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| > Sermon Archive > Sermons by Author > Dr. Wes Bredenhof > Have the faith which doesn't see yet believes | Previous Next Print |
| Order Of Worship (Liturgy) All songs from the CanRC/FRCA Book of Praise Psalm 96:1-3 Psalm 73:9 (after the law of God) Psalm 105:1-3 Psalm 115:6 Hymn 64 Scripture reading: Hebrews 11:1-16 Text: John 20:24-31 |
Beloved congregation of Christ,
Between 1969 and 1972, twelve men walked on the moon. In addition, six others circled the moon in an Apollo command module. I think most of us will accept those things for facts.
However, there are those who refuse to believe it. There are some who argue that the NASA Apollo moon landings were faked. They were staged in a TV studio, they say. And then there was a giant conspiracy to cover it up.
People will say this despite the fact that there were twelve eye-witnesses. People will say this despite the fact that there were six other witnesses who at least saw the lunar module depart from the command module while it was circling the moon and then later return. Despite the fact that thousands of people saw the Saturn Five rockets launching from Cape Canaveral. And then there’s the over 400,000 people who worked at NASA on these lunar missions. Those who refuse to believe it have their explanations for all these things. To them it was all a big lie. They only way you could convince them otherwise is if they themselves had landed on the moon and walked there themselves. They have to see it to believe it. Witnesses aren’t good enough.
Something similar happened with the resurrection of Jesus. The tomb was empty. Christ rose from the dead. But the Jewish religious leaders couldn’t afford to have the truth get out. So they created a conspiracy theory. The disciples of Jesus stole his body. He wasn’t really alive. The disciples faked it. Even though there were all these witnesses to his resurrection, this was the story they told. A lot of people believed it. After all, if they didn’t see Jesus alive with their own eyes, why should they believe it? Whether it’s landing on the moon or Jesus rising from the dead, people said you have to see it to believe it. Otherwise these extraordinary things didn’t happen.
The sad thing was that even one of Christ’s disciples took this approach. He’s often called “Doubting Thomas.” He’s often mentioned as an example in the Bible of someone who refuses to believe unless he can see for himself. To some people today that might seem to be a good quality to have. He’s definitely not “Gullible Thomas.” Yet our Saviour reveals that this kind of doubt isn’t so virtuous. Our Lord Jesus says it’s far better to have the faith which doesn’t see yet believes. That’s the theme for the sermon this morning. We’ll consider:
- Doubt expressed
- Doubt addressed
In the previous verses the disciples were in that locked room. Christ appeared to them and brought them peace and joy, as well as mission and ministry. When that happened, Thomas was not there for some reason. He missed out on assembling with his fellow believers on that Sunday and so he missed out on the peace and joy Christ came to give.
Yet the other disciples shared their joy with Thomas. They told him that they’d seen the risen Lord. They thought he would have rejoiced with them. But that’s not the reaction he has. Instead of rejoicing, he refuses to believe it.
He says he has to see for himself the mark of the nails in his hands. He has to touch those wounds with his own finger. He has to place his hand on the wound in Christ’s side where the Roman soldier pierced him. Unless he can see and touch Christ for himself, he will never believe. In the original, he could not have said that more emphatically. He was not only “Doubting Thomas,” he was also “Stubborn Thomas.” He was staking his ground and nobody would move him from his position.
Notice how the word of all these witnesses isn’t good enough for him. Even though he’s spent three years with these people, their word doesn’t mean anything to him. They say they saw Jesus alive? Maybe they were hallucinating. Maybe they were making it up. Maybe it was wishful thinking. There could be any number of explanations, but the one explanation that couldn’t be true was that Jesus was truly alive. Jesus himself had told his disciples ahead of time that he would be crucified and that he would rise again on the third day. But that too didn’t register with Thomas. It just couldn’t be true.
It reminds me of that man who insisted he was dead. He was convinced that he was dead and told his family that he was dead. They said, “No, you’re alive. How could you be talking to us if you were dead?” But he said, “No, no, I’m actually dead.” So they took him to his family doctor. The doctor tried to reason with him, but he continued to insist he was dead. Finally, the doctor had one last argument. He said, “Do dead men bleed?” The man said, “No, dead men don’t bleed.” So the doctor pricked his finger and he started bleeding. The man looks down in shock and says, “Well, look at that, it looks like dead men do bleed!” The point is that even when there’s strong evidence for something, people can be stubbornly attached to their wrong belief. That’s what happened with Thomas. He stubbornly refused to believe in Christ’s resurrection, despite all the witnesses and their credible testimony.
