"Reality Based Faith"
(John 20:19-29)
NOTE: Here is a suggested bulletin insert I wrote. The Sermon follows it, after the **** ed
Doubting Thomas and the Audacious Claim of the Resurrection
by Ed Vasicek, pastor, Highland Park Church Kokomo, IN
Thomas the Apostle was certainly a great man of faith, but he was skeptical and cynical by nature. The week before Christ was crucified, when opposition to Christ by the leaders was becoming intense, Jesus decided to go to Bethany, near Jerusalem, where Jesus’ enemies were strongest. The disciples were against such a plan, but Jesus was determined. He intended to resurrect His dear friend, Lazarus.
What did Thomas do? He responded, “Let us also go, that we may die with him” (John 11:16). Thomas was a dedicated follower of Jesus. He believed Jesus was the Messiah and was willing to risk his life for Him, as you can see in this context. But Jesus rising from the dead? Once again, truth was stranger than fiction.
When Thomas doubted the resurrection, he was not rejecting Jesus as much as he was rejecting the concept that Jesus could resurrect Himself (all three Persons of the Trinity participated in the resurrection, including the Son, according to John 2:18-22). He could not reconcile how Jesus could be God’s chosen Messiah and still God could allow Him to suffer the ignoble death of the cross. He was paradigm blind: the Jews knew that the Messiah was going to defeat Israel‘s enemies and bring in the Golden Age. Thomas did not understand the concept of one Messiah but two Comings. All he knew was that He who had worked so many miracles could not deliver Himself from the Romans. Thomas was thrown for a loop.
Lest you go too hard on Thomas, remember the other disciples did not believe in the resurrection (except for John) until they themselves saw Jesus. They thought the women were crazy, and Thomas thought the other apostles were crazy in the same way. Jesus’ followers simply found it difficult to swallow the idea of the resurrection. The idea of the resurrection IS a crazy, absurd thought. It just happens to be true. That is why Paul says that the Gospel is “foolishness to them that perish.” It is an offensive, scandalous message to those whose hearts are hard.
The previously skeptical apostles became so convinced of the truth of the resurrection of Jesus that they suffered torture and laid down their lives rather than deny its authenticity. They did not espouse the resurrection as a theory: they were convinced, against their skeptical natures, that it was a fact. As church history and modern evangelical experiences demonstrate, convinced skeptics often become the greatest Christians. They become the Josh McDowells and the C.S. Lewises.
We who live in the church age have heard about the resurrection of Christ since childhood. The “absurd edge” of our belief doesn’t register because we are used to hearing about it. But everything in the Christian faith hinges on this one event. If it is untrue, Jesus was just an egotistical philosopher who called great attention to Himself and made audacious claims. If it is true, Jesus surely is the Son of God and the Scriptures are the Word of God. Those who trust Christ will enjoy eternity with God in heaven while those who reject Him will enter into “outer darkness.” The resurrection is either history’s greatest hoax or history’s greatest event. For those of us who believe, we can testify that the resurrection, which occurred nearly 2,000 years ago, has changed
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1. The Arab world was inflamed at Al Jisira TV for misleading viewers into thinking the US was losing the war.
2. Behind every conflict or difference are assumptions, slants, and personalities; by emphasizing one detail to the exclusion of others, it is possible to technically speak the truth but still be horrendously misleading.
3. But no matter what people say, what happened is what happened.
4. Many modern Americans hold to a philosophy called existentialism. Most people who do so are unfamiliar with this term, so let explain it as they would:
"What is true for you may not be true for me and vice-versa. If it works for us, that is all that matters."
5. Bible-oriented Christianity refuses to join that club. We maintain that spiritual truth, like physical truth, is often just as objective and factual.
6. And nowhere is this seen more clearly than in the resurrection.
7. Our entire faith hinges on the belief that Christ rose physically and literally after being dead for days.
8. Paul writes: 1 Corinthians 15:13-19, "If there is no resurrection of the dead, then not even Christ has been raised. And if Christ has not been raised, our preaching is useless and so is your faith. More than that, we are then found to be false witnesses about God, for we have testified about God that he raised Christ from the dead. But he did not raise him if in fact the dead are not raised. For if the dead are not raised, then Christ has not been raised either. And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile; you are still in your sins. Then those also who have fallen asleep in Christ are lost. If only for this life we have hope in Christ, we are to be pitied more than all men.
