The day of the resurrection John 20:19-31
Over the years there have been claims that certain famous people have faked their deaths. I say famous because nobody really cares about the rest of us. In the years since he died, hundreds of fans have reported seeing Elvis Presley in small towns across the United States and throughout the rest of the world. One article about his death said, “The circumstances surrounding Elvis’s alleged death are quite mysterious and beg closer attention.” And as it turns out, the article said there are many concrete reasons to believe that the King is still alive.
For instance, they said, the spelling of Elvis’s name was wrong on his headstone. Elvis’s full name is Elvis Aron Presley, but on his grave-marker his middle name is spelled incorrectly with two ‘a’s’ and the unique spelling of Elvis’s name was very important to the Presley family. And they also claimed that Elvis was a very superstitious person; enough so that he wouldn’t tempt fate by putting his real name on a tombstone, or even violate the ground next to his mother until he was ready to be placed there for good. Elvis’s current "resting place" is in between his father and his grandmother and not next to his mother where he had requested. And the writer said, “It was doubtful that the people who were close to him would allow these things to happen if he had really died.”
And then there’s his death certificate. Elvis was very vain, and he was embarrassed about his recent weight gain. They said he had gained an astonishing 50 pounds in the month before his so-called death and even though he weighed about 250 pounds when he died, his death certificate listed him at 170 giving the impression that it wasn’t really him in the coffin.
And then there was the wax body theory. They say that Elvis’s coffin required several extra pall bearers to carry it because it weighed 900 pounds and the attendants of the funeral reported that the air around the coffin was rather cool. So, it was suspected that the coffin contained an air conditioning unit to keep a wax body cool and the body was just a replica of Elvis which was designed to fool those who attended the funeral.
They said Elvis was an 8th degree black belt and his hands were rough with calluses and yet the body in the coffin had hands that were soft and pudgy. The body also had a pug nose and arched eyebrows (unlike Elvis) and most importantly, one of the sideburns on the body was loose and falling off and a hairdresser had to be called to glue the sideburn back on. (When I read that I thought, why would they call a hairdresser, couldn’t someone else get the top off the glue bottle?)
And then there were other unusual things that happened. They said that two hours after his death was announced, a man who looked like Elvis purchased a ticket for Buenos Aeries, paid in cash, and used the name John Burrows which was the same name Elvis had used as an alias several times before.
Then the day after his death, a woman named Lucy De Barbon, a former lover of Elvis, received a single rose in the mail and the card indicated that the flower was from "El Lancelot." This had been her pet name for Elvis, and it was a name that no one else knew and as she said, “Flowers can’t be sent from beyond the grave.” She claimed this was Elvis’s way of letting her know that he wasn’t dead but that he didn’t want to be found.
And then there were the claims that Elvis had many reasons to fake his death. For instance, they say, his life was in danger. He had recently lost $10,000,000 in an airplane/real estate deal with a California based organization called the "Fraternity" that had links to the Mafia. It is speculated that he corroborated with the government to expose the organized crime ring in exchange for protection; perhaps in the form of a new life and identity, compliments of the witness relocation program.
In addition to this, Elvis was a prisoner of his own fame and because of his incredible popularity; he was the recipient of several death threats. So, by faking his death and relocating with a new identity, he was safe from all his enemies and his family could all reap immense financial benefits from all the attention. That is, except for one, no one has collected on his life insurance policy.
It was also interesting to read that more than two decades after his passing, Elvis continues to sell more records dead than most living acts. And they also say that his death has also been a good career move for others. Impersonators existed before 1977, but they were novelties. In the first three years after Presley’s death, Elvis impersonators had multiplied with such speed that it was commonly held that if growth continued at the same rate, the whole world would be gluing on sideburns by 2020.
And there are others have claimed that John F. Kennedy wasn’t actually shot in Dallas but that he decided to go away and live on a desert island to get away from the crowds that constantly followed him and drove him nuts. A chief proponent of this view said, “John F. Kennedy will publicly reappear, amaze the world, take world power, and is in fact he will be ‘beast’ of the book of Revelation.”
