Compromised Christianity Part 4
Seeking Jesus Conclusion
Scriptures: Acts 17:11; John 20:1-29
This will conclude my series titled “Compromised Christianity.” On this Easter morning we will once again look at Thomas who after hearing that Jesus had risen from the dead doubted. His initial response to hearing this good news parallels that of Christians who have doubts about Jesus today. A person can be compromised as it relates to doctrinal teachings if that they are not 100% completely sure about what the Bible says.
Last week I closed the message with the Scripture from Hosea chapter four where God says, “….my people are destroyed for lack of knowledge...” When it comes to God, what matters most is knowing and understanding His Word. Acts 17:11 says, “Now these were more noble-minded than those in Thessalonica, for they received the Word with great eagerness, examining the Scriptures daily to see whether these things were so.” “Examining (searching) the Scriptures daily” is not getting up every morning and reading your devotional. Don’t get me wrong, there are some good devotionals, but that’s not searching the scriptures daily. “Searching the scriptures daily” means that you are reading and studying for understanding. While a devotional gives you a verse or two to read and then an applicable example or summary, it does not (cannot) provide the contextual revelations you receive through the Holy Spirit when you study a topic until you “know what you know” and no longer need someone to tell you what you should know. You have confidence because you studied it for yourself. Second Timothy tells us that God is looking for faithful men and women who can teach others what the Bible says but the only way we can really do this is to study for ourselves. It will be much harder for someone who searches the scriptures daily to be compromised because they are seeing for themselves what the Bible says versus what the world says.
Please turn to John chapter twenty. This is the “Thomas, the doubter” chapter. John 20:1 says, “Now on the first day of the week Mary Magdalene came early to the tomb, while it was still dark, and saw the stone already taken away from the tomb.” You know the story. Mary comes to the tomb and finds it empty. She was coming to finish preparing the Jesus’ body for burial. When she finds the tomb empty, Mary runs and tells Peter what she’s seen. So Peter and another disciple run all the way to the burial site. They don’t find Jesus. Peter and the other disciple did not take Mary’s word for it but ran to the tomb to see for themselves. Why? Because they too did not understand that Jesus would rise from the dead. If they had understood they would have told Mary, “Of course Jesus is not there Mary, He told us that He would rise again just as he raised Lazarus from the dead. We are just waiting on Him to reveal Himself to us and tell us our next steps.” But this is not what happened. After they leave Mary sits there crying and seeing a person she thinks is the gardener asks “Where have they taken him?” And the person she thinks is the gardener, Jesus, replies “Mary”. And with that one simple word Mary knows its Jesus. She recognizes her Master’s voice. Now let’s jump down to verse 19.
“So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, ‘Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.’ And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.’ But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, 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 His side, I will not believe.” (John 20:19-25)
In my message last week I shared with you that when Jesus told the disciples to not let their hearts be troubled because He was going away and they knew where He was going, Thomas made the statement that they did not know where He was going so they couldn’t know the way. Jesus asked Thomas had he been with Him for three years and yet did not know Him? Thomas was with Jesus but he did not understand. We see this again when the other disciples tell him that Jesus had risen from the dead. When Jesus appeared to the disciples Thomas was not present so he missed Jesus’ first appearance to them. When he returned and the disciples told him they had seen Jesus, Thomas was adamant that he would not believe them unless he saw for himself. Think about it. All of them saw Jesus die on the cross. They witnessed Him being buried in a grave. They were in hiding now because they were scared of experiencing the same fate as Jesus. Until Jesus appeared to them they all believed it was over. But then it wasn’t over at all. Jesus was alive. Can you imagine the change that happened in that room? They were depressed when Thomas left but all of them were celebrating when he returned. And with all of the celebrations, Thomas still would not believe. He had to see it for himself.
I want you to understand something at this point. Thomas knew Jesus. Thomas walked with Jesus for three years. Thomas witnessed His death, but not His resurrection. Thomas knew Jesus had lived, but not that He was ALIVE! Christians who are being compromised know that Jesus lived and they know that He is alive, but is He alive within them? Does He have ownership within them? Let me give you an example.
