Jesus die. His purpose in living died on that cross. He is not going to be fooled.

B. Don’t Allow Your Personal Unbelief to Overpower an Appeal to the Evidence of Christ’s Resurrection.

1. Unbelief, not evidence is always the issue of faith in Christ.

a. Thomas has enough evidence. The issue in our coming to faith in Christ is never a lack of evidence! The resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most attested to and provable event in ancient history. Here Thomas has the testimony of the other 10 disciples. They excitedly tell him of their own experience: “We have seen the Lord!” They were his best friends. They had intimately shared life together for 3.5 years. They, like he, had witnessed the Savior’s death. They too were scared and grief stricken and now, now they are proclaiming Christ’s resurrection! The testimony of the 10 disciples should have been enough evidence to bring Thomas from doubt to devotion. Yet, read v. 25 – “Not unless I…”