Seeing and Believing

John 20:19-31                                                                                               April 18, 2004

   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!" [20] After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

   [21] Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." [22] And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. [23] If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

   [24] Now Thomas (called 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 it."

   [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."

   [30] Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. [31] 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.

CCI: It is in our doubts that we make the greatest discoveries of faith.

Intro: From the time we are children, we learn that seeing is believing. Vesper Bauer tells a story about children who are slow to believe what they can not see. “My aunt and uncle had a missionary family visiting. When the missionary children were called in for dinner, their mother said, "Be sure to wash your hands." The little boy scowled and said, "Germs and Jesus. Germs and Jesus. That's all I hear, and I've never seen either one of them." All too often we conclude that seeing is believing.

          For the disciples, that is where they lived as well. We often talk about doubting Thomas, we like to think we are better than him, we want to believe that if we had been there, we would have believed, but if we read John and the other gospels, every one of the disciples was just as reluctant to believe as Thomas. Each one did not believe until they saw the risen Christ. It was while they were in the depths of the darkness of their doubting that belief suddenly shone on them. In this passage there are two appearances of Jesus recorded.

          This is the end of the Book of John as it was first written. Verses 30 and 31 are the conclusion. They relate a summary of Jesus life and the reason the book was written. That reason is spelled out more clearly than most of the other books of the Bible. John said, “I could have written a whole lot more, 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.’” John’s sole purpose for writing was to bring others to faith. And so the book ends much as chapter 1 ended, John the Baptizer sees Jesus and makes an amazing affirmation saying of Jesus, “Behold the Lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world.” And here we find Thomas, the one we ridicule as the doubter, making the most amazing affirmation of all when he declared, “My Lord and my God!”

I. The condition of the Disciples – FEAR

          Here in John 20, we find two scenes that occur in a locked room. The night of the resurrection, the disciples were locked in the room afraid that those who crucified Jesus would be back for them. Luke tells us that though they had heard Mary Magdalene’s report, in fact, and I quote, “they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.” They were doubters. They had not seen and they did not believe.

          One week later, after the disciples had told Thomas that Jesus was in fact alive, we find them, once again, in a locked room. They are trying to convince Thomas, but he declares his skepticism loudly by saying, unless I see and touch and feel, I can’t believe.

          Why the locked room again? Clearly it points to the truth that though the disciples had seen Jesus, they were still ruled by fear. Fear is a powerful force in our lives, without it we would not survive very long. However it can be a tool or a tyrant. For the disciples, it had become a tyranical slave master. Whenever they were together, they were behind locked doors: afraid of the authorities and even afraid of their friends. Many of us today live with fear just like this. Anxiety paralyzes thousands in this country. At times it causes us to remain silent when have good contributions to make. Anxiety can turn us against friends and drive us away from family. It will even keep us behind locked doors just like the disciples. When we are anxious, we want others to be anxious with us. Thomas did, he declared “unless I see, unless I touch,” he wanted them to know that he would not be easily duped into believing something so incredible.

          When we are afraid of change, or of need, or of uncertainty, we often do the same thing. We make rules, we create tension, we demand our own way, and we do it because of our own fears.

II. The Response of the Disciples – JOY AND WORSHIP

          However, something changed for the disciples. When they encountered the living Christ, their fear and anxiety melted away.

          Jesus understood their fear, in fact, the first time he appeared to them, he pronounced peace over them 2 times. And then he showed them his hands and side. He showed them the wounds of death. We often forget that Thomas, the doubter, wanted no more proof than the other disciples had received. To see, to touch.

          However, when they saw, they believed. Erik Weihenmayer, the blind mountaineer who recently successfully scaled Mount Everest, writes in Outside magazine: A few days after I arrived in the Khumbu Valley for the Mount Everest climb, a rumor began circulating. Because I wasn't flopping on my face every few minutes, the Sherpas thought I was lying about my blindness. Women would approach me in the alleys of Namche Bazaar and wave their hands in front of my face. I'd feel the wind and flinch, which only confirmed their suspicions.

