Tag Archives: Thomas

JOHN’S GOSPEL… THE WOUNDS – 34

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John 20:19-20 NIV
[19] “On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” [20] After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.”

If the presence of Jesus convinced Mary, what would convince the disciples that Jesus was alive? What would change the skepticism of Thomas into an outburst of faith?
What if He walked through a locked door? What if they met Him face to face, heard His voice? What if they saw Him eating a piece of fish? Would they believe?

John 20:24-29 NIV
[24] “Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. [25] So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” [26] A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” [27] Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.” [28] Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” [29] Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

One thing above all else stood out to Thomas, convinced him that that it was really Jesus standing there…the wounds!

Thomas had seen the damage the Romans had inflicted on Him. He and his fellow disciples had seen His blood dripping from His hands and feet, the gush of blood and water from His pierced side! They had witnessed His final cry, His head hanging limply as the sound of His final rasping breath died away. They had watched as the soldiers lowered His pale, limp body to the ground and handed His remains over to Joseph of Arimathea for burial. They knew what real death was when they saw it.

Matthew Bridges’ hymn encapsulates the resurrection event in glorious poetry…

1. Crown him with many crowns,
the Lamb upon his throne.
Hark! how the heavenly anthem drowns
all music but its own.
Awake, my soul, and sing
of him who died for thee,
and hail him as thy matchless king
through all eternity.

2. Crown him the Lord of life,
who triumphed o’er the grave,
and rose victorious in the strife
for those he came to save;
his glories now we sing
who died and rose on high,
who died eternal life to bring,
and lives that death may die.

3. Crown him the Lord of love;
behold his hands and side,
RICH WOUNDS, YET VISIBLE ABOVE,
IN BEAUTY GLORIFIED;
no angels in the sky
can fully bear that sight,
but downward bends their burning eye
at mysteries so bright.

4. Crown him the Lord of years,
the potentate of time,
creator of the rolling spheres,
ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
for thou hast died for me;
thy praise shall never, never fail
throughout eternity.

(Author: Matthew Bridges –
Source: https://hymnary.org)

Jesus took the wounds the disciples saw that day to glory, ever to remind His eternal family of the price He paid for our salvation.

Revelation 5:6 NIV
[6] “Then I saw a Lamb, looking as if it had been slain, standing at the center of the throne, encircled by the four living creatures and the elders. The Lamb had seven horns and seven eyes, which are the seven spirits of God sent out into all the earth.”

Finally convinced, the disciples could relax. They clung to the hope, knowing that their MASTER was alive, that He  would always be with them…or would He?

Only after Pentecost would everything He taught them about the Holy Spirit fall into place. His real, physical presence with them would be replaced by the Holy Spirit in them…His “other self”, He had said, one exactly like Him who would be in them forever.

Unlike the occasional appearance of the Holy Spirit in the Old Covenant, who came upon people to empower them for a specific purpose, Joel’s prophecy was fulfilled in an event that restored the Spirit, lost through Adam, to all who believe in Jesus.

Joel 2:28-29 NIV
[28] “And afterward, I will pour out my Spirit on ALL PEOPLE. Your sons and daughters will prophesy, your old men will dream dreams, your young men will see visions. [29] Even on my servants, both men and women, I will pour out my Spirit in those days.”

No longer would the Spirit be lent to select people for a specific task, for a season. He would come in a deluge of power on all people, regardless of artificial distinctions, to finish Jesus’ work of salvation. He would replace Jesus’ physical presence with His indwelling presence, to guide and mold all His disciples into His image. He would convince His people of righteousness, that one requirement for fellowship with the Father that Jesus gave us, witnessed by His wounds.

It’s the wounds that are the concrete and absolute proof that every child of God is righteous and fully acceptable to God. So, finally, the disciples knew, were convinced and believed, because the wounds told the story… “He is who He said He is and He did what He said He would do!”

2 Corinthians 5:21 NIV
[21] “God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.”

IS SEEING REALLY BELIEVING OR BELIEVING SEEING?

