Three Great Skeptics . . . Who Believed
Selected Scripture
The TV Progam Sixty Minutes was recently did a feature on Sesame Street, the pre-school educational program that involves the Muppets. After explaining that it was originally an experiment to see if under-privileged pre-school children could be taught via television, the producers talked about how they didn't avoid teaching any subject that their pre-school viewers needed to learn about—including death. The subject came up when one of actors who played a human characters who interact with the Muppets on the show, a Mr. Hooper, actually died. The producers decided this was also an educational opportunity, so they faced the absence of Mr. Hooper from the show head on.
One day, Big Bird showed up with a picture of Mr. Hooper which he had drawn, which he wanted to show Mr. Hooper. After being reminded by one of the other characters that Mr. Hooper wasn't there because he had died, Big Bird continued the conversation with, "but when he comes back do you think he'll like it?"—while showing the picture he had drawn. So when one of the human characters heard this, she realized that Big Bird didn't understanding the meaning of death, so she explained that when people die, they don't ever come back.
Yep, death, its finality and its certainty is something most of us figure out when we're very young. I was a preschooler myself, no more than three years old, when I began to figure it out. I was in the living room one day when my parents were talking about someone who had died. And I have this very vivid memory of what happened the next day. I was out on my tricycle in the neighborhood, and became very thirsty. So I tricycled up to my doorstep, ran into the kitchen, and asked my mom for some "Shu-Shu." That was my word for orange juice. Mom got me some "Shu-Shu" and I gulped it down, and then I had another question for her. "Mom, does everybody die?" And My Mom, startled at the sudden turn in subjects, smiled, and then admitted, "Yes, Jimmie, everybody dies."
Even at the tender age of 3, I knew that everybody included me. And I was none too happy about that. As I ran out to get on my trike,I protested within myself, "But I want to live forever!" But I didn't know what to do about it. So I went out, got on my tricycle and rode off.
And I suspect that's how many of you are here this morning. You learned about death, and that you're going to die. But you just triked, trekked or trucked off in life not knowing what to do about it. All this time, the awful specter of death looms over you, and you're not too sure what happens then. And despite the fact your entire future might be terribly threatened, you haven't done anything about it. In what other situation in life, whether it's a dreadful disease like cancer or heart problems, or a speeding car, or an approaching cliff do you see certain disaster coming, but do nothing about it? Doesn't it concern you that no one ever comes back after they die?
Or do they? And that's what this morning is really all about. Does anyone ever come back after they die? Has anyone in history ever died, and then lived to tell about? Has anyone ever come back from the dead and claimed to have the key to resurrection? If so, what were His credentials? I mean, in addition to the astounding fact that He might have come back from the dead? And what did He say about how any of us might come back from the dead? Because if He did, then I think all of us would want to know about it—that is if we value life! Don't ya' think!
Well, there haven't been many credible resurrections in history. Very few in fact—and except for the three that happened in the Old Testament, every one of them has happened in association with prayer in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ. But more than that, the resurrection of Jesus Christ is the most unique in all of history, because it is the only one in which a man predicted His own resurrection to the day in advance of his death, and then achieved it on the very day He predicted it. More than that, it is the only one in which the man who predicted it claimed to be the very key to Resurrection Himself, as in the statement, "I am the resurrection and the life, He who believes in me will live even if he dies, and will never die."
That's right, no other major religious leader in history, whose actual historical existence is not in doubt, was ever resurrected, or claimed to have the power to resurrect others. Mohammed's gravesite is well-known—it is the place where all Muslims make a pilgrimage too at some time in their lives. Buddha and Confucius never talked about resurrection, or eternal life, just moral and wise lives. Hinduism is all about reincarnation rather than resurrection. Only Jesus Christ was raised from the dead, or even claimed to have the power to raise others from the dead. Only Jesus among religious founders is even reputed to have raised others from the dead. And His resurrection is well-documented—there were even hundreds of eye-witnesses to it at one time according to I Corinthians 15, and we still have the eyewitness documents available to us today in the form of the New Testament.