Now, just as absurd as it is to claim that someone famous only pretended to die, the claim that Jesus not only survived the cross but then revived in the coolness of the tomb, moved that huge stone all by Himself and then strolled around town visiting His friends is nothing short of absurd. I mean, it takes more faith to believe that, than it does the resurrection. Even if He didn’t die from the crucifixion, the spear in His side would have killed Him. So, He obviously died and then He rose from the dead. So, let me give you seven reasons why we can believe in the resurrection.
1. Jesus himself testified that He would be resurrected from the dead before it happened. He spoke openly about it several times but let me just give you a couple. In Mark 8:31 Jesus said, “The Son of Man must suffer many things and be rejected by the elders and the chief priests and the scribes and be killed, and after three days rise again.” So, He told us not only who would be behind His death but how long He’d actually be dead. And then in John 2:19 it says, “Jesus answered and said unto them, (And here He’s talking to the religious leaders.) Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.” And again He was very precise about how long He’d be dead. And then there were the times when He spoke about the sign of Jonah and He said that He would be three days and three nights in the heart of the earth. So, the first testimony we have of the resurrection is that of Jesus Himself who prophesied about it before it took place.
2. We can also believe in the resurrection because the tomb was empty on the Sunday morning. In Luke 24:3 we’re told, “When they (That’s the women) went in, they did not find the body of the Lord Jesus.” And this wouldn’t be such a big deal if they hadn’t had guards standing around the tomb. We also see that this wasn’t just their testimony but it was also confirmed by Jesus’ enemies who claimed that His disciples had stolen the body.
Now, there are actually four possible explanations for this empty tomb. First, there are some who said that His enemies had stolen the body. And if they did, they never took any credit for it because if they actually had access to the body, all they would have to do is to produce it and that would have stopped the spread of Christianity right there. But we know they couldn’t produce it because they didn’t have it.
The second explanation was that His friends stole the body. And we know this was an early rumor according to Matthew 28:11-15 but we have to ask ourselves if this was this even possible considering the fact that the tomb was guarded by the Roman soldiers. And we know that no one would try to mess with four Roman soldiers unless they really wanted to be the new occupants of the tomb.
And then the third claim was that Jesus didn’t actually die but was only unconscious when they put Him in the tomb. And if you take this viewpoint you have to assume that He woke up after being crucified, moved this huge stone all by Himself, overcame the four soldiers and then vanished after meeting a few times with his disciples where he convinced them he had risen from the dead.
And yet, logic tells us that no one could do all this, especially someone who had been tortured the night before and then stabbed in the side after spending six hours nailed to a cross. Listen, the resurrection is the only explanation for what happened.
The theory that He was crucified and then got up and walked away is called the swoon theory because they claim that when Jesus was on the cross He went into a semi-coma and when they put Him in the grave, the cool air and the spices He had been embalmed in revived His senses. The problem with that is the monumental proof that Jesus was dead.
The Roman soldiers were constantly crucifying people and around the time of Jesus’ crucifixion there were as many as thirty thousand people crucified. These men knew when someone was dead and if He wasn’t, they’d just break his legs because then they knew that he’d suffocate and it says they didn’t do this to Jesus because they could tell that He was already dead.
Not only that, but the spear in His side had also demonstrated that He died because the blood and water that came out were indications of a ruptured heart. And then we’re told that Joseph and Nicodemus took His body off the cross, washed it and added around a hundred pounds of spices and then the women who anointed His body and wrapped it also knew He was dead. Listen, if Jesus wasn’t dead at this point, the very act of entombing Him with all these spices would have killed Him.
3. And then the third reason we believe in the resurrection is because the disciples were almost immediately transformed from men who had been hopelessly afraid during and following the crucifixion into men who were confident and bold witnesses to the resurrection. And the only explanation of this was that they had seen Jesus and He had sent them out to be His witnesses.
The most popular explanation by the unbelievers to explain their confidence is that they were all hallucinating. And yet, we know that no one who ever believed anything based on a hallucination would allow themselves to be killed for it and yet that’s exactly what happened to eleven of the twelve.
4. And then we see that later on, the apostle Paul claimed that, not only had he seen the risen Christ, but that 500 others had seen Him as well, and he said that many of them were still alive at the time of his writing. In 1 Corinthians 15:6 it says, “Then he appeared to more than five hundred brothers at one time, most of whom are still alive, though some have fallen asleep.” So, if anyone had any questions about the resurrection, all they had to do was ask Paul where these people were and then they could have them either confirm or deny what they saw.