People continue to do that today with the resurrection. There were many witnesses to this event. Yet people will say you can’t trust them. You can’t trust the testimony of the witnesses recorded in the New Testament. All these people had an agenda, so you can’t believe them. Yet people will believe all kinds of other events of history. Can you believe the witnesses who say an atomic bomb detonated over Nagasaki on August 9, 1945? Can you believe the witnesses who say two airliners flew into the towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001? You can’t go through life being skeptical of absolutely everything. If you were to rationally and objectively evaluate all the testimony and evidence for the resurrection, you would conclude it was something that really happened.
The problem is that sin blinds all of us. All the evidence is right there in front of us, but we can’t really see it properly, can’t work with it, can’t believe it because we’re blind. It’s only when the Holy Spirit opens our eyes that we can see and believe. We need God to step in and in his grace take away our blindness.
We’re at verse 26. It’s eight days later. That means it’s again Sunday. Again the believers are gathered together. This time Thomas is with them.
The doors were again locked, probably still because they’re afraid of the Jewish religious leaders. Despite the locked doors, somehow Jesus is still able to enter. He stands among them and his first words were the same as what he said the week before, “Peace be with you.” He literally says, “Peace be with you all.” Jesus includes Thomas. This biblical idea of peace is richer than the absence of conflict. It speaks of wholeness. When Christ says, “Peace,” he means things are well between him and the ones he’s speaking to. Their relationship is intact and healthy. In his grace, Christ extends this peace even to stubborn doubting Thomas. It’s really quite remarkable. It not only shows us what our Saviour is like, but also what we should be like.
J.C. Ryle comments here, “Let us remember the case of Thomas, and be very pitiful and of tender mercy. Our Lord has many weak children in his family, many dull pupils in his school, many raw soldiers in his army, many lame sheep in his flock. Yet he bears with them all, and casts none away. Happy is that Christian who has learned to deal likewise with his brethren.” That’s a really good point. If Christ is patient and merciful with Thomas, we who are his disciples should also be patient and merciful with one another. We should be like our Master. Moreover, isn’t that the way we would want to be treated? Loved ones, do unto others as you would have done unto you. If you would like people to be patient and merciful with you, be that way with others. Pray for the help of Christ’s Spirit to be that way with others.
Then Christ shows even more grace to Thomas. He’d heard Thomas express his doubting unbelief. Even though Jesus wasn’t present, he heard Thomas say he’d never believe, unless he could see Jesus and touch his wounds. That reminds us that Christ is omniscient. He hears and knows everything about us. Yet he still tenderly loves us and patiently bears with us, just as he did with Thomas.
Jesus invited Thomas to do what he said he needed to do in order to believe. He could touch the nail wounds. He could put his hand into the wound on his side. Jesus told him to stop being unbelieving, and instead start believing. Start believing right now that Jesus was truly risen from the dead.
Now the interesting thing is that we don’t read whether Thomas actually took up Christ’s invitation to touch him. We get the impression that it was enough for him to see Jesus standing in front of him. Through this the Holy Spirit brought him to see. Through this the Holy Spirit brought him to make a remarkable confession. He exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” This confession from Thomas needs a closer look.
The words “Lord” and “God” have an Old Testament background. Yes, as you learned in catechism,“Lord” means master or owner. But it’s also important to realize that this word was used to translate the Hebrew Yahweh in the Greek translation of the Old Testament, the Septuagint. Yahweh is the personal name of the Triune God. When “Lord” and “God” are combined like Thomas did, it means Thomas is acknowledging him to be the one true God who revealed himself in the pages of the Old Testament. It’s a powerful confession of Jesus as God himself.
Do you remember how John’s Gospel began? “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.” Now as we get close to the end of the Gospel, that theme comes full circle. The confession of it comes from the last of the disciples to meet the risen Jesus. In this way, the Holy Spirit wants to emphasize to us that Jesus was no ordinary Rabbi. He was no ordinary man. He was both man and God. He was the one uniquely qualified not only to die for our sins, but also to rise again victorious over sin, death, and Satan.
Thomas claimed him as his Lord and his God. His confession was personal. So it has to be with each one of us. We all have to personally look to Jesus and say, “My Lord and my God! You are God come in the flesh to pay for my sins and to give me life. My Lord and my God! Jesus, you are God come to give me victory over my sin, the death I deserve, and the devil who hates me. My Lord and my God, I believe in you.”
Christ responds to Thomas’ great confession in verse 29. He says, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Thomas believed because he saw. But Jesus says it’s better to be one of those who have not seen him personally and yet still believe he has risen from the dead as their Lord and their God.
