Effective Community
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Cleo walked away from the evidence, eye witness testimony from his friends. He didn't just walk away from the evidence he abandoned His community, the other disciples. Jesus hunted him down and sent him back. Cleo had to humble himself when he presented the account of his encounter with Jesus. They welcomed him back!
But one of the Twelve, Thomas (called “Twin”), was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples kept telling him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he said to them, “If I don’t see the mark of the nails in His hands, put my finger into the mark of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will never believe!”
After eight days His disciples were indoors again, and Thomas was with them. Even though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. He said, “Peace to you!”
Then He said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don’t be an unbeliever, but a believer.”
Thomas responded to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Jesus said, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed.”
Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of His disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in His name.
Effective Community
The church, the called out people of God, are meant to be a spectacle that draws people to Christ, revealing the transformative power of the gospel and selfless relationships God intended people to live out in His design from the garden, which should give a sneak peak at what the new Eden will look like when Jesus returns and makes all things new.
The text of gives us a great example of effective community after the resurrection of Jesus. In this text there are three things that stood out to me that we also see later in , they had evidence, experience, and energy.
In verses 19-23 Jesus first does the work of pursuing the disciples in the upper room, which included the 10 minus Thomas and obviously Judas who had betrayed Jesus. They had been given evidence in the form of testimony that Jesus had risen, yet they rejected it. However in this text Jesus came himself and showed them His scars as evidence of who He was and He was no longer wounded or dead but healed and risen, then He ate proving He was indeed flesh and not merely a spirit.
Included with this evidence was an experience, He appeared to them and they encountered His presence and power. Our faith is not merely built on knowledge of who God is, but personal experience which draws us into intimacy with God. For them He appeared and spent time with them, for the people in the disciples testified with power to the glories of Jesus, and the community lived out their faith in such a way that people encountered the grace of God, the restorative power of resurrection community and that community experience drew people in daily.
Finally they received the Holy Spirit from Jesus in verse 22 which gave them power and energy. This Spirit filled community had to testify to Thomas of the truth of their Lords resurrection. The Spirit filled community in testified to Gods marvelous deeds to anyone who would listen and in great power.
Another thing that struck me in this text this week was how the community in the upper room ministered to Thomas. When he arrived they gave eyewitness account of Jesus resurrection but Thomas rejected the truth. However even though he rejected the truth he stayed with them all week. I find that fascinating! The Emmaus road disciples() had left Jerusalem and were on a 7 mile journey home. They have given up because they had hoped Jesus was the Messiah but decided He was only a great prophet since He had been crucified. They too had been given eyewitness testimony that Jesus had been resurrected but also rejected the evidence, and in doing so left the community. However after these guys and the 10 disciples had an encounter with Jesus and had been empowered by the Holy Spirit we have another type of community in that upper room. A Spirit filled community where even though Thomas rejected the evidence he stayed.
The fact he stayed tells us that he felt welcome even though he wasn't where they were in his faith journey yet. They also didn't affirm his disbelief, they proclaimed the truth but in such a way he was not rejected for his disbelief. He was able to stay in this loving community and eventually at the end of the week he too had an encounter with Jesus.
I believe this is the kind of community the church is meant to be. We are meant to be a spectacle that provides evidence of God working in our lives and that draws spectators and allows them to watch and witness God moving. People should not have to wait till God saves them to feel welcome in our community, the community itself should be magnetic drawing people in, for the purpose of transforming them from a spectator into being part of the spectacle itself, while offering them patience in the mean time until they have that experience. Our mission is to make disciples, and rescue people from this broken world, but our task is the people, and every person is unique some people take more time than others and have more baggage than others. But if we identify the individual as the task rather than seeking purely to grow in volume I believe we will attract numbers as well because that kind of patient, humble, selfless love reflects the very character of God ().
They hid we hide - they locked theirselves in because they were afraid of their community. Their fear was physical, in US we don't currently have same fear but we do the same thing. We may not lock the doors but we lock our mouths. We're afraid of ppl knowing we're believers, very similar to Peter, we may not deny with our words but we deny by our lack of words. We deny and lock ourselves in by refusing to reveal our identity.
V25 they continued to tell Him, they desired Thomas would believe as well. They couldn't not tell him because of their encounter. (Paul tried to not preach but couldn't keep his mouth shut)
V 25 - So - he wasn't there so they told him. Jesus appeared to them gave them evidence and breathed His Spirit on them. So the result was them sharing their living active faith with their brother who hadn't seen the evidence or experienced their Lord.
His response was I'm not buying it unless I see it too.
V26 a week later he's still chilling with them even though he's not buying it.
Thomas didn't believe but he remained in community.
Effective Community has Evidence, Experience, and Energy.
Evidence
Acts 1:29; Thomas had to witness the resurrected Jesus to be an apostle. When he appeared to the others he commission them, same with Paul later. This account affirms Thomas as an eye witness of the resurrection and validates his apostle status. They had to be an eye witness!
This experience changed Thomas identity. He wasn't just blessed he was chosen to be an eye witness, to be evidence of Jesus divinity.
He was the one sheep. Parable
“Therefore, from among the men who have accompanied us during the whole time the Lord Jesus went in and out among us— beginning from the baptism of John until the day He was taken up from us—from among these, it is necessary that one become a witness with us of His resurrection.”
For I passed on to you as most important what I also received:
that Christ died for our sins
according to the Scriptures,
that He was buried,
that He was raised on the third day
according to the Scriptures,
and that He appeared to Cephas,
then to the Twelve.
Then He appeared to over 500 brothers at one time;
most of them are still alive,
but some have fallen asleep.
Then He appeared to James,
then to all the apostles.
Last of all, as to one abnormally born,
He also appeared to me.
