“Stop Doubting and Believe” John 20:24-29

The most important decision a person will ever make in life is whether or not they will put their faith in Jesus and walk in obedience to His teachings. And one of the most difficult things to do is speak to someone about needing to put their faith in Jesus as Savior and Lord.

One of the reasons it’s not easy to speak to people about Jesus is that the relationship with Him is very real and personal, and the fact that it is entirely faith-based makes it harder to speak to others about it. If we want to talk about the weather, we can always point out the facts and observations we make each day. There is a commonality to the weather.

The same is true of sports, entertainment, even politics to some degree.

And sharing our faith in Christ is not always well received. It’s just not easy to share Him with others. This passage lets us know that faith in Jesus is hard to come by, even when a person seems to be a likely follower.

Background

Thomas was one of the twelve. He had been called by Jesus to follow Him and learn from Him. In the list of the disciples, Thomas is always paired with Matthew. He apparently was a twin, because he is also known as Didymus, which is Greek for “twin.” The only times Thomas speaks in the Bible are twice in John. In the first instance, Jesus is telling the disciples it’s time to go to Jerusalem and to raise Lazarus from the dead. It hadn’t been too long before that the authorities had tried to kill Jesus when He was in Jerusalem. When Jesus tells the disciples they are to return, Thomas makes the comment, “Let us also go, that we may die with Him” (John 11:16).

The other time Thomas speaks is in the upper room the night Jesus was betrayed. It comes immediately after Jesus tells them He is going to prepare a place for them, and that the disciples know where Jesus is going. Thomas asks, “Lord, we don’t know where You are going, so how can we know the way?” (John 14:5). To this, Jesus tells them He is the Way, the Truth and the Life.

From these two episodes, just two statements, really, we see that Thomas is a realist—very concrete in his thinking. Jesus has just escaped death at the hands of the opposition when He was in Jerusalem; now He wants to go back. Thomas, very practically, agrees to return, knowing it will very likely lead to their deaths. Jesus says He’s going somewhere, and Thomas’ response is to ask where. It’s as though Thomas is telling Jesus that He is speaking in riddles, and Thomas needs to know the answers before he can follow.

It should come as no surprise, then, that Thomas would have a hard time believing that Jesus had risen from the dead. True, Thomas was there when Jesus raised Lazarus, and that there was no question that Lazarus had died. But Jesus was the one who raised Lazarus. Who would raise Jesus, seeing as He was dead?

It is at this moment that we come into Thomas’ life, where we discover the following truth:

Central Truth: Saving faith is personal and real.

Thomas’ experience:

Response to the testimony of others (24-25)

As we said, Thomas was a practical man. He wasn’t with the other ten disciples when Jesus appeared to them. John tells us Jesus appeared to the other disciples the night of His resurrection. Why Thomas wasn’t with them is unclear and unstated. We also have no idea how much time has lapsed between Jesus’ appearance and the testimony of the ten to Thomas.

We might think that Thomas would welcome such good news as Jesus being alive. We might think that, after all he had seen and heard from Jesus that he would be prone to accept this new wrinkle in the story. After all, Thomas had been there when Jesus had calmed the storm, when He had walked on water, when He had fed the 5000. Thomas had seen Jesus heal an untold number of people from various diseases and maladies. He had witnessed numerous demons cast out and had repeatedly seen so much more that Jesus had done and that we have no record of. The last verse in John’s gospel account tells us that we have only scratched the surface of all that Jesus did in what we have in the Bible. Surely, Thomas would be open to a risen Savior, knowing what he had known about Jesus.

But we need to remember that everything Thomas had believed was that Jesus was Messiah, and as Messiah He would ascend to the throne of David and establish God’s kingdom here on earth with all the trappings that comes with an earthly kingdom. To see Jesus hanging on the cross, watching Him die, must have shaken Thomas’ world to the core. There must have been questions and doubts about what had happened in the previous three years. What was it all for? What did any of it mean?

Clearly, if Jesus was alive, then everything would become clear again, but the reality is, people don’t come back from the dead. When people die, they are buried and they remain buried, they remain dead.

It should come as no surprise to us, then, that Thomas’ response to the others’ testimony was to basically say, “Show me.” Thomas had to experience Jesus for himself in order to believe. And he would need to make sure it really was Jesus that was risen, not someone claiming to be Him. Thomas wanted concrete evidence this risen being was Jesus, and the only way to know for certain was to see the wounds and the effects of the crucifixion.

If Thomas had doubts, why should we be surprised that others we speak to will also have doubts about the validity of a Savior who came to die for us, to free us from sin, to re-establish our relationship with God the Father? Why should we wonder that others have a hard time believing in a risen Savior? Knowing this, it should give us some encouragement in sharing the truth of Jesus to a lost and dying world.