To understand why faith without seeing is blessed by God, we should listen to Hebrews 11:1 again: “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Then follow all these Old Testament examples of believers who did exactly that. They believed without having seen. This tells us that their kind of faith is more “faithy” (for lack of a better word) than that which is based on seeing. When faith is the conviction of things not seen, it has more to commend it. It has more of the element of trust in it.
Now when we say that, we’re not saying faith is believing something without a good reason. Sometimes that’s how non-religious people will describe faith. They’ll say faith is when you believe something without any evidence, without any support. But that’s not what faith is according to the Bible. In the Bible, faith is trust based on what someone else has told you. And you know that this someone can be trusted. He has proven himself trustworthy over and over again. Faith is based on the trustworthiness of God. You have faith, you believe, because God has told you in his Word. All those human witnesses to the resurrection have been included by God in the Bible. So faith is not blind. Faith sees with open eyes that God has spoken and faith takes him at his Word. Loved ones, this is why those who have not seen and believed are blessed. They’re blessed because they honour God by taking him seriously and embracing his Word to them. God said that he raised Jesus from the dead? I know my Father can be trusted. So I believe it and am blessed for believing it. As you believe it, you’ll be blessed too. You’ll be blessed with the sure knowledge that your Saviour not only died, but also rose again for your benefit, for your salvation. You’ll be blessed with the assurance that where he is right now, some day you will be too. How he is right now, with a glorified body, you’ll someday be too. So believe, not because you’ve yet seen, but because God told you so.
Since believing on the basis of God’s Word is so important, John wrote this gospel. As we’ve been going through this book over the last few years, time and again we’ve noted this purpose for the book of John. John notes here that there were many other signs that Christ did in the presence of his disciples, many more noteworthy things which pointed to his divinity. But the apostle had to be selective about which ones he would put down. He had to be selective because he was writing on a scroll and there was only so much room on every scroll. When the scroll was full, you were out of room. So you had to pick and choose which things you would write about.
But John picked the signs he did for a very specific reason. He wanted every reader, whether already inside the church or not yet, he wanted everyone to believe. John wanted every reader to believe Jesus is the Christ. Remember that Christ is the New Testament equivalent of the Old Testament term Messiah. Both Christ and Messiah mean “anointed by God.” The Old Testament Messiah was the figure who would come with healing and rescue for sinners. The Messiah would be their Saviour and Victor. John wants us to see and believe that Jesus is the fulfillment of every Old Testament prophecy for the Messiah. He is the fulfillment of Isaiah 53 and the suffering servant described there. Jesus is the fulfillment of Zechariah 12:10 which spoke of the Messiah being pierced and Zechariah 9:9 where the Messiah comes riding on a donkey. Jesus is the fulfillment of the Psalms. Psalms like Psalm 22 which speak of the Messiah’s forsakenness and having his garments divided. And many more passages from throughout the Old Testament.
Not only is Jesus the Messiah, John also wants you believe he is the Son of God. He is the second person of the Trinity. Together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, he is the true God. He is the Son of the Father, who came to do the Father’s will and reveal the Father’s love. You see, if you take John’s gospel seriously, it will never do to say that Jesus was simply a great man. It will never do to say he was simply a great prophet or teacher. John doesn’t want you to stop there. He wants you to go all the way and believe Jesus was the Son of God incarnate, God come into the flesh for our rescue.
And by believing that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God, “you may have life in his name.” Eternal life is the result of faith in Jesus Christ. Listen to me carefully: no one goes to heaven just because they believe in God, because they believe there is a God. Scripture tells us that even the demons believe that. It doesn’t them any good and it doesn’t do us any good. If you want to have the life that lasts forever, you have to believe in the Saviour God has sent. You have to place all your trust in Jesus Christ alone. That’s where John wants you to bring you with his gospel.
Let me ask you: have you been brought there yet? If not, what’s holding you back? God is calling you right now through his Word. Believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, the one who came to take your place on the cross and pay for your sins. If you already believe, then keep on believing. AMEN.
PRAYER
Heavenly Father,
Thank you for the testimony of your Word to the resurrection of our Saviour Jesus. We have not seen him, and yet we believe. We pray that you would strengthen our faith. Please help us always with your Holy Spirit to trust what you have said to us in your Word about everything. Help us all, young and old, to be firmly convinced that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, we may all have life in his name. AMEN.
* As a matter of courtesy please advise Dr. Wes Bredenhof, if you plan to use this sermon in a worship service. Thank-you.
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