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IS SEEING REALLY BELIEVING OR BELIEVING SEEING?

“Now Thomas, (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So, the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.'” John 20:24-25.

Doubting Thomas! That’s what people call him. But I have often wondered if that is a fair nickname for him. Perhaps a better name would be Disappointed Thomas or Disillusioned Thomas or even Devastated Thomas.

Why was Thomas so skepical of the good news that Jesus was alive? It’s easy to judge the man because we know nothing of his background and very little of his character.

We know he was a pessimist because he was the one who was resigned to dying with Jesus if they returned to Bethany when they heard that Lazarus was sick. They had been hiding out beyond the Jordan, not because Jesus was afraid, but because it was not His time, but the sisters’ plea had brought them out of hiding and back into range of the Jewish leaders.

What about Martha and Mary? When Jesus did not arrive in time to heal their brother, they were just as full of doubt about Him as Thomas was. Didn’t they both chide Him, “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died”? They did not understand His ways and they had not yet developed an unshakeable trust in Him. That would come as they realised that what He did was far better than what they expected Him to do.

How much faith did the rest of the disciples have in Jesus? Had He not told them more than once that He would rise again? But, in spite of His many reassurances, they were devastated when He was crucified, and went into hiding, feeling lost and abandoned, and not knowing what to do next. Some of them even went back to their old lives of fishing, as though the years with Jesus were just an interlude best forgotten.

At least Thomas was honest enough to express his misgivings out loud. He wanted evidence. He wanted his own personal experience of handling Jesus so that he would be beyond doubt that He was actually alive. After all, he had entrusted himself to Him once, and where had it got him? He was not prepared to stake his life on the testimony of others.

Perhaps Thomas had been seriously let down by someone of significance in his life and he had carried the pain in his heart for a long time. “Once bitten, twice shy.” We will never know, but his vehement protest seems to suggest that he wanted to be very sure about Jesus before he was willing to entrust himself to Him once again.

Perhaps Thomas overreacted, but we can’t blame him because it is human nature to respond with reservation to promises that are not backed up by a trustworthy character. Perhaps he was also over cautious even though Jesus had never given him cause to doubt Him. Whatever Thomas’ reason for wanting hard evidence, at least he, unlike the religious leaders, was prepared to believe if Jesus showed up and he could check Him out for himself.

I think Thomas is a mirror of many of us. We also look for hard evidence when we are in a jam before we are prepared to trust Jesus. Unfortunately for us, in God’s scheme of things, it doesn’t work that way. Jesus is no longer here in the flesh and is not likely to turn up in person when our faith has a serious wobble. Thomas’ reluctance to believe led him to a valuable lesson from which we should learn if we want to experience the peace of God in spite of hardships.

Although we cannot have Jesus’ physical presence with us, He has given us the assurance that He is always with us; even better, in us by His Spirit, but we have to accept the trustworthiness of His promise. He said He would rise again and He did. That is a feat no one else has ever pulled off! Is that not enough for us to trust Him to make good everything else He promised?

Acknowledgement

Scripture taken from THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

Believing Is Seeing

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BELIEVING IS SEEING

“A week later His disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, ‘Peace be with you!’ Then He said to Thomas, ‘Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.’

“Thomas said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Then Jesus said to him, ‘Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'” John 20:26-29 NIV.

Poor Thomas! It was his misfortune to be absent when Jesus appeared to His disciples for the first time. I often wonder whether it was doubt that drove him to demand his own personal audience with Jesus. Could his doubt have been linked to a disappointment that had caused him such deep pain that he was not willing to take the risk of entrusting himself to anyone again?

Perhaps we should call him Disappointed Thomas, or Disillusioned Thomas or even Devastated Thomas rather than Doubting Thomas. I think his doubt was a symptom rather than the cause of his unwillingness to believe the story that Jesus was alive. He had not yet learned that, unlike fickle human beings who are fallible and unfaithful, he could trust Jesus’ word because He will never break a promise. He said He would rise from the dead, and He did!