But did the resurrection of Jesus really happen? This is the question that some of you no doubt have this morning. Many of us have either been taught or believed that those who witnessed His resurrection were gullible superstitious people who lived in a pre-scientific age, and therefore were willing to believe just about any story. So this morning I want to look at the actual accounts of the experiences of three eyewitnesses who clearly believed what Sesame Street taught preschoolers, and believed it was true in the case of Jesus of Nazareth as anybody else—who proved themselves to be great skeptics about the prospect of Jesus' resurrection because of their difficulty believing it even when the facts stood in plain sight right before them; even when they heard Him, even when they had angels testify to them about Jesus' resurrection, even when they had seen Jesus resurrect others and had heard Him promise them repeatedly that He would indeed come back from the dead.
Now the three great skeptics are people we don't typically think of as skeptics, because they became great believers, but as you will see, they were so skeptical that they defied the very laws of logic and non-contradiction until there were repeated proofs by Jesus that He had indeed come back from the dead. The three are Mary Magdalene, Peter the Apostle, and Doubting Thomas, the Apostle.
What did these skeptics learn because of their experience with the Resurrected Lord Jesus? What they learned was this: Believe Jesus died for your sins, because He proved it by His resurrection. Yes, you can believe that Jesus' death was not the death of any mere man, but the death of the only begotten Son of God, who was not dying for His own sins, but for your sins because He proved that fact by being raised from the dead, just as He predicted. As Romans 1:4 puts it, "He was declared with power to be the Son of God by His resurrection from the dead." And in proving that, He proved that He died to pay the penalty for your sins—that He took Hell on the cross if so you wouldn't have to if only you will believe.
Now before we study their individual accounts, you need to know that these were all followers of Jesus before His death. All of them believed He was the Messiah. They saw Him do every kind of miracle and healing. More than that, they saw Him raise people from the dead. Peter saw Him raise three people from the dead. All of them no doubt witnessed Jesus' incredible resurrection of Lazarus from the dead after he had spent four days in the grave, only a week or two before Jesus' own resurrection. And every one of them heard Jesus tell them, repeatedly, that He would suffer and die and on the third day be raised from the dead. But not a single one of them, despite all of this evidence, these assurances from Jesus Himself, believed Him for a moment. For example, in Matthew 17:22-23, Jesus predicts for at least the second time His death and resurrection. It says: "And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men; 23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” But notice how they responded. "And they were deeply grieved." Why were they deeply grieved rather than over-joyed? Because they all believed He would be killed, but none of them believed His prediction that He would be raised on the third day.
So we begin with the very intriguing case of Mary Magdalene. Now this Mary was known as Mary Magdalene because she came from the thriving rural town of Magdala on the west side of the Sea of Galilee. She was one of at least four Marys who followed Jesus. It's kind of like that Bob Newhart comedy of some years back—his four neighbors who were brothers named Larry, Larry, Larry and Larry. Ask about Jesus' female followers, and they were Mary, Mary, Mary and Mary. How you distinguished them was not by their name, but what followed their name, as in Mary "Magdalene."
Now this Mary was a devout follower of Jesus because, as Mark 16:9 tells us, Jesus had cast seven demons out of her. So this tells us more than a little about Mary. She had a very dark past. It is likely that many terrible things had happened to her, and that she had also been a participant in many terrible things. Evil spirits or demons actually exist. They love moral filth. They harass and inhabit people who have somehow become involved in gross moral behavior. No doubt Mary had been terribly tormented by these seven demons with horrible thoughts, dreams, impulses, nightmares, even voices and was a prisoner of her past. She could find no relief, no freedom, until Jesus came along, and He, likely, with a mere word, freed her from years of bondage and misery, forgave her, cleansed her and gave her a completely new life.
By this time late in Jesus' ministry she had evidently become a leader among the women who followed Jesus. In all the Gospel accounts she is mentioned prominently with regard to the events surrounding the resurrection, sometimes alone, always first, indicating that much of what the women were choosing to do was her idea or others were following her in what she did.