5. There was also the existence of a massive early Christian church that supported the truth of the resurrection. In Acts 2:36 it says the church had spread on the power of the testimony that Jesus had risen from the dead and that God had made him both Lord and Christ. So, the Lordship of Jesus Christ over all nations was based on His victory over death and this is the message that has spread all over the world. And its power to cross cultures and create a world-wide church is the strongest testimony of its truth.
6. The Apostle Paul’s own conversion supports the truth of the resurrection. He argues to a partially unsympathetic audience in Galatians 1:11-17 that his gospel had come from the risen Jesus Christ and not from men. His argument was that before his Damascus Road experience where he saw Jesus, he was violently opposed to the Christian faith but now he was risking his life to spread the gospel. And his explanation was that the risen Jesus had appeared to him and then sent him out to lead the Gentile mission.
7. We also notice that none of the New Testament writers appear to be deceivers and their books were written with a sense of confidence in the resurrection. Their teachings are coherent and their moral and spiritual standards were high. The fact is, their lives were totally devoted to truth and to the honor of God.
The only explanation that the critics have is that the disciples so desperately wanted Jesus to be alive, that they manufactured the resurrection, but as we see here in verse 19 they were all gathered in the upper room with the doors locked because they were afraid of being caught.
Now, let’s look again at the only credible piece of information we have and that’s the gospel record, because it’s here that we see the evidence that Jesus rose from the dead. Peter and John had seen the empty tomb and then there were woman who heard the testimony of the angels as well as Mary Magdalene who saw and spoke to Jesus Himself. And all of this would have been enough evidence to prove that Jesus was really alive again but then He personally got together with all of His disciples. And when we compare the other gospel records with John’s we find that Jesus appeared no less than eleven times to a little over 500 different people.
And yet, He appears only to believers and He never reveals Himself to any unbelievers. Now, we hear that and we wonder, why not? Why didn’t He just go to the temple and say to the religious hierarchy, “I’m back, so what have you got to say now?” But listen, no matter what He said or what He did, they wouldn’t believe Him anyway. There would always be some kind of explanation for their unbelief. (I remember when Charles Templeton was questioned about the healing of a baby. He said, “It was a psycho-somatic condition. And even the non-Christian interviewer said, “That doesn’t make sense. It was a baby.) When someone doesn’t believe, then nothing will change their mind because belief is a matter of the will.
Jesus tells us in Luke 16 about the rich man who died and then he was tormented in the flames of hell and when he asked Abraham if he would send Lazarus back to warn his brothers about this terrible place Abraham said, ‘They have Moses and the prophets; let them hear them.’ And he said, nay, father Abraham: but if one went unto them from the dead, they will repent. And he said unto him, if they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead.”
Now listen, this tells us that if Jesus had appeared to any unbelievers after His resurrection, anything He said or demonstrated would have been an absolute waste of time because they wouldn’t believe it anyway. And let’s face it, its not just that they wouldn’t believe it but they couldn’t believe it because their minds are so blinded by the god of this world.
So, Jesus just appears to His own and He does this because His disciples would be the key to everything that would happen both in their day and then in the years to come. The disciples are the only means by which the gospel would be offered to the unsaved throughout history.
And out of the eleven different appearances Jesus makes, John only selects three, because he has a specific reason to do so. And in this passage, as always, John wants to tell us who Jesus is and he also wants to reveal something about the nature of God. So, he shows us these three appearances and in all three he tells us about Jesus and then shows us something about the people He appeared to. And the three are Mary Magdalene, the ten disciples and then finally to Thomas.
Now last day, we looked at Jesus’ appearance to Mary and that was where she clung to Him but He explained that He had to go back to see His Father in heaven and she was to go tell the disciples that He was risen from the dead. And so, here we’ll see His meeting with the disciples and then His conversation with Thomas.
Now, in verse 19 it says, “When the doors were shut,” and in the Greek it’s very emphatic because it means they were locked and barred and all this was because they were terrified. And we know this because it says, “The disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.”
And we might wonder; what were they so afraid of? Well, I think, they might have been afraid that if they were found to have been associated with Jesus they would receive the same thing He got and they’d be crucified as an example to anyone else who would profess to be a follower.