For I am the least of the apostles, unworthy to be called an apostle, because I persecuted the church of God.
1 corinthians 15:3-8
What was from the beginning,
what we have heard,
what we have seen with our eyes,
what we have observed
and have touched with our hands,
concerning the Word of life—
that life was revealed,
and we have seen it
and we testify and declare to you
the eternal life that was with the Father
and was revealed to us —
what we have seen and heard
we also declare to you,
so that you may have fellowship along with us;
and indeed our fellowship is with the Father
and with His Son Jesus Christ.
1 john 1:1-3
Thomas In want the same experience. Jesus met his need, "I'm alive!" Blessed is he who believes without seeing. You don't need to see to believe, you don't need the same experience as others. You need your own experience with God. - physical evidence vs spiritual evidence. There's going to come a time where the evidence will be greater! Your getting the experience but they too will be blessed. How will they be blessed? You will be the blessing, you will provide evidence, eye witness testimony, and experience, the Holy Spirit in you will work in your ministry.
The case for Christ.
Experience
It's ok to not be ok, but it's not ok to stay there. Even though he said he would never believe unless... they still welcomed him, and he still wanted to be there with them. He was hurting, and was rejecting the truth with his words but his actions, remaining with them revealed he was still open, deep down he probably wanted to believe, wanted it to be true. Have you ever wanted something to be true but we're afraid to get your hopes up? Afraid to believe what you wanted in case your hopes would just be broken again. Remember the emmaus road disciples they hoped He was the messiah but when he was crucified their hopes died with Him.
Be inviting without being affirming.
? Also be careful. Thomas wasn't teaching another truth just rejecting. They also continued to truth Him, if they just let him be they would be affirming and allowing his words to affect others.
evidence through experience - historic evidence with eyewitness testimony, followed by continual evidence through experience.
Moses and burning bush- Why is that bush burning? The church was on fire and that drew ppl, God first draws then gives identity.
Energy
- Don’t stay and be a spectator, be part of the spectacle! God wants you, calls you to be His spectacle.
Jesus breathed on them, Jesus commanded them to wait for the Holy Spirit. Evidence and Experience were not enough they also needed to be energized/empowered.
Different evidence, different experience but the same saving faith, and the same energy.
Cleo walked away from the evidence, eye witness testimony from his friends. He didn't just walk away from the evidence he abandoned His community, the other disciples. Jesus hunted him down and sent him back. Cleo had to humble himself when he presented the account of his encounter with Jesus. They welcomed him back!
Don't just be here be involved! Don't be a spectator be part of the spectacle!
His response was I'm not buying it unless I see it too.
V26 a week later he's still chilling with them even though he's not buying it.
Thomas didn't believe but he remained in community.
Upper room disciples-
They hid we hide - they locked theirselves in because they were afraid of their community. Their fear was physical, in US we don't currently have same fear but we do the same thing. We may not lock the doors but we lock our mouths. We're afraid of ppl knowing we're believers, very similar to Peter, we may not deny with our words but we deny by our lack of words. We deny and lock ourselves in by refusing to reveal our identity.
V25 they continued to tell Him, they desired Thomas would believe as well. They couldn't not tell him because of their encounter. (Paul tried to not preach but couldn't keep his mouth shut)
they had to tell.
Arrogance
It also wasn't going to be enough to see the marks he wanted to touch them, and not just his hands but his side. He didn't just want evidence he wanted exhaustive evidence. Ultimatum I will never.
Be inviting without being affirming.
Expectations (lusting after others experience or our own past experiences)
Jesus gave Thomas evidence and He desired Him to respond. He wanted Him to believe.
Acts 1:29; Thomas had to witness the resurrected Jesus to be an apostle. When he appeared to the others he commission them, same with Paul later. This account affirms Thomas as an eye witness of the resurrection and validates his apostle status. They had to be an eye witness!
This experience changed Thomas identity. He wasn't just blessed he was chosen to be an eye witness, to be evidence of Jesus divinity.
He was the one sheep. Parable
Many other signs were given but we don't need to know them all. It's not necessary we have the same experience as others or have all the evidence. The evidence God gives us is sufficient, as well as the individual experience He gives us.
Response - Also an opportunity for response was given, with a desire that it would happen. Both Jesus and the disciples did this. They didn't just give evidence and experience, they gave an opportunity immediately. Jesus came to Thomas with evidence and experience and called him to respond, "don't be an unbeliever, be a believer!" Peter and the disciples did the same in with instruction on how to respond immediately. Friends, yesterday has passed, tomorrow is a possibility with uncertainty, but today bears a promise with an opportunity! Repent, believe, be baptized, and receive the Holy Spirit. Don't let today pass without responding, don't be an unbeliever but be a believer and receive intimacy with God and other believers for eternity starting now!
Jesus is the promised messiah, He is the divine Son, 2nd person in the trinity, belief in His name is necessary for life. No other way but through Him. He is the way the truth and the light.
The case for Christ!
Response - an opportunity for response was given! They didn't just give evidence and experience, they gave opportunity immediately. Jesus came to Thomas with evidence and experience and called him to respond. Peter and the disciples did the same with the Holy Spirit and again gave an opportunity to respond immediately. Yesterday has passed, tomorrow is a possibility, today is a certainty, today offers a promise with an opportunity. Don't let today pass without responding!
Moses and burning bush- Why is that bush burning? The church was on fire and that drew ppl, God first draws then gives identity.
Response - an opportunity for response was given! They didn't just give evidence and experience, they gave opportunity immediately. Jesus came to Thomas with evidence and experience and called him to respond. Peter and the disciples did the same with the Holy Spirit and again gave an opportunity to respond immediately. Yesterday has passed, tomorrow is a possibility, today is a certainty, today offers a promise with an opportunity. Don't let today pass without responding!