Now Mary Magdalene figures very prominently in the Resurrection stories. She and another Mary—there were a lot of Mary's who were associated with Jesus. You could actually call them, Mary, Mary, Mary and Mary, like Larry, Larry, Larry and Larry of the Old Bob Newhart sitcom.. How you distinguished one Mary from another was not by their name, but what followed their name, as in Mary "Magdalene."
But part of the reason for Mary Magdalene's prominence was the fact that she and another Mary were with Jesus' body and watched as Joseph of Arimathea buried Jesus in his rich man's tomb, according to the end Mark 15. So she knew exactly where Jesus' body was on that Friday night, and was able to lead the other women there early on Sunday morning.
Mark 16:1 provides us with the specific reason Mary and her friends showed up at the tomb early Sunday morning. It was to anoint Jesus' body one last time as it was buried. Mark 16:1 reads "When the Sabbath was over, Mary Magdalene, and Mary the mother of James, and Salome, bought spices, so that they might come and anoint Him." So this is Act 1 of Mary Magdalene's skepticism, as well as all the other women who followed Jesus. They didn't show up at the tomb expecting to see Jesus resurrected! They expected to find His dead body still in the tomb, and they were simply, according to Jewish custom, going to anoint it in honor of Jesus one more time as they left His body in its final resting place.
And as they were coming to the tomb, the rest of the account in Mark tells us that Mary and the other women were talking about a problem they were sure they were going to face. Who was going to roll the stone away from the door to the tomb for them? In other words, everything, absolute everything about Mary's conduct and words demonstrated she absolutely did not believe that Jesus was going to rise from the dead on the third day as He predicted. His body was still going to be dead as a door nail when they found it, and more than that, it might even be entirely inaccessible to her and the other women until someone strong enough to move the stone came along to help. They certainly weren't expecting to find that Jesus or some angel had rolled away the stone because of His resurrection—despite the fact He had predicted it would happen on this, now the third day since His Crucifixion.
So despite everything she knew about Jesus, that He was a miracle worker, that He had demonstrated unique spiritual power in delivering her from demons, that He had never promised anything that He had not delivered on, she absolutely did not believe nor expect to find the Resurrected Jesus when she got to the tomb early that Sunday morning.
Her absolutely skepticism with regard to Jesus' Resurrection continues as she gets to the tomb despite remarkable evidence that it has actually happened. Mark 16:4-7: "Looking up, they saw that the stone had been rolled away, although it was extremely large. 5 Entering the tomb, they saw a young man sitting at the right, wearing a white robe; and they were amazed. 6 And he *said to them, “Do not be amazed; you are looking for Jesus the Nazarene, who has been crucified. He has risen; He is not here; behold, here is the place where they laid Him. But go, tell His disciples and Peter, ‘He is going ahead of you to Galilee; there you will see Him, just as He told you.’” They went out and fled from the tomb, for trembling and astonishment had gripped them; and they said nothing to anyone, for they were afraid."
So she gets to the tomb, and finds the very large stone has been rolled away. She with the other women enter the tomb and there they encounter a young man, wearing a white robe. The young man is one an angel, wearing dazzling white raiment, who announces to the women that Jesus has been raised from the dead and instructing them to go tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus has risen. But the Mary Magdalene and the women are scared to death—trembling, astonished, and they go off, saying nothing to anyone at first. Now, notice, if the women, or Mary, had believed Jesus was really raised from the dead, they probably would have been over-joyed, and would have announced to all kinds of people. But Mary, doesn't believe it at this point, despite the fact that an angel has announced it to them.
Where Mark leaves off, the Gospel of John picks up. John 20. John tells us that Mary Magdalene had been to the tomb early and finds the stone rolled away from the tomb. But John specifically tells us how she responded to the instructions of the angel to tell Peter and the disciples that Jesus has been raised from the dead. Verse 2: "She ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, "They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him." Now tell me, is that what she was supposed to say? Absolutely not! Why doesn't she just repeat what the angel told her to say? Because she does not believe it! She still believes, despite the message from an angel that the reason Jesus' body is not there is because someone has taken his body away and laid it some other place.