Did Thomas do what he said he would do? I think that it was enough that he saw and heard Jesus and witnessed with his eyes that it was indeed the crucified one. He didn’t need to finger His wounds to be sure that it was Jesus. All his doubts, disappointment and disillusionment were swept away in that moment. He fell on his knees and cried out, ‘My Lord and my God.’

What was it that convinced Thomas once and for all that Jesus was both Lord and God? Was it the wounds in His body that spoke of His death and yet He was alive? Was it  the teaching and miracles that Thomas had heard and seen, now suddenly come alive in Him/ I think the fact that Jesus invited Thomas to do what he said he would do when Jesus was not present that convinced him that Jesus was God. How did He know what he had spoken unless He was invisible yet present?

The memory of Jesus’ gentle rebuke and tender invitation would remain in Thomas’ mind forever. Many months before, Jesus had asked His disciples the question: ‘Who do you say that I am?’ Peter responded with little understanding, ‘You are the Christ, the Son of the living God!’ Now Thomas was convinced that He was the Son of God and would go to the ends of the earth and face the fury of hell because he knew!

Thomas saw and was convinced. But that is not the way of the kingdom of God. God works in another way. It is not seeing that released faith but faith that releases vision. Faith is the invisible link between the unseen realm and power of God and the natural world in which we live. We bring God’s power into action on earth through faith in His word. Miracles do not beget faith. Faith begets miracles.

The mighty miracles of God which the children of Israel saw in the wilderness did not produce faith. Every time a new crisis arose they forgot God’s miraculous intervention and turned on Moses with accusations and demands. Jesus responded to faith with healing power. ‘Your faith has made you whole.’

The more confidence we place in Jesus, the more we experience His intervention in our lives. True blessing, the supernatural favour of God on us, comes when we are willing to stake all on His promises because He delights to be trusted.

Acknowledgement

THE HOLY BIBLE, NEW INTERNATIONAL VERSION®, NIV® Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.

 

Is Seeing Really Believing Or Is Believing Seeing?

Bible Study, , ,

IS SEEING REALLY BELIEVING OR BELIEVING SEEING?

“Now Thomas, (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, ‘We have seen the Lord!’ But he said to them, ‘Unless I see the nail marks in His hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.'” John 20:24-25 NIV.

Doubting Thomas! That’s what people call him. But I have often wondered if that is a fair nickname for him. Perhaps a better name would be Disappointed Thomas or Dillusioned Thomas or even Devastated Thomas.

Why was Thomas so scepical of the good news that Jesus was alive? It’s easy to judge the man because we know nothing of his background and very little of his character.

We know he was a pessimist because he was the one who was resigned to dying with Jesus if they returned to Bethany when they heard that Lazarus was sick. They had been hiding out beyond the Jordan, not because Jesus was afraid, but because it was not His time, but the sisters’ plea had brought them out of hiding and back into range of the Jewish leaders.

What about Martha and Mary? When Jesus did not arrive in time to heal their brother, they were just as full of doubt about Him as Thomas was. Didn’t they both chide Him, “Lord, if you had been here, our brother would not have died”? They did not understand His ways and they had not yet developed an unshakeable trust in Him. That would come as they realised that what He did was far better than what they expected Him to do.

How much faith did the rest of the disciples have in Jesus? Had He not told them more than once that He would rise again? But, in spite of His many reassurances, they were devastated when He was crucified and went into hiding, feeling lost and abandoned, and not knowing what to do next. Some of them even went back to their old lives of fishing, as though the years with Jesus were just an interlude best forgotten.

At least Thomas was honest enough to express his misgivings out loud. He wanted evidence. He wanted his own personal experience of handling Jesus so that he would be beyond doubt that He was actually alive. After all, he had entrusted himself to Him once, and where had it got him? He was not prepared to stake his life on the testimony of others.

Perhaps Thomas had been seriously let down by someone of significance in his life  and he had carried the pain in his heart for a long time. “Once bitten, twice shy.” We will never know, but his vehement protest seems to suggest that he wanted to be very sure about Jesus before he was willing to entrust himself to Him once again.