And then it says “Jesus came and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, peace be unto you. And when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side.” Now, the first thing we need to ask ourselves before we even look at what He said was, how did He get in there if the doors were all locked? And there are a lot of really lame excuses people give. For instance, there are some who said that Jesus simply climbed through a window which wouldn’t be very easy to do in the upper room and there were others who said He must have slipped down from the roof. One commentator actually said He sneaked in before the door was locked and hid in the corner and then revealed Himself and then there was another who said that the door keeper had deceptively let Him in.
Listen, the Bible just says He came. And we all wonder how but I just think He walked through the wall. I mean, if He could ascend out of His grave clothes then what was the difficulty of walking through a wall? And we know He walked through the wall because Matthew 28:2 says, “And, behold, there was a great earthquake: for the angel of the Lord descended from heaven, and came and rolled back the stone from the door, and sat upon it.” Besides, prior to His resurrection He had walked on water so why couldn’t He just rearrange His molecules and walk through a wall?
And then we’re told that the disciples panicked when He arrived. Luke 24 says they were scared to death and we can all understand that. I mean, let’s say you went to someone’s funeral on Monday and then saw them picking up their mail on Wednesday. Would you walk up and say, “Hey, you’re looking a lot better than the last time I saw you.”
And they said, “It’s a phantom, it’s a ghost.” And what gets me when I hear their reaction, is that these are the people who the Jews said were manufacturing the resurrection.
And then I want you to notice where the text says that when Jesus appeared to the disciples He did three things. First, He said, “Peace be unto you”. Then second, He showed them His hands and His side. And then third, again He said to His disciples, “Peace be unto you.” Now, why did He say that twice and show them His hands and side? Well, the whole purpose of His coming was to establish peace between God and man. And He was making it known that this had been accomplished.
And to really understand this statement we have to realize that it was man who started the war against God by deciding he would no longer be in submission to his creator but he decided he would do his own thing and by doing so, he sinned against God and decided to live life his way rather than God’s. And the result was, all of mankind was born under the wrath of God and the main penalty for sin was that death had entered the human race. And this isn’t just physical death, but man was also destined to die the second death which means he would be eternally separated from God. And without a way to make peace with God we were all doomed to hell forever. But, the good news is that God decided to do something about our spiritual condition. You see, God knew that He could do what man couldn’t do and not only could man not do anything but because of his sin he wasn’t even willing to try.
And in order to make peace with man, God gave the life of His own Son to pay the penalty for our sins. And now that Jesus had died and paid for our sins, it was only fitting that the first thing He would say to His disciples was, “Peace be unto you.” You see, making peace between God and man was why He died on the cross and by showing His hands and side He was demonstrating how this peace was accomplished. And if He didn’t die by shedding His blood there would be no remission of sins. After all, Jesus said in John 15:13, “Greater love hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his friends.” And yet, He even went a step further because He didn’t just lay down His life for His friends but He did this for His enemies as well.
And then it says in verses 22 and 23 “And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost: whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
And here there are two things that happened. First, He gave them the gift of the Holy Spirit and this was in anticipation of the Pentecostal blessing which would come in about fifty days when the Holy Spirit would be more fully received. And then second, as soon as He did this it says He gave them authority to forgive or not to forgive sin. Now, there’s been a lot of confusion and a lot of false teaching about what He was saying here but I think He was simply telling them that there were eternal consequences to their actions.
Now, listen very carefully because I think there is a two-fold application of this. First, if you or I were to lead someone to Jesus their sins would be forgiven and if we don’t care if anybody is saved then we are actually sending them to hell. In other words, depending on our response to the great commission, we will either be helping to populate heaven or hell. And then second, these verses also tell us that when someone becomes conscious of their sin, they repent and believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, we can say to that person, “Your sins are forgiven.” And to anyone who rejects and refuses to believe in Jesus we can also say, “Your sins are not forgiven.” You see, you and I have the right to tell someone whether or not God has forgiven their sins or hasn’t by their response to Jesus.
And then we see that eight days go by between verses 23 and 24 and then in verse 26 it says, “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the LORD. But he said unto them, except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.
