SEEING IS
BELIEVING – OR IS IT?
Mount Hope UMC
Sunday, April 19, 2020
John 20:19-31 New Living Translation (NLT)
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 That Sunday evening[a] the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they
were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among
them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side.
They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again
he said, “Peace be with you. As the
Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not
forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin),[b] was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They
told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe
it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and
place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time
Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was
standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put
your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my
side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You
believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing
me.”
Purpose of the Book
30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition
to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe[c] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
We are still celebrating
Easter and there are two Gospel suggestions today and two messages – messages
of hope and belief. Now, we know from
our current situation that we have little patience – especially for being
still. We’ve been sitting and waiting
and waiting and sitting, probably pacing about the house trying to find things
to keep us busy. We’ve probably cleaned
garages, basements, closets and anything else we could find to make the day go
by with the hope and expectation that tomorrow will be the day we come to the
end of our quarantine. Then when the
government announced the relief checks would be issued, we were waiting
expectantly to receive those funds and hoping that they got into our bank
accounts or in the mail. I’m still
waiting for mine.
The Gospel of John’s message
today, is about the faith to believe that Jesus rose from the dead. He did not die, he could not die; but he
resurrected and for 50 days after his crucifixion Jesus continued his ministry
on the earth in human form. John’s
message is also the account of Jesus appearing to the disciples who were hiding
from the Jewish leaders behind locked doors in the Upper Room. He greets them with “Peace be with you” and
shows them his nail scarred hands so they could identify him because he is now
in his resurrected body. You know the
Scripture in 1 Corinthians 15:51 that says, “But let me reveal to you a
wonderful secret. We will not all die,
but we will all be transformed. He
greets them again saying “Peace be with you” and then he breathed on them and
filled them with the his Holly Spirit.
He imparted His Spirit into them so that they could continue the work he
had begun of making disciples for the transformation of the world.
Remember
what I said last week in the message about when Jesus breathed his last breath,
the Roman soldier standing at the foot of the cross, received his Spirit and
that his Spirit was released so that all who believed and received would be filled
with the Holy Spirit? Here, he is
anointing his disciples with his Spirit so that they will be able to go out and
share the Good News Gospel. However, one
of his followers - Thomas, the Twin, was missing from the gathering.
In John’s account, at a later
gathering, the disciples told Thomas of their encounter with Jesus but Thomas
said unless he could put his finger in the nail holes in Jesus’s hand and in
his side where he was pierced, he would not believe. So eight days later, Jesus appeared to them
even though they were behind locked doors and this time Thomas was with
them. He again greeted them by saying
“Peace be with you” and then invited Thomas to put his fingers in the wounds of
his hands and side and told him not to be faithless any longer but to believe. Thomas had to see Jesus for himself in order
to believe. But what did Jesus say once
Thomas could see for himself? Jesus
said, “You believe because you have seen me.
Blessed are those who believe without seeing me”. That takes just some mustard seed sized faith,
church. And what does Hebrews 11:1 say
about faith? “Faith is the substance of
things hoped for and the evidence of things not seen.”
Why did Thomas question his
companions experience of their encounter with the risen Jesus? Was it really a case of seeing is
believing? Or was Didymus questioning
the validity of his companions words?
Did he not have faith in Jesus’ resurrection, or did he think his
companions were trying to pull the wool over his eyes? Before Jesus was crucified John 11:16 says
that when Jesus said he was going back to Jerusalem, the disciples reminded him
that the Jewish leaders were looking to kill him. But it’s Thomas who pipes up and says, “Let
us also go that we might die with him.”
But Jesus’s trial, flogging and crucifixion took its toll on Thomas, as
it did all the disciples. Perhaps he
felt left out because Jesus appeared to the other disciples first. His moment of bravery shouldn’t define him,
neither should his moment of doubt. We
all have those moments, but they don’t define us. What we learn from Thomas is that being in
the presence of Jesus brought out the best in him by increasing his faith. That is what truly being in Jesus’s presence
also does to us. It increases our faith
and gives us confidence to move forward in hope.
If
we look at the characteristics of the disciples we might have a different
opinion of Thomas and his tendency to question the accounts of his colleagues. Look at Peter – the one who Jesus chose to be
the rock of the church. Peter was a
coward. The first two disciples chosen
were fishermen – they may have had a tendency to exaggerate and tell tall
tales. Matthew was a doctor and they had
terrible reputations in that day. We
could look at them all and find that they all were questionable characters and
now that Jesus was not there to keep them focused on what they had witnessed
and experienced when he was alive…. They
were in a regroup and reorganization mode trying to figure out what they were
going to do next without Jesus leading them.
You know what I mean.
We’re the same way. We tell each other something we’ve read or
learned and the other person will go and fact check it to make sure it’s
true. We don’t take anybody’s word for anything
any longer. We have to see for
ourselves. Our faith had been tested
and, unfortunately, often it is found lacking.
Like now. We’re in our Upper
Rooms wondering and waiting – what’s next?
How long? What’s the world gonna
be like when we’re free to go out again? How will things be different? How will they be the same. Seeing is believing folks, but I’m gonna tell
you, things will be different. Get used
to it. Every structure this nation was
founded on is being tested and every one of them is lacking. As a nation, we are living in a glass house
built on a foundation of sand. And the
sand has shifted and the glass is shattering, so stay woke and do not be afraid
of what the world will be like in the coming days.