Perhaps Thomas overreacted, but we can’t blame him because it is human nature to respond with reservation to promises that are not backed up by a trustworthy character. Perhaps he was also over cautious even though Jesus had never given him cause to doubt Him. Whatever Thomas’ reason for wanting hard evidence, at least he, unlike the religious leaders, was prepared to believe if Jesus showed up and he could check Him out for himself.

I think Thomas is a mirror of many of us. We also look for hard evidence when we are in a jam before we are prepared to trust Jesus. Unfortunately for us, in God’s scheme of things it doesn’t work that way. Jesus is no longer here in the flesh and is not likely to turn up in person when our faith has a serious wobble. Thomas’ reluctance to believe led him to a valuable lesson from which we should learn if we want to experience the peace of God in spite of hardships.

Although we cannot have Jesus’ physical presence with us, He has given us the assurance that He is always with us; even better, in us by His Spirit, but we have to accept the trustworthiness of His promise. He said He would rise again and He did. That is feat no one else has ever pulled off! Is that not enough for us to trust Him to make good everything else He promised?

Truth Is Intolerant

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TRUTH IS INTOLERANT

“Thomas said to Him, ‘Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?’ Jesus answered, ‘I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. If you really know me, you will know my Father as well. From now on, you do know Him and have seen Him.'” John 14:5-7 NIV.

Sensible question, Thomas!

Jesus had been talking about going away, and yet He had not clearly stated where He was going. Did He assume that they would know what He was talking about? His thoughts and words were on a different level from theirs. Unless He told them, they would surely get it wrong again.

By the way, one thing about Thomas, although for some erroneous reason he got the name “Doubting Thomas”, was that he was honest. This time it wasn’t Peter blurting out his thoughts, but Thomas asking an honest question. If Jesus did not tell them, how were they supposed to know where He was going and why they could not go with Him?

Although He seemed to be speaking in riddles, if they had taken in what He kept telling them, they would have realized that He was once again referring to His death. It took Thomas’ question for Jesus to make the statement that gives all believers the security of knowing that their faith in Jesus alone ensures that they will get to the Father.

It also earns for Christianity the adjective ‘intolerant’ from all the other religions that claim that all roads lead to God. ‘It’s just a different name for God and a different way of looking at things.’ Of course the devil would have people believe that their man-made way is okay because he is behind the false religions and heresies that deny that Jesus is the only way. He will do whatever it takes to deceive people into thinking they are worshipping the true God.

Why is Jesus the only way to the Father?

Sin broke the oneness between God and His human family and barred the way to Him from the first moment when Adam and Eve chose to believe that it was okay to do things their way. God taught His people through the sacrificial system that sin demanded the shedding of blood to pay the debt we owe Him. Animal blood was shed as a picture of the death of God’s pure and sinless lamb, His own beloved Son, whom He would send to live a perfect human life and then be sacrificed as the atonement for the sin of the world.

How can there be any other way to remove the barrier between man and God? The debt of sin is unpayable. Even if we were to obey God perfectly from now on, which is impossible, what of the debt of our past? Because He had no sin of His own, Jesus took the debt of all people for all time on Himself and died in our place. He cried out, ‘Finished!’ Paid in full! Cancelled! The debit column of all our sin has been erased, deleted; there is nothing to pay. We are free to approach the Father with confidence because He looks upon us as He looks upon Jesus, pure, spotless and perfect.

“Therefore, brothers and sisters, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, His body, and since we have a great high priest over the house of God, let us draw near with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for He who has promised is faithful.” Hebrews 10:19-23 NIV.

If Jesus did that for us at such cost to Himself, how can we risk even thinking that we can add any other way to His way? No! Jesus is the only way to the Father. And the only God who is the true God is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. He is the WAY to the Father, He is the TRUTH of everything He said and did, and He is the LIFE that He gives when we embrace Him and His Words and follow His way which takes us to the Father.