Resurrection of Christ: John 20:24-29: How Doubting Thomas Became Believing Thomas

Have you ever wondered: “Is it all true after all?” “Did Jesus really die for me?” “Did he really rise from the dead?” “Is there really another, better, world after this one?”

JOHN 20:24-29: HOW DOUBTING THOMAS BECAME BELIEVING THOMAS

One of the most difficult tribulations a child of God ever endures is the doubts that arise when disaster strikes.
Or sometimes it isn’t even disasters, but you get to thinking and wonder why, if God is real, why don’t more people believe?
It would be different if we could see Jesus, if we could see a miracle or some sign that would just put to rest all our doubts.
Then life would be beautiful. We would live in the sunshine of the Lord.

A Christian wrote this in a letter to a friend: “I think there is no suffering greater than what is caused by the doubts of those who want to believe.”

The great Russian author Dostoevsky also struggled with doubt. He said: “I do not believe in Christ and his confession as a child, but my hosanna has come through a great furnace of doubt.”

Sometimes people who are very intelligent and think a lot and feel for the sorrows of other people, have a hard time believing that God is real and that he is good and that he loves us.

Today I want to talk about a famous doubter, who is a great example for us who sometimes wonder if the wonderful story in the Bible is all true after all.

Since it is Easter, you have probably guessed that I’m going to talk about “Doubting Thomas.”

I. We don’t know much about Thomas. Except for his name, he is only mentioned three times in the gospels. But those three incidents give us a clue to his character.

A. The first thing we read about Thomas in the gospels is in John 11.

In John 11, we read, “After Jesus learned that Lazarus was ill, he said to his disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again.’
His disciples said, “Rabbi, the Jews were but now seeking to stone you, and are you going again?”
But Thomas said to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

We get the idea from this little exchange that Thomas was a gloomy man, the kind of man who looks on the dark side of things.
Or maybe Thomas saw more clearly than the others, the disaster that awaited Jesus.

We see from this conversation how much Thomas loved Jesus. He was willing to die with him.

I am a little like Thomas. Some people always see the bright side. And they are often disappointed.
I consider all the things that can go wrong. And I am pleasantly surprised when things turn out okay.
In Basic Training, one of the first things our sergeant told us was: “Expect the worst, and you’ll never be disappointed.”
That’s a gloomy way to live, but that’s the way some of us are made.

B. The next thing we read about Thomas is in chapter 14 of John.

Jesus has this wonderful saying, “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? And when 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. And you know the way where I am going.”

And Thomas said to him, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going; how can we know the way?”

Thomas was the kind of man who didn’t like to live with questions.
Maybe the others thought they knew where Jesus was going, but they didn’t know any more about it than Thomas.
So poor questioning Thomas asked the question that elicited from Jesus one of his greatest sayings: “I am the Way, the Truth, and the Life; no one comes to the Father but by me” (v6).

II. Ten days pass.

A. And in those 10 days come the betrayal, the arrest, the trial, the crucifixion, the burial, and the amazing story that Thomas couldn’t believe—the story that Jesus was alive again!

Read John 20:24-29

B. It was just too good to be true.

It wasn’t that Thomas didn’t want to believe.

Thomas wanted to believe with every fiber of his being.
And the harder he wanted to believe, the more impossible it became.
Have you ever had that feeling?
I have. Lots of people have.

But the good thing Thomas did was to stay connected to the people who did believe. He stayed in fellowship with the believers.

The worst thing you can do when you have doubts is stay away from the people who believe, to stay away from church, to stay away from Christian fellowship.

So a week later, Thomas was there—and Jesus showed up again.

C. Thomas didn’t need to put his finger into the wounds in Jesus’ hands, or put his hand into Jesus’ side.

When he saw Jesus and Jesus repeated to him the words he had spoken in his doubt, Thomas was overwhelmed by a joy that removed all his doubts.

Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”

This is the grandest line in the whole book. And it was poor doubting Thomas who got to say it.

This is the first time anyone addressed Jesus in this way. It takes us right back to the beginning of John’s Gospel. “In the beginning was the word, and the word was with God and the Word was God…”

III. Now look at what Jesus tells Thomas about you and me.

A. “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.”

We’ve been talking in weeks past about the Beatitudes.
Here’s a beatitude that’s not in the Sermon on the Mount.

This beatitude is especially for us. We’ve not seen but we’ve believed.
The Word of witness has impressed itself on our hearts, and we say with Thomas, “My Lord and My God!”

B. Back in v20, when Jesus met his disciples on the evening of resurrection morning, we read, “Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

We are glad too—although we’ve not seen the Lord with our eyes, we’ve felt him alive in our hearts.
And we’ve seen him alive in people who love him.

CONCLUSION

Is it hard or easy to believe that Jesus rose from the dead?

The more we love Jesus, the more we learn of him, the more we seek to please him—the easier it becomes to believe.
What we hope for and pray for, that we are ready to believe.
And the more we keep connected to our Christian brothers and sisters, the more real Jesus becomes.

Let us make Jesus our constant companion, and then it will be true of us, as it was to those believers to whom Peter wrote so long ago:

“Without having seen him you love him;
though you do not now see him,
you believe in him
and rejoice with unutterable and exalted joy” (1 Peter 1:8).

Or as the King James Bible has it: “...with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”