Who God Says That He is

Poor Thomas gets a bad rap for his doubts.

But I think that is a bit unfair. after all for many of us we often hear things and don’t believe them until we see it for ourselves.

Mark 16:11 tells us that none of the men really believed the women when they told them that they had seen the risen Lord.

John 20:3 tells us that they had to go and look for themselves.

John makes the point that he was the faster runner and in verse 8 that he believed.

Yet John 20:19 tells us that the disciples, even after hearing of Jesus resuurection and seeing the empty tomb were still meeting in secret behind locked doors.

Thomas wasn’t there when Jesus appeared to the gathered group meeting in secret, he didn’t experience what they did so it was hard for him to believe.

Seeing is Believing is a saying that may well come from the story of Thomas.

He wanted evidence, someone else’s story just wasn’t enough for him.

Now it wasn’t that Thomas lacked courage.

In the few accounts we have of him in the Scriptures he wasn’t backward in coming forward with his convictions.

When Jesus was on his way to raise Lazarus from the dead in John 11 Thomas was the only one to express any enthusiasm.

Most of the disciples weren’t convinced that it wasn’t a good idea to travel back towards Jerusalem.

Their last visit had meet with an attempt to stone Jesus and they really weren’t to keen on running that risk again.

Their thoughts are pretty clear in John 11:8 when they said “Rabbi, only a few days ago the people in Judea were trying to stone you. Are you going there again?””

But Thomas didn’t seem put off by that concern.

His attitude is recorded in John 11:16 where he says to the disciples“Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.””

Now I am not to sure how the others responded at that point.

But it isn’t to hard to imagine the other disciples sort of looking at Thomas at this point and beign a bit like a group of mates standing around when one of their friends says something quite outlandish and they go “mate......” really. NO!

But they went, and they saw Lazarus raised from the dead.

And as a result the religious leaders began to conspire to have Jesus killed.

Working miracles just didn’t communicate God’s being at work and their need to listen.

Their only concern was that the people would follow Jesus, a rebellion would occur and the Romans would destroy the temple, the city and take away their position as the elite.

Thomas called things as he saw them

If he didn’t understand he said so.

So when Jesus said at the beginning of John 14 that he was going to prepare a place for them and that they knew the way to the Father Thomas was very upfront and said “No, we don’t know, Lord,” “We have no idea where you are going, so how can we know the way?””

Even Peter expressed similar doubts at the time.

They knew Jesus was special.

They got the idea that he was the Messiah.

But so much of what Jesus said didn’t match their expectation of what the Messiah would do.

So let’s not be too hard on Thomas, or any of the disciples.

It just wasn’t adding up for them because what they expected was different from what they experienced and the things Jesus said.

But all that changed when Thomas got the evidence he was looking for.

John 21:24-29 tells us that 8 days after Jesus had first appeared to the group of disciples meeting behind locked doors he appeared again to the group and that this time Thomas was there.

He had clearly stated that he wanted to touch the wounds in Jesus side, he wanted to see the nail holes in his hands.

He needed to be convinced.

He wanted to be convinced.

He was convinced!

John 20:26–29 NLT

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.”

Right at that moment Thomas believed.

He didn’t need to touch the wounds, in fact the Scriptures makes no mention of him doing anything other than seeing Jesus and hearing his words.

In this moment all of his uncertainty was taken away.

He had seent he risen Lord.

His confussion about the role of the Messiah vanished.

His desire to believe but needing to be convinced was satisfied.

Believing is Seeing - the challenge for us

Jesus was very clear in his conversation with Thomas, “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me”

Thomas saw and believed.

That belief had an outcome.

Church tradition informs us that Thomas, like all of the disciples went on to share his belief.

The details are very limited but it is believed that Thomas took the Gospel message to Parthia and Persia what is modern day Iran.

Later tradition places Thomas in India, where he was martyred. The Mar Thoma church in southwest India traces its origins to Thomas.

These are details from church tradition.

But let me share with you a biography I once read.

I wish I could rememebr the title of the book but I am unsure.

It was written by a european, probably a British missionary about the life of an Indian evangelist.

This missionary wrote in awe of the faith and incredibly deep relationship with God that this Indian evangelist displayed.

He would go to villages which were deeply hostile to anything other than their local version of Hinduism.

This Indian evangelist would display incredible faith in the face of dangers, persecution and sickness.

Many times he would be beaten, literally on some occassions to death and then would be thrown on the town garbage dump.

Then in the evening, torches would appear in the dark and a handful of secret Christians would come and tend to the evangelists wounds.

He would be revived and go on to preach the Gospel in the next place.

These secret Christians would say that they were descendents of those who had believed the message preached by the Apostle Thomas.

A family here, a family there, each passing on their faith generation to generation.

Thomas saw and believed.

The Indian evangelist believed and saw God work in miraculous ways.

The indian Christians, practicing their faith in secret for generations believed and saw God at work.

The British missionary believed and saw the awe inspiring faith of a local believer and God miraculously using him to share the Gospel in the face of extreame hardship.

For us believing is seeing.

God is at work as we believe we will see him do things that could only be of his hand.

So we must ask ourselves, am I seeing God at work?

Am I believing he is at work so that I can see his work?

Or am I missing what he is doing becasue I am not believing and therefore I am blind to his opportunities.

John 20:29 NLT

29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”