I have made the statement pretty consistently that not all roads lead to heaven. I have said that not all religions lead to heaven. In fact I have said for the record that I believe what the Bible says - that the only way to heaven is through Jesus Christ and if you do not go through Him, you do not get in. I have said this and I meant it when I said it. Jesus died for the sins of the world and He is the only one who did it – The Only One! Now I was talking with a friend last week and she told me about a book she was listening to and recommended that I get it. The book is titled “Dreams and Visions” by Tom Doyle. The book contains true stories of Jesus appearing to Muslims in dreams and visions leading to their conversion. Now it would be one thing if this was happening in the United States, buts it’s happening in the Middle East, in the heart of Islam. I do not want you to miss the significance of these conversions. These are people who had a direct interaction with Jesus and were changed. They were changed to their core. Their change, if it were known to others, also carried an immediate death sentence. Muslims who convert to Christianity do so at the risk of death. Many could not tell their own families because their families would have turned them in. They are meeting secretly to pray and study the Bible. They are “seeking” to know Jesus. Can you imagine meeting Jesus in a dream and deciding that He is worth your very life?
If Islam leads to heaven why would Jesus need to start appearing to specific individuals of the Islamic faith, converting them to Christianity and putting them on the front lines to bring others to Him – even at the risk of certain death if they are caught? What we take for granted here in America they hold as extremely precious. Being a Christian and being able to learn about Jesus with other believers – they are willing to die for that. I pray we are helping our Muslim brothers and sisters grow in their faith walk with Jesus through the spreading of the Gospel through these sermons. Many of our sermons are being viewed in Islamic controlled countries and I hope that they are making a difference in people’s faith walk. Jesus is alive and those who are truly seeking Him are finding Him. Praise God! Also, and please hear this, Jesus is also seeking out others to follow Him! His work is not yet done. Is it possible that Jesus is looking for you to help Him finish His work? I believe that it is very possible! Let’s return to Thomas.
Let’s look back at verse twenty-five. “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 His side, I will not believe.” Thomas was adamant that he would not believe unless he could see for himself. Was this pride speaking? Was it doubt that he could have been so wrong about what Jesus had been telling them before He died? I believe it could have been a little of both. Pride will always lead to a state of compromise because through pride we refuse to admit when we are wrong and we dig in and hold fast to a belief no matter how much data we receive that might disprove it. Thomas would not believe unless he could see Jesus for himself. He trusted his eyes only. Do you know there are Christians like Thomas who will only believe the Word if they see it for themselves but then they refuse to go study to find out? Prides produces a “see first then believe” attitude. Pride does not understand faith. In this situation Thomas had plenty of pride and very little faith. And just in case you forgot, it was pride that got Satan kicked out of heaven. Pride says “I’m right and God, or the Bible, is wrong.” And God let it be known that pride has no place in Heaven.
I do not want you to miss something else that Thomas said because it is very relevant to this discussion on compromised Christianity. The most horrific thing that was said in this verse was when Thomas said “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 His side, I will not believe.” Thomas was saying that Jesus would have to prove to him that He was Jesus! Why is this so horrible? Let’s say Jesus appears to Thomas just like He did to the others. So, Thomas says “Let me see your hands.” Jesus shows him His hands and the nail prints. Then Thomas says, “Okay, let me see your side.” Jesus pulls up His robe but there is no slit where the spear pierced His skin. Thomas would say, “I knew it. You’re not Jesus!” Now listen to me: in this scenario, Jesus did not have the proof Thomas was looking for. What proof are you looking for? What do you need to see in Jesus to believe that He is really who He says He is? What do you need? Mary only needed Jesus to say her name and she recognized Him. She did not need any other proof – and she was not one of His chosen twelve! She heard His voice and knew it was Him! Thomas needed to see the proof. Could you hear His voice and know it was Him or do you need proof that you can see and feel?
Do you realize that if you have a little bit of Thomas in you that the Bible is not enough for you to say yes to Jesus the way Jesus wants us to say yes to Him? The Bible is not enough. You see, the Body of Christ, for the most part, has already decided that this is what we expect Jesus to do; how He will act; and what Jesus will look like and if we don’t see that, He is not Jesus. Let’s bring this home. If in our mind what Jesus should be, what He should do and how He should respond to us is not found in the Bible, then we are never going to see the Jesus we want to see. And we’re never going to live the life that Jesus wants us to live. We are never going to experience the blessings Jesus wants us to receive because Jesus doesn’t measure up to what we’re looking for. Is this not what the Pharisees did? In their minds they had their own ideas of what Jesus was supposed to do and when He didn’t do them they said “You’re not the Messiah.” They said “We have our checklist right here in front of us and we can’t check off anything for You so, obviously, You’re not the Messiah!”