And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, peace be unto you. Then saith He to Thomas, reach hither thy finger, and behold My hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into My side: and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen Me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”
Now, I like Thomas because he’s what’s known as the proverbial pessimist. He’s the kind of guy who doesn’t believe anything he can’t see and always thinks the worst is always about to happen. As far as he’s concerned the sky is always falling. And although some might rejoice to see a glass half full, Thomas always knows that it’s half empty. You see, he’s a strange mixture of both courage and fatalism. And here it says that Thomas wasn’t with them the first time Jesus appeared and we might wonder where he was but considering his nature he might have hidden himself away because he was too depressed or too disillusioned after the crucifixion.
It’s interesting that he’s often referred to as doubting Thomas because the word doubting actually means to be of two minds or to stand in two ways. It’s like the guy who says yes but or no but and he’s never really committed to one way or the other and so you never know where he stands on anything.
Thomas is mentioned three times in the New Testament and every time he’s mentioned he seems to be demonstrating a lack of faith. In John 11 Jesus said, “I’m going to Jerusalem” and the disciples said, “Lord, you go to Jerusalem and you’ll die.” And in verse 16 it says, “Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go, that we may die with Him.” And although he’s more than willing to go anywhere Jesus wants to go, he really doesn’t express what I would call an attitude of faith.
And in John 14 Jesus said, “I’m going to go away and I’m going to come and bring you to Myself.” And then, “Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?” It’s like he saying, what are you talking about? We have no idea what to expect or what’s going on. You see, he’s the skeptic of the group.
And right in this room Jesus meets him at the point of his faithlessness because He showed him His hands and side and said, “Be not faithless, but believing.”
And then look at his response, “And Thomas answered and said unto him, My LORD and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.” And this is the greatest confession any man will ever make because when Thomas said, “My Lord and my God,” he was saying ‘my’ and he’s describing a personal relationship with God Himself.
Thomas had heard the evidence of eye witnesses, and the next week he actually met Jesus who had been crucified, bled to death, and buried in a sealed tomb and then resurrected and that was enough to send him out with the gospel until the day he died.
And it’s interesting to see what happened to him because doubting Thomas didn’t stay a doubter but when he saw Jesus risen from the dead it seems like everything that Jesus had taught over the years clicked in and Thomas was never in doubt again.
Church tradition tells us that Thomas preached in ancient Babylon, near the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers and that’s where Iraq is today. And then he traveled to Persia which is present-day Iran and there continued to win people to the Lord. Then he sailed south to Malabar on the west coast of India and in 52 AD he preached, established churches, and won many to people to Jesus including high caste Brahmins, as well as others. We’re told that when the Portuguese landed in India in the early 1600s, they found a group of Christians there because of the Mar Thoma Church which was established through Thomas’ preaching some 1500 earlier. And then finally, Thomas traveled to the east coast of India where he continued preaching until he was killed near Mylapore in about 72 AD. Tradition tells us that he was thrown into a pit then pierced with a spear that was thrown by a Brahmin. And it was said, that he who had so fervently proclaimed his unbelief ended up carrying the Christian message of love and forgiveness to the ends of the earth in his generation.
I see at least three principles in Thomas’ life that are important for all of us. First, he wasn’t easily taken in. After all, Jesus had predicted that many would come claiming to be Him and He warned His disciples that they shouldn’t be deceived. And in the light of that I don’t see how we can blame Thomas for being suspicious.
And then second, his wanting personal proof for belief in the resurrection was logical and relevant because he wanted to be sure that the Jesus who he was told had been raised from the dead was the same one he knew had been crucified.
And then third, while he demanded proof, I believe he still kept an open mind. He wanted to know if Jesus was alive but he was also prepared to accept it if He had the evidence. And I think that the fact that he was even in the upper room with the rest of the disciples demonstrates that he was open to believe.
And then Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And we know when He said that He couldn’t have been talking about the disciples because they had all seen Him. So, who is He referring to? He was talking about us. You see, none of us were there but we have the testimony of Scripture and we are the ones who are blessed because we believe what it says.
And then verses 30 and 31 close off the chapter by saying. “And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book: but these are written, that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing ye might have life through his name.”
