That You May Believe

John 20: 19-31, page 769

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!”
After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his or her sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Now Thomas (called 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 it.”
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 told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
Sermon
Believing can get to be tricky business, especially for educated adults.
That point was illustrated in an email forwarded to me by Peggy Trettel this week:
A little boy opened the big family Bible, and he was fascinated by it as he fingered through the pages, that seemed to his eyes to be ancient.
Suddenly something fell out of the Bible. He picked the object up to find that it was an old leaf someone had pressed between the pages.
“Mama, look what I found,” the boy called out.
“What have you got there dear?”
With astonishment in the young boy’s voice he answered, “I think it’s Adam’s underwear.”
I guess it happens slowly that we stop expecting to see the Mighty Acts of God unfold right before our eyes. We see a leaf and we don’t see Adam’s underwear, we just see a leaf, but worse than that, what we read in the Bible becomes, not historical events that we expect to see the evidence of, but stories not unlike any other story we’ve heard.
Slowly but surely we associate, not with the young boy from the story, but with Thomas – known down through generations of history as the great Doubter.
And Thomas is easy to associate with. He simply asks to do the thing that we all want to do. If what the disciples say is true, if what the church says is true, if what the Bible says is true than let me see something that proves it!
Essentially I think we all, wisely, feel that way from time to time.
Not many people sign up for experimental surgery, as there is no data telling you whether or not the procedure will be worth the risk.
I don’t expect anyone went up to Orval and Wilbur Wright asking for a lift the first time they defied gravity in the airplane – someone had to try it first to prove that it was safe.
And Thomas wasn’t going to just take the disciples word for it, but wanted himself to touch Christ’s wounds before he would believe.
Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
This statement is for us – gone is the time to touch the wounds for proof, and while when we were children we may have been trusting enough to believe just because its what we were taught, we now must face the reality that Christ is not here to prove himself to us – so for many of us, doubt is a locked door that stands in the way of living out the Christian life – we don’t talk about our belief to others very often, because all too often we’re afraid that we might be asked to answer a question we’re not prepared to answer: so you’re a Christian, do you really believe that all of humanity came from one man and one woman?
So you’re a Christian, do you really believe that Jesus rose from the dead?
So you’re a Christian, do you really believe all those stories in the Bible are true?
Like a locked door, our fear of having to face the questions that may in fact expose heart our own doubts, ensure that we keep the gospel to ourselves.
If we study our scripture passage closer we’ll find that the disciples we’re not very different at all in this respect. They were shut in by a literal locked door. For fear of the Jews they were together in hiding behind a locked door when Jesus came to them to prove to them that he had in fact risen from the dead, and to send them all out that they would not keep this truth to themselves:
Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” And with that he breathed on them and said, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his or her sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
You would think that after such an encounter the disciples would have been beating that locked door down to get to the work of spreading the Gospel, but instead, Jesus comes to them again through that door locked out of fear. They had not gone anywhere; they had not done anything though they had proof that Christ had risen from the dead.
A locked door kept them from living out their calling, just as doubt, like a locked door often keeps us from ours.
Fear of death kept them from emerging from their safe room, just as fear that we might not know what to say keeps us from speaking out about our faith – and if you really think about it, we have a better excuse than they did as statistics show that people fear public speaking more than anything else, more even than death.
Rev. Jim Fisher, a minister who is able to worship with his family here often and who regularly attends the Men’s Breakfast Bible study joked last Thursday – “What do you get when you mix a Presbyterian and a Jehovah’s Witness?”
“Someone who knocks on the door but doesn’t know what to say.”
So often we don’t know what to say, but more than that I think we doubt the power of our words. That’s why what Jesus said about words is so important: “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
A great preacher of our time, Barbara Brown Taylor said of this very verse: “seeing is not superior to hearing” as here Jesus puts on equal ground the proof of his resurrection and the word spoken of his resurrection.”
We do not have proof – but do not doubt the power of your words.
I say so because in today’s world your words will do more than you can imagine.
This past week a group of men cut down a whole bunch of trees that grant our church greater exposure from the road. I think we all hope that greater exposure from the road will bring more people into our church – but just because people can see a restaurant doesn’t mean people are going to try it.
What every business owner knows is that nothing matters more than word of mouth – and interestingly one of those men asked our own Dave Adcock about our church, what we are about, and what makes us special. Dave wasn’t sure what to say at first he told a group of us, but after going on about this and that the man told him, “Oh don’t worry about it. We live up in Monroe.” Dave told him plainly, “We’ll, this church would be worth the drive.”
He’s right of course, and I can tell you why this church is worth the drive again and again, but you already know why.
Because you have been here you know, but let’s be thinking about those who have not yet seen but need to know.
The disciples had to take the gospel of Christ out beyond their locked doors, and you must take it out beyond your locked doors of fear and doubt to offer what we have here to a people who need what we have.
If you are looking for something to say, don’t worry about Adam and Eve or the proof of the resurrection:
-Just tell someone who loves music how fantastic this choir is
-Just tell someone who needs a community, that here people pray for each other, care for each other, and most of the time, will take the time to learn your name.
-Just tell some parent with young kids about our preschool bursting forth with light and laughter and love.
-Just tell some parent with teenage kids about our youth group where they can actually get to know their leader, call her on the phone, and be friends with her on facebook.
-Go and tell someone who hates church because the pastor talks for too long that your pastor preached an Easter Sunday sermon that lasted 7 minutes.
And if you really want to get at what matters – go and tell someone that Good Shepherd has nurtured your relationship with God, and if you don’t think that that’s exactly what every person alive wants and needs than you are mistaken.
If the disciples had stayed behind their locked door you would never have heard the life changing Gospel of Jesus Christ – so don’t keep what you have found here to yourself.
Unlock the door, go out, and tell someone about what you have here.
-Amen.