Do you have a “Jesus checklist”? So many Christians don’t realize that they have a checklist of what they expect Jesus to be like. For example, take same sex marriage. You talk to people who are in favor of it and they’ll say “Jesus loves everybody. He loves us. He’d want us to love who we want to love as long as we are in a committed relationship.” No. No. No! That’s the Jesus that they have developed. That’s the Jesus that they have carved out for their lives. That’s THEIR Jesus. THEIR Jesus, not mine. THEIR Jesus, not the Bible’s Jesus. And I’m telling you right now ladies and gentlemen – THEIR Jesus is not going to get them into an eternity with Jesus. THEIR Jesus is going to keep them on the slow downward path to the lake of fire and that’s where they’ll spend eternity. Please understand, Jesus has not changed regardless of how much we want Him to meet the standards of the world as it relates to compassion and acceptance. Jesus has not compromised and He is still demanding repentance. Please do not take my word for it. Go read your Bibles and see for yourself! Thomas had made the decision to put Jesus in a box and in doing so said that was the only way that he was going to believe that Jesus was who He said He was. He was basically saying “I need to see proof.” If this is you, when you get home, please get on your knees and tell Jesus “I am so sorry. I repent. Forgive me.” We cannot make Jesus into what we want Him to be, He makes us into what He wants us to be – if we are willing!
Let’s finish this up. John 20:26-29 says, “After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, ‘Peace be with you.’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.’ Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
Eight days later Jesus reappeared to the disciples and this time Thomas was present. Jesus looks at Thomas and tells him to see “his” proof. Thomas immediately proclaims that Jesus is his Lord. Jesus was not present when Thomas told the disciples that he needed proof, but Jesus knew. How did He know? Because He is God! Do not think you can mumble against your Lord and Savior and He not know about it. Jesus told Thomas that he believed because he saw his proof, but He also told Thomas, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” That my friends would be all of us who have believed in Him! Why are we blessed? We are blessed because we know and understand that the Jesus we have put our faith in is Lord and He is our God! All of us have some Thomas in us because we’re still growing in our faith walk. So let’s truly be like Thomas! Like Thomas, let’s not remain in doubt. Thomas came full circle. He had doubt and then he saw Jesus. I’ll leave you with this thought: the “blessed” are those who live in and walk by faith. They know that Jesus is Lord and that He is God. If you are not living by faith, are you sure you know Jesus as your Lord and as your God? Or are you still waiting for proof? There is nothing wrong with having doubt. Doubt becomes a problem when you don’t seek to remove it. Doubt becomes a problem when you hold on to it when scripture says something different. Let this be a message of encouragement. You can have doubt in your life but you can remove it one piece at a time. That’s all our Father asks of us. Remove your doubt one piece at a time. That is what faith is. Taking God at His Word and believing it - piece by piece.
As I close this morning I am reminded of a song we used to sing in the small country Church I grew up attending. The song was “Must Jesus Bear the Cross Alone?” It says, “Must Jesus bear the cross alone, and all the world go free? No, there’s a cross for everyone, and there’s a cross for me….O precious cross! O glorious crown! O resurrection day! Ye angels from the stars come down, and bear my soul away.” When I was younger I did not understand these words, but I understand them now. I have a cross and you have a cross and we do not get to put them down (compromise on carrying it). No, we have to carry it the whole distance. Jesus said, “…..If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross daily and follow Me.” (Luke 9:23) In what way do you think carrying a cross is easy? Comfortable? Enjoyable? Carrying our cross is none of those things!! It’s hard and it requires commitment and that my friends is why people put their crosses down. When they want to party, they put their crosses down. When they want to sin, they put their crosses down. When they want to cuss someone out from cutting them off in traffic, they put their crosses down. Every day we pick up our cross and follow Him. If we are not doing this every single day, then those days we are not carrying our cross are the days we are compromising! Any by the way, when you pick the cross up, at no time are we allowed to put it down. Hold tight to your cross!!!
I love you and I thank God for you! Jesus is alive and well and because He is we are here! Do not let His resurrection be for naught in your life. Stand firm on the Word and study to know what Jesus has for you. Happy Easter and God bless.
Until next time, “The Lord bless you and keep you. May the Lord make His face shine on you and be gracious to you. May the Lord lift up His countenance on you and give you peace.” (Numbers 6:24-26)
(If you are ever in the Kansas City, KS area, please come and worship with us at New Light Christian Fellowship, 15 N. 14th Street, Kansas City, KS 66102. Our service Sunday worship starts at 9 a.m. and Thursday night Bible study at 7 p.m. Also, for use of our social media, you can find us at newlightchristianfellowship on FB. To get our live stream services, please make sure you “like” and turn on notifications for our page so you can be notified when we are live streaming. We also have a church website and New Light Christian Fellowship YouTube channel for more of our content. We are developing more social media streams so please stand by and we will notify you once those channels are up and running. We look forward to you worshipping with us. May God bless and keep you.)