Sounds to me like she's not at all gullible, not at all prone to believe just any miracle story, even if it came from the miracle worker, Jesus, doesn't it to you? Sounds to me like she's pretty skeptical, in fact awfully skeptical. In fact, she has totally dismissed the possibility that Jesus has been raised from the dead, despite all the supernatural evidence to the contrary.
And it gets worse! Peter and John then run off to the tomb. Mary Magdalene evidently follows and is wandering around outside the tomb weeping, in her grief that Jesus is still dead.
Verse 11: "But Mary was standing outside the tomb weeping, and so, as she wept, she stooped and looked inside the tomb." And this time she sees two angels in white. You would think by this time she would get a clue that something incredible has happened, but she doesn't. Verses 12 & 13: "and she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and one at the feet, where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 And they said to her, '“Woman, why are you weeping?'"
It's a good question! She shouldn't be weeping because Jesus is no longer dead, but alive. But she persists in her absolute unbelief! "She said to them, 'Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.'”
So she turns around, and the absolute, flesh and bones' proof of Jesus' resurrection is standing right there, before her very eyes. Her response. Continued absolute unbelief, total skepticism total dismissal of even the possibility that Jesus might have been raised from the dead:
Verse 14: "When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking?” Supposing Him to be the gardener, she said to Him, “Sir, if you have carried Him away, tell me where you have laid Him, and I will take Him away.”
So notice this, she has now seen the risen Lord Jesus Christ with her own eyes and heard Him speak, but she still does not believe! How much more skeptical can you get? Two of the five senses have been engaged by the living, visible, speaking Lord Jesus Christ, and she still can't believe, until Jesus says in verse 16, "Mary!" And then, and only then does she begin believe, and grabs him and begins clinging to Him during the rest of their conversation. In other words, three of the five senses, and she was probably close enough to him when she clung to him to smell Him, so four of five senses were needed to prove to her that Jesus had actually risen again. The only thing she didn't do was taste Him! It is then, and only then that she finally came announcing to the disciples what she now finally believed—I have seen the Lord, as in I have seen with my own eyes, heard with my own ears and touched with my own body the risen Lord Jesus Christ!
Was Mary Magdalene, a gullible, superstitious woman duped by news of the resurrection? Nope, she was an absolute skeptic who only believed what she personally experienced through three or four of her five senses. In other she came to believe what we all need to believe. That Jesus was not just some prophet; He was not just some religious leader. That He was not merely someone who could change her life. But He was someone who could change her eternal destiny because he had absolute power over death. He could raise the dead. And He can do the same for you, if only you will believe what she came to believe, that Jesus is the resurrection and the life, and that whoever believes in Him will live even if He dies. So that's our first point this morning: Believe Jesus cannot only change your life, but your death—into life, resurrected life!
Then there's the case of the male leader of all the followers of Jesus, Simon Peter. You know Peter. He's the one who is the butt of a lot of jokes about heaven, as though He guards the gates of heaven and determines who gets through. But the truth is that He discovered that Jesus is the only one who has authority over that issue, and his discovery to that affect came on this very day as well. Peter is well known for His great confession about Jesus found in Matthew 16: "Thou art the Christ, the Son of the Living God." And He was greatly commended for it.
But just like Mary Magdalene, Peter had heard all these predictions by Jesus about His resurrection on the third day. And He, along with the other disciples, only believed the prediction about Jesus' death. This is evident from the fact that despite the fact He had promised to follow Jesus unto His death, even if no one else did, that He then, within hours of that promise, abandoned Jesus when He was arrested in the garden of Gethsemane. So Act 1 of Peter's skepticism is found in Mark 14:50 where we're told what happened after Jesus arrest: "And they all (Peter and all the disciples) left Him and fled."
