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- Some people like to be with others when struck with the finality and grief that death brings because there is something about togetherness that flies in the face of death and contradicts it.
- Being together is life-affirming, comforting and
reassuring to us that we are not alone in our grief.
- However, some people prefer to be alone with
their grief. While others are talking and reminiscing, crying and laughing,
some genuinely do not want to share their feelings and may even disappear until
they have dealt with their grief. Some prefer solitude rather than the safety
of numbers.
- Thomas preferred to be alone with his grief.
- We know that because he was not with the other
disciples when Jesus appeared to them and because of his refusal to believe.
* - Unfortunately, modern thinkers that we are, we
like to put people inside a box and one of the ways that we do that is through
nicknames that are often misnomers.
- I believe that Thomas has not been aptly named
'doubting Thomas'. We have made a mistake by permanently attaching the prefix
'doubting' before Thomas. I think Thomas has been misnamed.
- If Thomas had been with the other disciples when
Jesus suddenly showed up among them in the upper room on the evening of that
first Easter Sunday, then we would not have this story because Thomas would
have also seen and been with Jesus that day.
- As it was, Thomas was not with the other
disciples that evening. He had gone off by himself to deal with his grief. He
had accepted and resigned himself to the finality of Jesus' death.
- When the others told Thomas that they had seen
the risen Lord Jesus, as far as Thomas was concerned they were all having
delusions of grandeur.
- He had no interest in what he saw as wishful
thinking because as yet he did not understand the Scripture that Messiah must
suffer and die and rise again.
- The empty tomb was not enough for Thomas, just as
it was not enough for Peter, Mary Magdalene and the rest of the disciples.
- If it was true, then he wanted more. He wanted
conclusive proof. In fact, he demanded it. He wanted to see and touch Jesus.
- As he said, “Unless I see in his hands the
mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the
nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
* - Because Jesus loved Thomas and because he is
gracious he indulged Thomas's skepticism and responded to the buried hopes and
desires of Thomas's heart with living proof.
- What about Thomas's response? When faced with
living proof, Thomas's response is that of immediate faith; "My Lord and
my God!"
* - Thomas's response is a confession of faith in
words that are deeper and more profound than any language used by the witnesses
of Christ's resurrection up to this point.
- Thomas confessed his newfound faith with complete
conviction and expressed it recognizing Jesus as his Lord and his God.
- I want to take a moment and ask a question: what
does this say to us about the skeptics and doubters of this world?
* - The doubters, sceptics and pessimists of the
world demand proof. They want to see the risen Christ show up with skin on.
- Friends, it is no accident that the apostle Paul
refers to the church as the body of Christ, Christ's body. The church is
supposed to have an incarnational ministry in the world. We are supposed to
incarnate, to embody, Christ to the world now that he has gone to heaven and
poured out his Spirit.
- We represent and personify Christ. That is to say
that we are the ones who carry out Christ's mission in the power of the Holy
Spirit with skin on in Jesus name.
- For the world, we are Christ's body; we are the
skin, the flesh they see that is the proof of his life.
- The world does not believe because they do not
see Jesus.
- The disciples did not believe until they saw
Jesus. Thomas did not believe until he saw Jesus.
- The disciple whom Jesus loved, as we read on
Easter Sunday, he saw and believed.
- The world must see before they will believe. In
their minds, seeing is believing.
- In order for the world to see and believe, they
need to see the risen Christ in two ways: 1) they need to see the evidence of the
resurrection of Jesus; and 2) they need to see evidence of Jesus life in the
life of God's people as we show and tell the world about the love and message
of Christ.
- The world needs to see Christ alive in us in
order to see that Christ is alive. Seeing
Jesus alive and well in the body of Christ prepares the world to see Jesus
alive and well through the evidence for his resurrection.
-I want to take a few moments to list and briefly describe
some *resurrection facts which Josh
and Sean McDowell share in their book Evidence
for the Resurrection.
* - Fact number one: The Roman Seal upon the Tomb Was Broken. The consequences of
breaking the Roman seal were severe. The perpetrators would've been hunted down
and severely punished. The disciples of Jesus are portrayed as cowards when
Jesus was arrested. They were incapable of breaking the seal.
* - Fact number two: The Tomb Is Empty. All four biblical gospel accounts are in
agreement about the empty tomb. Not only that, but we also have Jewish and
Roman sources and traditions that act as hostile witnesses acknowledging the
empty tomb. When a source admits a fact that is not in its favor, then the fact
is held to be genuine, i.e., that it is true.