So how do we relate to the resurrection of Jesus Christ? How does it affect us? Is it just a myth or a religious story that makes us feel good when we go to funerals? Or is it something that affects our whole life? Thomas was hard nosed, skeptical, pessimistic and doubting but when he met the resurrected Lord he was convinced and his testimony among other things convinces me.
There are two things that I want to point out in closing. The disciples as a whole wrestled with fear while Thomas wrestled with doubt. And Jesus was the answer to both.
The Bible says in Psalm 118:6, “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear." And we know that we’ll always have some form of fear. It’s just different when we’re seventy than it is when we’re seven. Everyone has fears. Did you know that Julius Caesar conquered the whole world but was terrified of thunder. Peter the Great, of Russia, cried like a baby whenever he had to cross a bridge. Dr. Samuel Johnson the celebrated British writer wouldn’t enter a room with his left foot first. If he did, he backed up and re-entered using his right one. (He was someone who always put his best foot forward!) Listen, if fear controls your life, it’ll keep you from enjoying all that God has given you. So, here are a few ’fear fighters’ to help you today.
Isaiah 26:3 says, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on thee: because he trusteth in thee.” God will do this for you. And then Jesus says in John 14:27, “Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid.” And based on what you believe, you can do this for yourself because it says, “Let not” or don’t let your heart be troubled. Proverbs 16:7, “When a man’s ways please the LORD, he maketh even his enemies to be at peace with him.” Psalm 56:4, “In God I will praise his word, in God I have put my trust; I will not fear what flesh can do unto me.” And then in 2 Timothy 1:7, “For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.” Listen, all these promises belong to you and I. We can memorize them and then claim them for ourselves whenever fear gets a grip on our hearts.
And then we also see that Thomas wrestled with doubt. And doubt is always an absence of faith and as Romans 10:17 says, “So then faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” Listen faith comes by knowing and understanding the word of God and then doing it. We all feel like our faith is too small but we see the man in Mark 9 who brought his demon possessed son to Jesus and when Jesus looked at the man in verse 23 it says, “Jesus said unto him, if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him that believeth. And straightway the father of the child cried out, and said with tears, Lord, I believe; help thou mine unbelief.” And here he makes a classic statement when he says, “Lord, I do believe. Help me overcome my unbelief.” Have you ever felt like that? “Lord, I have some faith, but I also have some doubts.”
Listen, everybody has faith. You had faith when you sat down that the pew would hold you. We all have faith and the only difference is what we put our faith in. Matthew 17:20 says, “If ye have faith as a grain of mustard seed, ye shall say unto this mountain, remove hence to yonder place; and it shall remove; and nothing shall be impossible unto you.” A mustard seed is one of the smallest seeds that people reap to make mustard. And what Jesus is telling us is, it’s not how big your faith is but what your faith is in. You can have a little faith in a great big God and He’ll be the answer to all your problems.
So, what do you do when you have fears like the disciples? We trust in the Lord. What do we do when we have doubts like Thomas? We get into His word. Jesus is the answer to everything we need but we have to learn as His disciples did, to come to Him and not just for salvation but for everything that follows.
Let me end with a true story. Thelma and Victor Hayes struck it rich. In August of 2005, this couple won more than $7 million in the lottery. According to the Ontario Lottery and Gaming Commission, Thelma and Victor are one of the oldest couples ever to win such a large jackpot. At the time they won, they had been married 63 years, and both of them were 89-years-old. During a televised interview, Thelma and Victor were asked the typical question, "What are you going to do with all that money?" The couple responded that, at this stage in life, they were unlikely to become "giddy high spenders." In fact, they intended to remain in the retirement home and while her husband planned on buying a Lincoln Town Car, Thelma’s personal shopping list contained only one item. She told reporters, "I’m getting a new pair of nylons."
When we hear that, we wonder, why would someone win a fortune and change nothing but her nylons? Well, in the same way, how can we who have been set free from fear and doubt still live with these things when God has given us the freedom to enjoy the life He gave us?
There are two things that keep us from fully believing. We either don’t know or haven’t learned enough or the learning that we have has come from the wrong source. This tells us we all need to be into the word and reading good books to help us know what we believe and why we believe it. And then there’s faulty living. Sin and sinful living can turn our minds away from God. Listen, we can all be free of fear and doubt. All we need to do is get into the word and then live according to it’s teaching.
