G.R.O.W.T.H: Reaching
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Intro:
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
Today, I want to continue the series we started last week entitled, [G.R.O.W.T.H]. Each week we will look at an aspect of our growth in God. The subject of today’s message is, [Reaching].
To reach is to touch, grasp, get ahold of, or contact. We live in a day where it seems very little is out of reach. Through technological advances, most of what we want is within our reach.
I have thought this week of when this might have started. As a lover of history, I looked at advances in reach throughout the last couple hundred years.
The Transcontinental Railroad made the east and west coast in reach of citizens in our country.
Airplanes made travel across oceans quicker and within reach.
But things really changed in the 1960s when President Kennedy made a speech at Rice University on September 12, 1962. He concluded it with these words:
We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon...We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard;
Within seven years, his words came to pass as Neil Armstrong was the first man to walk on the moon. I still remember learning about it in school. Our teachers made the point, that nothing was out of reach, we even put a man on the moon.
Just last month, the first commercial space flight occured. We live in a day where it seems nothing is out of reach.
However, some Christians have a walk with God that depicts a belief that there is much out of reach for the child of God.
There are even some who teach much of what happened in scripture is out of reach for Christians today.
I on the other hand hold onto Jesus’s words:
12 “Most assuredly, I say to you, he who believes in Me, the works that I do he will do also; and greater works than these he will do, because I go to My Father.
I believe salvation is within reach.
I believe healing is within reach.
I believe miracles are within reach.
I believe the Holy Spirit baptism is within reach.
I believe prophecy, revelation, and supernatural power is within reach.
I believe the promises of God are still true and the fulfillment of God’s word is within reach.
How then do we experience what they experienced in the word of God?
We must keep growing in Christ. As I mentioned last Sunday in our study on the Parable of the Sower, it is God’s plan for His people to grow in Him.
We have everything we need at our disposal to grow in God. As we have to do is reach out to Him and ask Him to help us grow. For there is no reference to someone in scripture who opted out of Spiritual Growth.
In other words, God expects us grow in him.
I realize that is a strong statement. And maybe you are like me and wonder, what happens when I do feel like we are growing. Who has ever been there?
Let’s take it another step, who has ever felt like you are shrinking instead of growing in Christ?
We must recognize that spiritual growth is not like physical growth. I was not born 5’11”. I think I was around 21 inches. But over time, I have grown. However, I have not grown in a while. Maybe I should say, I haven’t grown taller, I have grown in other ways.
Spiritual growth is different. We do not attain a certain level of growth and then stop growing. No, we have to keep reaching for higher heights and deeper depths.
BUT, there are moments of great growth, then there are seasons of growing pains, then there are times where we feel like we are not growing at all.
Today, we will look at a man in scripture who fits this description: Thomas. When we think of Thomas, what is the first word that comes to mind, DOUBT.
However, that was not always the case. Though he is merely mentioned in Matthew, Mark, and Luke, John provides more insight on the man people often call Doubting Thomas.
Today, we will look at three stories. We will notice it almost seems as though he shrunk in stead of growing. Yet throughout the entire process, he kept reaching for God and GROWTH became his outcome.
I have three areas where he reached out to Jesus, [Reaching out in Confidence], [Reaching in Questions], and [Reaching in Confusion].
Let’s begin
1. Reaching out in Confidence
1. Reaching out in Confidence
14 Then Jesus said to them plainly, “Lazarus is dead. 15 And I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, that you may believe. Nevertheless let us go to him.” 16 Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.”
By the time we read this passage, Thomas has followed Jesus for three years. Yet, he merely gets honorable mention in Matthew, Mark, or Luke.
In fact, the outside of his name in the list of disciples, the first time we read of Thomas is in connection with Lazarus’s resurrection. To make a long story short, word came to Jesus that his friend Lazarus was sick.
Jesus determined not to rush to his friend. Instead, it took him two days to tell the disciples it was time to go. When he determined the time was right, he told them, let’s go to Judea.