* - Fact number three: The Huge Stone Is Removed. Not only was the stone rolled back from
the entrance to the tomb, but a careful reading of the four canonical gospel
accounts reveals that the stone was moved some distance away from the tomb. No
one, especially not a group of cowardly disciples, could have moved that stone
some distance away from the tomb without alerting the guards because of its size
and weight.
* - Fact number four: The Roman Guard Goes AWOL (Absent without leave). Not only did the
Roman guards commit dereliction of duty, but they fled. They left their place
of responsibility without leave. The punishment for these sorts of failures was
death.
- Also the fear of the kind of death they would
receive resulted in close attention of Roman soldiers to their duties.
- The chief priests could have brought these
accusations to the Roman authorities, but the evidence at the tomb was such
that it made it impossible for the chief priests to bring any charge so they
bribed the guards.
* - Fact number five: The Burial Clothes Tell a
Tale. The body certainly would not have been stolen because no grave robber
would have gone to the trouble of removing the burial cloths and leaving them
to look as if the body came out of them like a cocoon.
- However, he would've taken the body, grave clothes
and all.
- As we learned on Easter Sunday, the facial cloth
was folded in a place by itself as a sign that Jesus was finished with death
and never intended to return to that experience ever again.
- The grave clothes remained in the place where
Jesus body had lain and yet were empty and undisturbed.
* -Fact number six: The Confirmed Encounters with Christ. What is the evidence for the
post-resurrection encounters with Christ?
* - First,
there is the large number of eyewitnesses. In the earliest statement of
faith of the church, which we find in First Corinthians 15:3-8, we are told
over 500 people saw Jesus at one time in addition to the Twelve disciples.
Generally speaking, the greater the number of witnesses to a published historical
event the more accurate that event is considered to be because it could be
verified.
* - Second, there
is the variety of witnesses and locations. No two of the encounters that
disciples had with the risen Christ are the same. Mary Magdalene saw him early
in the morning. Those on the road to Emmaus saw him in the afternoon. The
apostles saw him in the evening. Mary saw him outdoors and alone. The apostles
were in the upper room and the doors were locked.
- In our passage for today Jesus appears to Thomas
then not only does Thomas see Jesus but Thomas touches the places where the
nails pierced his hands and feet and put his hand in Jesus side.
* - Third,
the inclusion of hostile witnesses. Before his conversion, Saul of Tarsus
persecuted Christians but following a personal encounter with the risen Christ
his zeal to eliminate Christians was transformed into zeal to create
Christians. James and the brothers of Jesus not only refuse to believe in him
but attempted to set up a death trap for him at a feast in Jerusalem. Yet
according to the New Testament Jesus brothers are counted among the believers.
The most plausible explanation for their conversions is that they too had
eyewitness encounters with the risen Christ.
- The one thing that must be acknowledged regarding
the testimony of written history about the resurrection of Christ is that no
one ever stepped forward to claim that the body was still in the tomb. Anyone
who made that claim 2000 years ago would've been easily exposed as charlatans
and liars just as they are today.
- Titanic director James Cameron and Simcha Jacobovici, aka the naked archaeologist, concocted such a story
which aired on the Discovery Channel a few years ago (The Lost Tomb of Jesus)and
when their faulty theories and poor archaeology came to light the network
dropped them like a hot potato because they didn't do their homework.
- Jesus promised a special blessing to those who
believe without actually seeing his resurrection body. For us, faith comes by
hearing. We have heard the message but we live in a world where seeing is
believing.
* - John and the other gospel writers understood
this which is why they presented accurate eyewitness accounts of the events of
Jesus life and ministry and especially of his death, burial, and resurrection,
so that in hearing and in reading we could see the evidence and come to faith
in Jesus Christ.
- As John wrote, "Now Jesus did many other
signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but
these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of
God, and that by believing you may have life in his name." (vv. 30-31)
- Life in his name... Having life in Jesus name
means more than simple belief because even the demons believe and shudder.
Having life in Jesus name is to have life in his person.
- Having life in Jesus name means Jesus lives
within you by the presence of the Holy Spirit.
- Having life in Jesus name means that you will do
and say the kinds of things that Jesus would have you do and say.
- Having life in Jesus name means that you will
become the kind of person Jesus would be if Jesus were you.
- Having life in Jesus name means the world will
look at you and see Jesus.
** - The world wants to see Jesus, so let them see Jesus in you.
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