Now Peter, along with John, followed along behind the group who arrested Jesus, and were then admitted to the High Priest's courtyard where Jesus would be interrogated by Israel's spiritual leaders. Once there, some of the people in the courtyard in those early morning hours began to recognize him as one of Jesus' followers. Acts II, III and IV of Peter's skepticism followed, as we see in Mark 14:66-71: "As Peter was below in the courtyard, one of the servant-girls of the high priest *came, 67 and seeing Peter warming himself, she looked at him and *said, “You also were with Jesus the Nazarene.” 68 But he denied it, saying, “I neither know nor understand what you are talking about.” And he went out onto the porch. 69 The servant-girl saw him, and began once more to say to the bystanders, “This is one of them!” 70 But again he denied it. And after a little while the bystanders were again saying to Peter, “Surely you are one of them, for you are a Galilean too.” 71 But he began to curse and swear, “I do not know this man you are talking about!” Are these great acts of faith in the Resurrected Lord Jesus? No way! Peter denied he knew Jesus even with curse words because he was convinced Jesus was not going to overcome death, and that if he himself were arrested, he wouldn't either. He absolutely skeptical about the truth of the predicted resurrection of Jesus, even though He did believe Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the Living God. No one comes back from the dead, even Jesus, according to Peter at this point.
So where was Peter on the third day after the crucifixion? Where was he on that Sunday morning when that most incredible event in all of history was about to take place? Was he there at the tomb with the other followers of Jesus expectant of this incredible miracle of the resurrection? No, not at all! He was in hiding, cowering, even mourning Jesus' death in some undisclosed location in Jerusalem, perplexed by the crucifixion of His Messiah, despondent and scared to death for his own life. Doesn't sound like faith in Jesus, great confidence in the fact Jesus was going to be raised, does it?
Now apparently Mary Magdalene isn't the only one of the women who find Peter and John after their experiences at the tomb early that Sunday morning. The other women come and report to Peter and John about everything that happened, not just that someone has taken away Jesus' body, but about the angel and his report that Jesus has risen again. Luke 24:11 records Peter and John and the rest of the disciple's response: "But these words appeared to them as nonsense, and they would not believe them."
Wow, what great faith Peter and the other apostles had! But I'll give Peter and John this: at least they went to investigate for themselves. And Luke tells us in verse 12, that Peter then runs to the tomb, stoops down and looks in, and he saw the linen wrappings only. And my understanding is that the linen wrappings which had been placed on Jesus' body by Joseph of Arimathea were still there, like an empty cocoon. I Corinthians 15:5 reports then, that among the men, Jesus first appeared to Cephas, another name for Peter, and I suspect that this great skeptic, like Mary, only came to believe, once he had personally seen Jesus.
And then being convinced by his personal confrontation with the Resurrected Jesus, it transformed His life. This fearful, cowering young man then became the great apostle of the Day of Pentecost, who continued to speak in Jesus' name despite the death threats of the religious leaders of His day. He was then, 35 years later, willing to go to His death in Rome, on a cross, because now He was assured of His resurrection because He believed in Jesus' Resurrection. He had truly come to believe Jesus is the resurrection and the life and that whoever believes in Him will live even if he dies.
So point #2 this morning. Believe Jesus was not only the Christ, but also your Resurrecion and Life. Because Peter discovered it was just exactly as Jesus had said in John 11:25-26: " Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, 26 and everyone who lives and believes in Me will never die."