Our entire belief system is
based on faith. We have faith that we
will be here tomorrow. Faith that we
will live to a ripe old age. Faith that
we’ll see our children grow and have children and see those children grow. We have faith that the job will be there and
that we’ll have an income if we just keep our nose to the grindstone. We have faith that the government will always
be intact and that the government systems are working for the good of the
people it serves. We do have faith in
that, despite what we may say and what the government is showing us at the
moment. We have faith that our GPS
system in our cars will guide us to our destination.
Now let me differentiate
having faith from taking something or someone for granted. Having faith means we are trusting God; taking
something for granted means to
expect someone or something to be always available to serve in
some way without thanks or recognition; to value someone or something too
lightly. We take God for granted. We take Jesus for granted. We take our federal, state and local
government programs for granted. We take
our first responders for granted. We
take our families for granted, and church, we take each other for granted.
The disciples are locked in a
room afraid to leave for fear the Jewish leaders will identify them as
companions of Jesus and crucify them too.
The people who swore allegiance to Jesus were now afraid to be
associated with him. They professed
their love for him while he was walking among them, but they were afraid to
suffer the consequences of that love once he was crucified. Yet the week before, Thomas encouraged
everyone to be crucified with him. Can
you hear me, church? The disciples were
fair weather friends. You know about
them; we all have them. You know the
ones that when things are going good we’re right there cheering everyone on, giving
our high fives and hallelujahs, but when the tides turn, we can’t be
found. I’m sure no one at Mount Hope is
like that – at least I hope. But the
disciples were afraid. They were scared
to death.
Jesus knew he had not
completely weaned them off the milk of his divinity and his mission. He knew he had to start feeding them some
meat. So, he had to come back and take
them deeper into the purpose of his coming and to convict them of the meaning
of faith, trust and belief. The Gospels
do not necessarily tell us of all the miraculous signs and wonders Jesus
performed during those 50 days. For me,
just knowing he could raise himself from the dead would have been conviction
enough for me.
But if we look at the Epistle
of 1 Peter 1:3-9, his message is on the promise of hope we have in Jesus’s
resurrection and the inheritance we have as a result. It reads, “ All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is by his great mercy that we have been
born again, because God raised Jesus Christ from the dead. Now we live with great expectation, 4 and
we have a priceless inheritance—an inheritance that is kept in heaven for you,
pure and undefiled, beyond the reach of change and decay. 5 And
through your faith, God is protecting you by his power until you receive this
salvation, which is ready to be revealed on the last day for all to see.
6 So be truly glad.[a]
There is wonderful joy ahead, even though you must endure many trials for a
little while. 7 These trials will show that your faith is genuine. It is being tested as fire tests and purifies
gold—though your faith is far more precious than mere gold. So when your faith remains strong through many
trials, it will bring you much praise and glory and honor on the day when Jesus
Christ is revealed to the whole world.
8 You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him;
and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy. 9 The
reward for trusting him will be the salvation of your souls.”
We have been going through some
rough waters since March 13. We have
been locked in our homes, unable to be with family and friends; unable to go to
our places of employment, some have lost employment, some are wondering if they
still have employment; our children are unable to attend school or visit with
their friends, except through social media; unable to go to our places of
worship. We are basically in the Upper
Room just like the disciples were.
And just like the disciples,
many are afraid. Scared to death. Two thousand years, a resurrection, salvation
and attesting to believe and we still are afraid to put our trust in Jesus that
he will see us through this as he has seen us through every other trial we’ve
had to face. We still have trouble
resting in him. We want evidence; we
want visible proof. We want a signed
affidavit that everything is going to come out all right and we will live and
breathe and have our being.
In Luke’s Gospel about Jesus
calming the storm tossed sea he asks his disciples who come to the back of the
boat and wake him because they are afraid, “And he said unto them, Where is
your faith? And they being afraid
wondered, saying one to another, What manner of man is this! For he commandeth even the winds and water,
and they obey him.” And what did he say
afterward? “Peace be still”. Jesus keeps proving his power and authority
and love over and over and over and still, like the disciples, we require visible
and substantive proof from him. We want
to see his nail scarred wounds in his hands and side.
Do you really want proof? Do you really want to see if Jesus is real,
if he has risen from the dead? Look to
your relative who has been cured of cancer, or heart disease, or diabetes and the
doctors can’t explain how. Look to your child or cousin, sister or brother who
has been delivered from alcohol or drug addiction. Look to your co-worker or friend who was once
lost in sin and has accepted Jesus and is now a disciple. Look at me, a sinner saved by God’s
grace. I did nothing to earn it, did
nothing to deserve it. Yet he took my
soul which was black as tar, washed it in his blood. Look in the mirror of your soul and think
about where Jesus has brought you from.
Just look around, church. None of
us came into this world saved, sanctified and Holy Ghost filled, but by the
blood of Jesus and His sacrifice on Calvary, but by the nails in His hands and
feet and the wound in his side and by His stripes we have been healed. I don’t need to see to believe church and do
you know why? Because Jesus loves me,
this I know. And he loves you and if you
have faith to believe you don’t need to see the nails in his hands and feet or
the wound in his side either. You know
how I know? Because the Bible tells me
so. Amen!
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