Knowing Jesus had supernatural power to do anything, we might think the disciples would confidently say, YES, LET’S GO. That was not the case.
8 The disciples said to Him, “Rabbi, lately the Jews sought to stone You, and are You going there again?”
By this point in Jesus’s life the Jewish leaders intensified their plots to kill him. In fact, the last time Jesus was in Judea, He escaped as they sought to stone Him.
To help them understand the importance of going to Lazarus, Jesus told the disciples Lazarus was asleep. What did He mean? Lazarus died.
What the disciples think He meant?
If he is asleep, let him nap, some rest might do him well.
Finally, Jesus had to spell it out, LAZARUS IS DEAD, and for your sake I am glad. He was not glad Lazarus died, but that through his death, Jesus could show his power over death.
Notice what Thomas said, let us go with Jesus that we may die with Him.
I do not notice any fear or concern, just confidence. Thomas reached down in his spirit and aligned his faith with the power of Jesus.
Over his three years with Jesus, he grew in his faith and he had confidence in Jesus’s plans and power. As a result, he was present when Jesus called Lazarus forth from the tomb.
But a little while later, after reach out in confidence, we see Thomas...
2. Reaching out in Questions
2. Reaching out in Questions
1 “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also. 4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”
A few months after Lazarus rose from the dead, Jesus prepared His followers for His upcoming death. He told them to not feel troubled or sad.
Why would He that?
It was in response to the bombshell of truth He dropped on them in John 12-13 He informed them:
He would depart soon
His departure would include suffering
His disciples would forsake Him and Peter would deny Him
He announced Judas would betray Him
And His followers would not be able to truly follow Him until of this transpired
No wonder Jesus encouraged them to not let their hearts be troubled. Instead, Jesus wanted them to know His future plans. His departure meant that He would go and prepare a place for them.
Then He would come back and get them. And whats more, the would know the way to where He was going.
Naturally, the disciples were concerned, but surely Thomas would reach out in faith and confidence and rally the disciples to Jesus’s words, right?
5 Thomas said to Him, “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?”
He doesn’t seem as confident as he was just a few months prior. Now he wonders if Jesus knows what He is doing. How can they know they way when they have no idea where He was going?
Perhaps Thomas thought Jesus would provide insight or revelation to heaven that would help them. Instead, Jesus answered:
6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.
His explanation is simple, Jesus is the way, He is the road whereby they must travel. He is the bridge that brings together the chasm between heaven and earth.
I love that passage, and we would not have it unless Thomas asked his question. But Thomas should have understood this already.
He was there when Jesus spoke to Lazarus’s sisters. They wanted to know why Jesus did not come earlier. Their concern was if Jesus had come a few days before, Lazarus would have lived. Jesus explained:
25 Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in Me, though he may die, he shall live. 26 And whoever lives and believes in Me shall never die. Do you believe this?”
Thomas knew this, yet now when Jesus speaks of His upcoming death and the potential problems for His disciples, he wondered, what is He planning? Doesn’t He know the difficulties this will cause us?
Now Jesus repeated the truth to Thomas. He has a way that will leave to life!
I have read this passage before, but when we put Thomas’s questions in light of his earlier confidence, it doesn’t really seem like he is growing. It seems like he is shrinking. Yet Thomas continued to reach out to God as we see him...
3. Reaching out in Confusion
3. Reaching out in Confusion
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
Four days after Jesus promised He was the way, the truth, and the life, Jesus has died on the cross. For Thomas, this was too much. He left everything to follow Jesus. He expected Him to be the Messiah, and now He was dead.
But something peculiar happened. He went to the house where the disciples hid and they told him, we have seen Jesus. He is alive. Mary, Martha, some of the other women, and the ten of us have seen Him, HE is alive!