Jesus’ intervention (26-27)

We live in a time where people are becoming more isolated. We have an increasing tendency to congregate only with those we completely agree with. It’s always been that way, to some extent, but nowadays, we seem to have the ability to filter our world through selected sources of knowledge and we tend to look at people who are different with more suspicion and wariness. Jesus calls us to do just the opposite, though. We are to reach out to those who are not like us. As Paul wrote, he becomes all things to all people in the hopes of sharing the gospel with them.

The disciples understood this. Even though Thomas had rejected their testimony, they continued to fellowship with Thomas. A week after telling him of the risen Christ, they were all in a house together. Still wary about the conditions around them, and unsure of their own safety, the doors to the house were locked.

While in the locked house, Jesus suddenly appeared to the eleven men. Jesus greets them all with the traditional greeting, “Peace be with you.” Then He turns directly to Thomas, and tells Thomas, “Put your finger here; see My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side” (v. 27).

With these words, Jesus is addressing Thomas where he was. There is no indication that Jesus had appeared to the disciples since they had spoken with Thomas, yet Thomas knows that Jesus is aware of the conversation Thomas had had with the others. By saying what He said, Jesus is telling Thomas that He knows of the doubts and that He, Jesus, is prepared to do whatever it will take to answer Thomas’ doubts. If Thomas needs evidence of the risen Christ, Jesus is prepared to give it to him.

Jesus’ last words in this direct appeal to Thomas is, “Stop doubting and believe.” In other words, the same faith that Thomas had had in Jesus before Calvary was still a valid faith, and that the Jesus Thomas now saw standing before Him is in fact the risen Savior.

In our world, we may not have the benefit of seeing the risen Lord, and we may not have a direct appeal from Him to believe. But we do have the testimony of the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells us the job of the Spirit is to convict and to save. Our duty is to do neither, but only to speak. Jesus still addresses us directly through His Spirit. Ultimately we come to Jesus not because of the testimony of others but because of the direct intervention of Jesus through the work of the Holy Spirit.

Thomas’ confession (28-29)

Thomas took one look at Jesus and knew. He didn’t need to feel the wounds. He knew. He knew that the same Man who stood before him in that locked room was the same Man he had seen die on the cross. He knew that the Jesus he had known and followed was the same Jesus who now invited him to do what he needed to do in order to remove the doubt and return to the fellowship. Thomas’ words are a reminder of how personal and real it is to accept the risen Jesus as Savior and Lord.

“My Lord and my God!” is an exclamation that stresses the very personal commitment Thomas was making to Jesus at that point. Thomas knew he couldn’t speak for anyone else in the room, but he could speak for himself. He knew that he believed—he believed that all that Jesus had stood for before Calvary, all that Jesus had stood for leading up to and including Calvary, all that the future now held for the risen Jesus—Thomas knew that, from this day forward, he would never doubt Jesus again. From this moment on, Thomas would follow Jesus and would always trust that Jesus was going to lead him forward. The Thomas of v. 28 is very different from the Thomas of earlier verses, even the Thomas of v. 25.

This is what it means to accept Jesus as Savior. When we come to Him in faith, we are transformed, made a new creation. We are made the children of God, we are seated with Him in the presence of the Father, and we are given the full power and possibilities that come from the indwelling presence of the Holy Spirit. We are no longer what we were before Jesus. Now we are His, and He is our Lord and our God.

Jesus’ final words to Thomas are words of comfort for us and encouragement for us. To Thomas, Jesus says, “Because you have seen Me, you have believed.” To us, Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed” (v. 29). There are numerous times Jesus blesses people. With these words, He blesses us—He gives us His approval and His happiness, His joy and His peace. We may not know what Jesus looks like or what He sounds like. We may not know His favorite food or what made Him laugh hardest, but we do know Him. We know Him because He lives, and He lives with us. He walks with us, and He talks with us, and He tells us we are His own. Because He lives, we can face today and tomorrow.

Conclusion

“Doubting Thomas.” It’s a name that has been given to this one disciple simply for the fact that he had a hard time accepting the unbelievable. But I think we can all agree that the Thomas we meet in this passage walked the rest of his life without a shred of doubt in Jesus.

Sometimes, you and I have a moments of uncertainty about Jesus and His plan for us. Maybe you’re going through that right now. The important thing to remember is that God tells us what we need to know when we need to know it. We walk by faith. We walk with assurance in the same risen Lord that Thomas met in that locked room so long ago. We believe in the Father; believe also in the Son. Speak His truth with confidence, and walk in His path.

Blessed are we, because we have not seen, but we believe.