The Twins

This morning we read a passage of scripture, concerning the appearance of Jesus after His resurrection. The disciples had followed Jesus during His ministry, the were with Him when the large multitudes followed and rejoiced over the miracles, they were with Him when most turned their backs on Him. They were expecting Jesus to set up His kingdom here insomuch as a couple of the even asked to sit on His right hand and one on His left in the kingdom. However Jesus did not come to set up His kingdom this time. He had came to die, and when He did die the apostles faith hit rock bottom, and they are sitting in the upper room hopeless and afraid. It is at this point, in the upper room with the door locked that Jesus appears to His disciples. (I will just go ahead and throw this in: it was not their faith that brought Jesus presence, because they had none Jesus just chose to show up and reaffirm their faith.) Once they see the wounds in His hand the get their fire back and are ready for the next work. However there is a statement here that catches our attention "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came." Where was Thomas? I don't know but he wasn't there. It stands to reason based on the statements he made, that he had such a lapse of faith that he quit, almost to the point of being inconsolable. Imagine the disciples coming to Thomas they are excited, they are rejoicing they had just spent some time with Jesus in the upper room. They are trying to convey this same excitement to Thomas, but it is no good. Have you ever tried to share the excitement with someone over what the Lord has done but it does not seem that they get it, or have you ever been the one that is hearing the exciting news, but no matter how you try you just cannot get as excited about as they are. It is an excitement that you have to be there to enjoy. Thomas won't hear it, I don't care what you say, I don't care how excited you are I won't believe unless.... It is important for us to notice somethings about Thomas. The name Thomas means in the Aramaic means twin, The name Didymus in Greek means twin. Now the Bible never tells that Thomas has a twin brother, (even though he could have) But the Bible does show us a man with twin personalities. Thats what I want to preach on today "The Twin" I feel with a little better understanding of this we can glean some help. I want to look first at

I. Thomas, one of the twelve- This is the spiritual Thomas his inner man

A. He associated himself with Jesus, He was never ashamed of Jesus like we read of Peter, He wasn't a devil like Judas, He wasn't self righteous like Nathaniel, as a matter of fact we call him doubting Thomas but Jesus never referred to him by that name. As a matter of fact He never wanted to leave the side of Jesus. Jesus said He was leaving and Thomas was not about to let Him leave without finding out how to get back to Him "Lord, we know not whither thou goest; and how can we know the way?"

B. He aligned himself with the twelve- He wasn't ashamed of His church. These twelve was his brethern, and even for a period of time after Jesus died he remained with his brethern.

C. He applied himself to the work- When going to Bethany to raise Lazarus, Phillip made the comment to Jesus that The jews had tied to stone them last time they was in town, and was Jesus sure he wanted to go back. Thomas made the statement Let us go that we may die with him. This wasn't a statement that inspired hope into the hearts of the others, but was certianly a staement to show he was willing to die for the cause.

II. Thomas which is called Didymus- This is the physical outer man of Thomas. Didymus was the name that everone referred to him. The Bible says 3 times his name was Thomas but he was called Didymus. Didymus was the one that:

A. Fled in the garden-All the disciples fled, but where was the courage that Thomas had in Bethany, that we are ready to die with Him. It was true only 3 disciple were allowed to go into the inner sanctum of the garden the others were outside the garden, I figure the view of the vast Roman guard on the horizon, caused those on the outside to leave pretty quickly.