No matter how hard the tried, they could not convince Thomas. He doubted so much, he vehemently declared, I WILL NOT BELIEVE until I see the nail wounds in his hand and side. And then I want to reach my hands in there.
Before we are too hard on Thomas for doubting, let’s try and put ourselves in his position. The crucifixion of Jesus was horrendous and traumatic.
Perhaps part of him wanted to believe. Maybe he wanted to reach out to God in confidence, but his questions confused him and he felt such a story was out of reach for him. Then someone entered the room.
26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Notice John’s subtle detail, eight days. For over one week, confusion consumed Thomas. He just couldn’t believe that Jesus was alive.
Until one day, Jesus entered. Imagine the look on Thomas’s face. Jesus speak peace to him and then He called out to Thomas: REACH your finger here in my hand and REACH your hand here in my side.
By asking Thomas to reach out and touch Him, Jesus made Himself personal and close. No longer was God some distant deity in the sky, He was close, concerned about the questions and confusion of His people.
When Thomas reached out to Jesus, His confusion left and he was convinced of Jesus’s resurrection. He then uttered five important words: MY LORD AND MY GOD.
By declaring My Lord, he acknowledged Jesus’s role of Savior. By calling out My God, he gave Jesus proper honor as part of the Godhead.
In essence, he gave Jesus the highest praise he had to offer. He no longer shrank back, but once again he grew in confidence as he declared Jesus for who He is in our lives.
Close:
From there, Thomas continued to grow in the Lord. He kept reaching out to Jesus. He was present when Jesus spoke to Peter about the future of the church.
Acts 1:13 tells us he was in the Upper Room on the day of Pentecost. And church history records he took the gospel all the way to India.
He grew in God because he was not afraid to reach out to the Lord in confidence, in questions, and in confusion. For each stage of his life was for the purpose of growth.
And at the right time, he received revelation from God when He declared, My Lord and My God. But there is an aspect I want us to notice.
Listen to Jesus’s words to Thomas:
29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Thomas’s faith in God grew because he saw the resurrected Christ. However, Jesus tells us WE are blessed because we believe and we have not seen Him yet.
When we accept Christ as our Savior, placing our faith in Him, we are in a position to be blessed in our Spiritual growth and maturity.
Does this mean at times we will feel exceptionally confident? Yes.
There are times in our walk with Christ when we will feel like we can conquer the world.
What about the times we have questions?
God is NEVER upset or surprised by our questions. When we do not understand, we can turn to the Lord and He will listen and help us.
Will we have times when we are confused by God’s decisions?
Absolutely. But we remember His ways are higher than our ways. And at just the right time, He will surprise us by His power in such a way we will have to stand back and cry out, My Lord and My God.
For God can use each season our walk with God with Him, be it confidence, questions, or confusion, to help us GROW, if we will but reach out to Him.
But let us remember, the whole time Thomas reached out to Jesus with His confidence, questions, and confusion, Jesus never stopped reaching out to Him.
Jesus kept pursuing Thomas, leading him, and helping him in his walk. As a result, Thomas became an apostle in the New Testament church, all because He reached out to Jesus and Jesus reached out to him.
So today, we must keep that same attitude. Remember, there is no room in scripture for Christians who want to opt out of Spiritual growth.
It is expected that we will grow in God. Therefore, growth comes by reaching out to the Lord. And as we reach out to Him, we remember He is our Lord and our God.
Let’s confidently come to Him with our decision to follow Him, no matter what, for His our Lord and our God.
Let’s bring our questions to Him. Because as the way, the truth, and the life, He possesses the answers, for He is our Lord and our God.
Let’s bring our confusion and concerns to Him. We can cast our cares on Him, for He cares for us, for He is our Lord and our God.
Today is the day to reach out to the Lord, for He never stops pursuing us. He never tires of hearing from us. And He never gives up on us.
He is reaching out this morning, let’s reach our hands to Him, and declare, no matter the season I am in right now, I want to grow in you, so I will reach out and trust you Lord.