The Courage To Believe

THE COURAGE TO BELIEVE

John 20:24-31

S: Resurrection Sunday

Th: Courage to believe

Pr: BELIEVE IN THE LORD JESUS.

?: Inductive

KW: Steps

TS: We will find in our study of John 20:24-31 how Thomas comes to believe in Jesus.

The _____ step in the process is…

I. DISBELIEF (24-25)

II. DISPLAY (26-27)

III. DECLARATION (28)

Version: ESV

RMBC 20 Apr 03 AM

INTRODUCTION:

1. Have you ever had trouble believing what you have heard?

ILL #464

A man was walking along a narrow path, not paying much attention to where he was going. Suddenly he slipped over the edge of a cliff. As he fell, he grabbed a branch growing from the side of the cliff. Realizing that he couldn’t hang on for long, he called for help.

“Is anybody up there?”

“Yes, I’m here!”

“Who’s that?”

“The Lord”

“Lord, help me!”

“Do you trust me?”

“I trust you completely, Lord.”

“Good. Let go of the branch.”

“What???”

“I said, Let go of the branch.”

(After a long pause)

“Is there anybody else up there?”

Sometimes, it is hard to believe someone or something.

But…

2. We are a people that believe.

When we sit down, we believe the chair will hold us up.

When we go to the doctor, we believe the doctor will do what he can to make us feel better.

When we go to the pharmacy, we believe the pharmacist will give us the right medication.

We are a people that exercise faith in all kinds of situations.

But really…

Some of the stuff people do believe in…

There are people that read their horoscopes faithfully and live by them.

Others go to a psychic that uses tarot cards so that they will know their future.

Many have called the Psychic Network and found out all kinds of valuable information (so to speak) about their lives.

People really believe this stuff.

It is amazing what people believe.

For example, if you tell a man that there are 14,581,678,934,341 stars in the universe, he’ll probably believe you.

But if a sign says “Fresh Paint,” he has to make a personal investigation and go touch it.

Now why is that?

TRANSITION

Today, we are giving consideration to a man named Thomas.

He was one of Jesus’ twelve disciples.

And as we consider this man, we are going to discover that…

1. Thomas had an issue regarding faith and doubt.

If you have ever heard the phrase “Doubting Thomas,” it comes from this guy.

He will forever be labeled this way.

But I have to admit, if this is all we remember him for, we remember him for the wrong reasons.

First, though, let us remember that…

2. He was one of the chosen.

Jesus saw something worthwhile in Thomas.

We know from the biblical texts, that he prayed a longtime regarding who his disciples should be.

And as He prayed, He knew that Thomas was one of them.

We also know that…

3. He was a fisherman.

Like many of his disciples, he was from Galilee.

And he possessed the same trade of some of the others.

Probably, he was at least an acquaintance of Peter, Andrew, James and John who were fellow fishermen.

We don’t know a great deal about Thomas, but we do know this…

4. He was ready to follow Jesus, even to death.

When Jesus was ready to go to Bethany, a town only a few miles from Jerusalem, to deal with the issue of Lazarus who had died, it was only Thomas that understood the implications.

Jerusalem had become the hotbed of opposition to Jesus.

The Jewish leaders had made it known they wanted to kill Him.

Thomas understood that going to Bethany could be very costly (John 11:16):

So Thomas, called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

This does demonstrate the kind of person Thomas was.

He was loyal and had tremendous courage.

And though he was pessimistic, he was willing to follow Jesus at all costs.

But what was also true was that…

5. He did not always understand Jesus.

The last night before His death, Jesus shared a lot of teaching with His disciples.

Some of it went like this (John 14:1-5):

"Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. [2] In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? [3] And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. [4] And you know the way to where I am going."

[5] Thomas said to him, "Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?"