Doubt Demolished (John 20:19-31)

Easter is not over! We hear about Thomas, who on meeting the resurrected Jesus found his doubt demolished (John 20:19-31)

Thomas had a point! I mean if some people came to you saying that one of your friends who had recently died, had started appearing to you, would you believe them? You would at least think they were pulling your leg to start with.

But, Thomas still does not believe them even though they are insistent and even, though all eleven of them agreed – and some women and others as well. Thomas was right to question their testimony, but was he right to refuse to believe despite the overwhelming witness of those close to him?

Thomas was going beyond questioning. He was refusing to believe, doubt was ruling his heart.

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hands into his side, I will not believe.” (20:25) he said!

DOUBT – demolished

But then a week after people first started talking about the resurrection, Jesus appeared to Thomas and demolished his doubt.

1. Heart locked – Jesus enters anyway
2. Demands to see – Jesus appears
3. Refuses to listen – Jesus speaks
4. Demands to touch – Jesus lets him#

• Will you allow your doubts to be destroyed by the resurrected Jesus?

FAITH – revived

Four results of faith

“Blessed are those who have not seen yet believe.” (20:29)

1. Lord and God – 20:28

“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 knew me, you would know my Father as well. From now on, you do know him and have seen him.” (John 14:5-7)

The response of Thomas in 20:28 is the climax of the gospel and a model response for us to follow.

This is what the reader should  make of the resurrection.

Compare Mary, ‘Rabbonni’ (20:16)

• To claim Jesus as God, is to make a bolder claim about him that Moses, Budda or Mohammed would ever make about themselves. Moses and Mohammed both claimed to be God’s spokesperson and Budda claimed to discover enlightenment. But they all died and stayed dead. Only Jesus appeared to his followers and spoke with them after death. The resurrection shows he is the only way to God!

1. Spirit of truth – 14:17; 15:26; 16:13; 20:20,29

“You are a king, then!” said Pilate. Jesus answered, “You are right in saying I am a king. In fact, for this reason I was born, and for this I came into the world, to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” “What is truth?” Pilate asked. … (John 18:37-38)

• The cross seemed to show that power overcame truth. Those in power, the Jewish leaders and Pilate thought they had stopped Jesus’ uncomfortable message of truth. But, the resurrection shows that the truth has not been destroyed. In fact the resurrected  Jesus comes to give the apostles the Holy Spirit, why? To lead them into truth.

In Jesus’s teaching of the apostle’s before his death he tells speaks three times about the Spirit of truth:

“”But when he, the Spirit of truth, comes, he will guide you into all truth” (16:13a)

In a world, where there are so many competing claims to truth, the resurrection points us back to Jesus as the one who we should go to for truth.

1. Peace – 20:19, 23

Three times he says, ‘Peace’ in this passage (vs. 19, 21, 26).

The phrase, ‘Peace be with you’ is only used in two other places in the New Testament and one of those is in a parallel scene in Luke.

“I have told you these things, so that in me you may have peace. In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” (John 16:33)

• We often lack peace, because of the troubles of the world. In recent years, there seems to be more to worry about, more troubles in the world.

Yet, Jesus, who was killed by a troubled world, rose from the dead. He proved that the troubles of the world do not have the final say. He showed that when we trust in God, our future is ultimately secure – even if things may be tough on the way.

1. Life – 20:31

John concludes his gospel, by concluding that when we allow the facts of the resurrection to destroy our doubts, so that we believe, then we gain life.

He says, he wrote these things so that we would believe.

But what kind of life?

In the news this week, it was announced that a man in Liverpool is now the oldest man in the world at 111 years old! That’s fantastic, but when Jesus talks about giving us life, he doesn’t just mean we are going to live for a very long time.

Jesus says earlier in John:

“The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. I am the good shepherd. The good shepherd lays down his life for the sheep.” (John 10:11)

• We have life to the full, because Jesus gave up his life for us. Fullness of life, is a life lived knowing the God who loves us and being guided by the shepherd who died for us. He leads us into green pastures and ultimately he leads us to God’s eternal home, not a care home, but a place where life will be more abundant and more amazing than we can possibly imagine, because we will be in an even closer and deeper relationship with him.