9. Note how that last statement tells us that belief in the Resurrection is not some crutch to help us cope with life’s tragedies. Paul says that if it is NOT true, then belief in the Resurrection makes us sad sacks.
MAIN IDEA: Whether we are or are not convinced that Christ rose from the dead does not affect the reality of the Resurrection. The Bible presents it as objective history. But if we accept its reality by faith and live consistently in light of it, it changes our lives like nothing else can.
TS ---------- The resurrection of Jesus Christ is a life hanger, as seen in the text before us.
I. The Change in the Apostles
1. They lost their fears (19-20)
(1) Jesus approaches them gladly
(2) Shalom Aleikhem
(3) They are hiding from the Jews; in a few days, they would be boldly preaching to massive crowds of their brethren
(4) indeed, the disciples would suffer persecution, torture, and death for their belief and unswerving proclamation that Jesus rose again
2. Their lives had purpose and direction (21-23)
(1) Some people wander aimlessly in life, simply using up time
(2) But those who are serious about following Jesus Christ have Purpose-driven lives….only those who experience this realize how crucial it is to have genuine purpose that extends into eternity…
(3) They received the Holy Spirit
---breath, wind, spirit and πνευμα
---they received the position of priesthood
---in OT, priests were descendants of Aaron…but in NT, God has made believers a Kingdom of Priests… people find God’s forgiveness through our communicating the message…
3. Their cynical skepticism disappeared (24-29)
(1) Luke tells us He had to eat fish with them before they believed He was real; they frequently thought He was a ghost…
(2) note that all the apostles had doubted (except John)
(3) Thomas required the same proof as the others…
----what is bad is that he gave no credibility to his close friends
(4) When Jesus confronted Thomas, He quoted Thomas Himself…how would He know what Thomas had said?
4. They acknowledged the Deity of Christ (28)
(1) What the Jews expected in a Messiah
(2) OT is pretty clear that the Messiah is God in the flesh, but the Jewish mindset could not accept this…
(3) Zechariah 12:10, e.g.
(4) Note here that Jesus
---accepted being called God
---accepted worship AS God
II. How the Resurrection of Jesus Changes Us
1. Some of us live our lives in fear…
(1) There is a lot to fear in life….
(2) But our relationship to the Lord can embolden us to break out of our protective shell and amount to something in the Kingdom of God
2. Many of us have found direction because we view ourselves as sent by Jesus: John 20:21-23 Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
(1) everyone of you who know Christ has been sent off into society to help people find the forgiveness of sins…you are an agent of God, whether you know it or not!
(2) on a local level, Church leaders are obligated to practice church discipline; issue is not eternal life, but God’s discipline of erring believers in this life!
3. Because the Apostles were skeptical, that makes their testimony even more credible; we are among those who have not seen, but still choose to believe…
(1) believing is an act of the will, a decision to take God at His Word…
(2) believing does not mean we have no doubts, but that we choose to believe despite our doubts…and that choice is not a wavering one
(3) we count the cost before we become His disciples; but once we make the decision, we do not turn back!
4. But we have to believe of our own accord
(1) God has no GRANDCHILDREN
(2) Dead Christianity results when Christians do not feel they have a stake in the Kingdom of God
World War II parachute packers had an unacceptable record: nineteen out of twenty parachutes opened. The manager discovered that by allowing the packers the pleasure of testing their parachutes by jumping from a plane, quality rose to 100 percent.
(3) Although Thomas and the Apostles were hard to sell skeptics as far the resurrection, we still have to make our own choice…whether to stake eternity, to stake life’s decisions and purpose on whether Christ rose from the dead or did not…
CONCLUSION
1. What about you? Have you accepted the risen Christ?
2. Has He gripped your life? Is He on your mind daily? Are you nurturing a relationship with the Risen One, or have you locked Him into a compartment of your life you call "religion?"
3. Jesus Christ is, I believe, the Resurrected Son of God. I could be wrong. But one thing He cannot be: moderately important!