          These people did not believe the fact that Erik was blind. So he writes: Finally, I resorted to drastic measures. I asked Kami Tenzing, our climbing sirdar, into the kitchen tent. "Kami," I said, "I want to give you a message to take back to the Sherpas." I pulled down my left lower eyelid, leaned me head forward, and my prosthetic eye plopped into my palm. "I can take the other out if you want," I said. "No!" he said firmly. "Not necessary."

          When Kami saw, his questions were gone. And for the disciples, it was the same. They were terrified; here was someone who they thought was dead standing among them, and then Jesus showed him the evidence and they were overjoyed. Their joy knew no bounds. They were still afraid, the doors were still locked, their joy was tempered when Thomas would not believe, but even with his questioning, they clung to what they had seen.

          Then a week later Jesus appeared inside a locked room again, and this time they were all present. When Jesus did what Erik did, showed him the direct evidence of the truth, Thomas’ doubt was transformed into the dramatic declaration of faith, “My Lord and my God!” No longer was there a question, no longer was there doubt. Because Thomas had given voice to his questions, there was room for belief to grow.

          So often in our fear, we refuse to express the doubts that are a part of our lives. We have heard a bad translation of Jesus words in verse 27 and take them to mean, “don’t doubt but believe,” as if these were two opposite poles, and so we deny our doubts. However, Jesus invites us to stop being unbelieving and to start being believing. In other words, the world in which we live naturally is a skeptical, unbelieving world. Jesus invites into a world where anything is possible. Stop being filled with unbelief and start being filled with belief. It is only when we give voice to the doubt that we find there is room for faith. When Thomas gave voice, his belief grew.

III. The mission of the Disciples – GO AND SHARE

          And then, in a state of belief, Jesus commissioned the disciples. To the 10 who were gathered on the first night, he said, “As the Father has sent me, I send you.” It was a commission to minister, share and love. The disciples had seen what Jesus had done, now he was sending them.

          That commission has not changed. Ken Taylor tells the story of Ethiopian Negussie Tameru who was a gun-wielding bandit at the age of 18. Eventually he killed someone and spent six years in prison. Once set free, he went back to his life of crime till local police took his gun away.

          Left hopeless and without a means to support himself, Negussie took a job at the local Baptist mission as a guard. But no one trusted him. Locals told the missionaries that if they hired him they'd regret it. Still searching for an identity in his life without crime, Negussie reluctantly paid 5 birr—more than two day's wages—for a Bible. It was the first book he'd ever attempted to read. He opened his new Bible to Revelation 21:7-8: "But for the cowardly and unbelieving and abominable and murderers and immoral persons and sorcerers and idolaters and all liars, their part will be in the lake that burns with fire and brimstone, which is the second death."

          Negussie quickly put the Bible away. Not only had he been a murderer, but he had been heavily involved in sorcery and idolatry as well. "I got real scared and decided this was a bad book, so I hid it," Negussie said. A few days later his boss at the mission, an Ethiopian believer, asked him if he wanted to hear about something really good. Negussie was ready for anything. That's when his boss told him about the forgiveness he could find in Christ.

          "I cried and cried and cried that day," Negussie said. "I couldn't believe God would forgive me—not of all the things I'd done."

          Negussie was so deeply touched by the gospel that he went to all of his children—even those who lived in the lowlands with his first wife—and made sure they understood they could find forgiveness in Jesus Christ.

          "They all became believers," Negussie said. "Now I teach my children the Bible, and we pray together every night."

          Now a pastor of a small church in Shola Gebeya, Negussie hopes to take the gospel to neighboring rural areas. "What really scares me is that on the Judgment Day we'll all be standing around the throne and my neighbors will point at me and ask, 'Why didn't you tell me?'"

          Jesus said, “As the Father has sent me, So I am sending you.” That is why John’s gospel was written, so that you might hear and believe the good news of Jesus. Jesus told Thomas, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." You see, seeing is not believing, rather believing is seeing the truth.

          Today, if you have believed, then you are among those who Jesus calls blessed. If you have not, give voice to your doubt and then stop living in unbelief and open yourself up to the world of believing that with God, all things are possible.