And finally, by that evening, when Jesus appeared to all the apostles, all believed, save one. Yes, that would be the Apostle who was famous for His hard-boiled skepticism, the great doubting Thomas. For some reason he had not been in the room when Jesus showed up, showed his hands and his side, and demonstrated he was not a spirit, as some of them had at first believed, but he was there, able to be touched, flesh and bone as he had been before His crucifixion. And it didn't matter what any of the other disciples said to him, it didn't matter what all the disciples said to him—that they had seen the risen Lord Jesus. No, he absolutely refused to believe until He saw Jesus for Himself. None of these men had been liars. They were all generally very reliable God-faring men, men whom Thomas had learned to trust. But Thomas was like Eor of the Winnie the Pooh cartoon series. He was the kind of person for whom the glass was always half-empty, rather than half-full. He always saw the dark cloud rather than the silver lining. When things got really tough, he was always there with a discouraging word to make matters that much worse. So when Jesus had announced that He was about to go to Jerusalem for this Passover in John 11, Thomas' gloomy reply had been, "Let's all go with Him that we may die with Him." And so He was after Jesus' resurrection. He insisted it had not happened, no matter what anybody said to Him.
His story appears in John 20:24-29. But Thomas one of the twelve, called Didymus, for twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, 'Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into the His side, I will not believe."
In other words, multiple eyewitness testimonies of reliable men and women whom he knew very well were not going to be enough for him. The kind of testimony, the testimony of two or more individuals, which even our law and the Law of God claims is sufficient to establish facts and deliver death-penalty verdicts was not sufficient for Him. He not only needed to see Jesus for Himself, He needed to see that it was the same Jesus who had been nailed to the cross, not some impostor, but the same Jesus whose side had been pierced by the soldier's spear indicating He was truly dead.
And so it came about a week later that all the disciples and this time Thomas were gathered in the same room that suddenly the risen Lord Jesus Christ appeared once again. And according to this account, after saying "Peace be with you" to all, pointedly Jesus addressed Thomas doubt in this way, "Reach here with your finger, and see My hands, and reach hear with your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing."
And Thomas response was, "My Lord, and My God!"
And Thomas' life was changed. He no longer was unbelieving, but believing, and like Peter took the good news of Jesus' death and resurrection to distant places, even all the way to India, where He also was willing to die a martyr's because, He did not believe death was the end, but the beginning of a new life which will culminate in a resurrection, the kind of resurrection Jesus experienced, but in the Kingdom of God!
In other words, our final point this morning is this: Find hope in Jesus even when you can't find it anywhere else! Find hope in Jesus even when you can't find it anywhere else.
This morning, maybe you have been a skeptic of Jesus' resurrection. Maybe you're still in that childhood stage, or that adult stage, and you're saying in your mind, when someone dies, they don't ever come back. That's exactly what Mary Magdalene, and the Apostle Peter, and the Apostle Thomas thoroughly believed when they were personally confronted by the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.
Isn't it just possible that you might be wrong about this subject, even as these three were? Isn't it possible that there is a God who loves us so much He sent His only begotten Son to rescue from our sins, and then paid for them by dying for our sins, and then proving it by being raised from the dead?
I want to suggest to you that it's more than possible. That it is an absolutely reality, and the only hope you have for eternal life. That this Jesus is famous today, 2,000 years later, only because these apostles and others witnessed the most incredible event in all of history—the resurrection of man who predicted His own resurrection to the day, and then pulled it off. And I also want to suggest to you that God committed this work to this single man, Jesus Christ, because He alone is the key to experiencing resurrection, because He is indeed the perfect Son of God, the only one qualified to die to pay the penalty for your sins, and demonstrate by His own resurrection from the dead. For He said, I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes Me in will live even if He dies, and will never die.
Notice what He said to Thomas after His confession of belief: John 20:29: "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."
You want to be blessed this morning? Then believe. You believe a lot of other things because many people have told you. Many of you believe China exists, but you've never seen it. Many of you believe in radio waves, but you've never seen them. You just see the evidence of their existence. I want you to know that what you see this morning that Jesus Christ has been raised from the dead—that the changed lives of Mary Magdalene, and Peter and Thomas, is evidence that there is a living God who can provide you with resurrection. But if you truly believe, you will turn from living for yourself, and you will begin to live for Christ, that is you will repent when you believe, and you also will experience a new life.
This morning, Resurrection Sunday, morning, why don't allow God to make it the first day of the rest of your eternal life, by trusting that Jesus died your sins, and when he rose again, He proved it.
Let's pray.
