FBCWest 610 | Believing but not Seeing
Recorded On: 06/09/0224
Bulletin
Hymn # 329 “Footsteps of Jesus”
SCRIPTURE READING – Matthew 4:18 - 22
Giving of Selves and Our Offerings
OFFERTORY PRAYER
OFFERTORY MUSIC – Prudence Hungate
Praise and Worship
“Overcome”
“Death Was Arrested”
“Home Coming”
Proclamation of the Word
Message by Pastor Joe
“Believing but not Seeing”
PRAYER TIME / Time of Reflection
“Living Hope”
Benediction “Praise You Anywhere”
Sermon Notes
John 20:19 & 20 Jesus appears in the room where the disciples are even though the doors were shut, shows His wounds and they rejoice
John 20:21 Jesus tells them as the Father sent Him, He is sending them
John 20:22 Ahe breathed on them and said “Receive the Holy Spirit
John 20:23 Forgiving and retaining sins
John 20:24 & 25 Thomas was not with the other disciples and even though they tell him they have seen the Lord, he refuses to believe unless he sees the wounded hands and put his finger in Jesus’ side
John 20:26 & 27 8 days later Jesus gives Thomas the opportunity to do as Thomas demanded
John 20:28 Thomas responds “My Lord and my God”
John 20:29 Jesus tells him “Blessed are those who believe but have not seen”
Scritpures
Transcript of Service
There is a common expression, "seeing is believing," but when Thomas was told by his fellow disciples that they had seen the Lord, he refused to believe but said, "Not only must I see, but I must touch the wounds that he had." Jesus will later tell Thomas that there are certain benefits by believing but not seeing. Let's see what Jesus talks about in this situation.
It is very frustrating to only celebrate the resurrection on what many people call Easter or others the resurrection or we call first fruit because it is a time that we should be celebrating every single day, not alone every single Sunday. And so the last couple of weeks we have taken a look at the resurrection and we are going to continue to do that for the next couple of weeks because Jesus didn't show up occasionally and then leave and there are more proofs of the resurrection than simply an empty grave.
And so if you have your Bibles, then you should turn to the Gospel of John chapter 20 and we are going to start with verse 19.
Now Jesus had appeared to the women and specifically to Mary battling and she had seen the Lord and she runs back and tells everybody that she had seen Him and people take that with they will. But then comes Jesus showing Himself again and so when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, Sunday, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, "Peace be with you." Now we have this sense that the disciples are huddled together because they are afraid
not only have they crucified Jesus but there is this talk that Jesus has risen from the dead and they are doubly concerned now that the authorities were going to want to get rid of them as well. And so they are afraid and they huddled together and they have got the doors locked.
The locked doors doesn't stop Jesus from entry.
And so I don't know how He showed up. I don't know whether His body went through a wall, went through a door or He goes through the eighth dimension and just changes dimensions and shows up in our dimension.
But He appears in the room with them even though the door is locked and He gives a typical
Jewish greeting, "Peace, Shalom, be with you."
Which is particularly a good greeting for them because they are fearful, they are afraid, they are anxious and Jesus reassures them, "Peace be with you."
And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. And so Jesus immediately without anybody asking Him wants them to see that it is Him and the proofs that it is Him is the nail scarred hands and the piercing of His side. So He shows them that He is not a ghost, that He is not a mirage, that He is not a fantasy, that He is physical. Even though He appeared miraculously in their midst, He has a physical body and it is in fact Him. And having seen this, they then rejoice.
Now I want to mention here that they are seeing Him resurrected.
There is no faith because they saw Him.
You do not need faith when you see the risen Lord.
So they now have proof both by what has been testified about Him by the women. They have now seen Him for Himself and they have observed His injuries.
So Jesus said to them again, "Peace with you.
As a Father has sent me, I also send you." So Jesus says, "I'm glad you're rejoicing, but now you have a job to do.
The Father sent me, I am sending you." The Father sent Jesus to demonstrate who Jesus is, that He is the Son of God, that He was sent by the Father and He was sent there. And if we believe in Him, we would then have eternal life.
Now the disciples have the same job. The same job is to witness to the world that Jesus is the Son of God, that He rose from the dead, that in fact if we place our faith in Him, that we will have eternal life. You see, Jesus had been teaching and preparing His disciples for almost three and a half years, but He's not giving them a new job. He's giving them the same one He has to demonstrate who He is and that the Father sent Him, which I might say is the same job that we have, to tell the world that Jesus is the Son of God, that God sent Him, that if you would believe in Him, then you would have eternal life. So they've been given a job immediately.
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, "Receive the Holy Spirit." And now there's all kinds of controversy about this verse because we see in Acts that the Holy Spirit comes upon them and the people who tend to be more charismatic long on to that verse about receiving the Holy Spirit and doing all of these things, and so they don't necessarily like this verse.
I just lost my thing.
And so they kind of let me tell you what this verse means, that Jesus breathed on them and they received the Holy Spirit.
Now the Holy Spirit comes for many different purposes. One of the purpose is that we might know that His Spirit will confirm with our spirit that we are children of God, that the Holy Spirit is the one who draws us. And so Jesus tells them that they are receiving the Holy Spirit so that now that they might be commissioned to do what He has called them to do.
Now I also want you to notice, because we'll see later, not all the disciples were there.
They're additional disciples. And in that upper room where the Holy Spirit comes in power, there are other disciples and the ones that are here. So if Jesus only breathed on these and the Holy Spirit didn't come to rest, then there would be a whole lot of people who didn't have the Holy Spirit.
So it's not that He came here or whatever. He came here and the Spirit also came so that they might have what? Power.
Oftentimes the Holy Spirit will come upon us to give us a particular power to accomplish what He has set us to do. I remember a person was preaching and told a story about this person who was always talking about the Holy Spirit and wanting the Holy Spirit and doing the types of things. And in the past, they cried out and said, "Lord, don't give it to Him because He leaks."
And there's this tendency that we see people who claim to have the Holy Spirit and then live lives that doesn't seem like they have the Holy Spirit. Then they come back. You see, the Holy Spirit is there to seal us as believers. The Holy Spirit is there to dwell in us so that we might have the fruit of the Spirit. For you see, there are aspects of the Holy Spirit and even the Spirit came upon people in pre-Christ times to accomplish and to be aware of that God had placed His anointing on them.
And so Jesus breathes on them the Holy Spirit and they receive the Holy Spirit. It does not mean that when they go to Pentecost or before Pentecost that there is not an additional
revelation of the Holy Spirit.
So these disciples who are present receive the Holy Spirit.
And it says something again controversial.
And some of our Catholic brothers and sisters misunderstand this verse.
He says this, "If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. And if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained." Now, our Catholic brothers and sisters say this is where the priests have the authority to forgive sins.
Ain't wrong.
Let's look at the language. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven.
They've been forgiven. It's past tense.
What we're telling our job is to communicate to the world that Jesus is the Son of God, that His death and resurrection has meaning to us because our sins have been forgiven. And so what we're to do is to tell the world that their sins have been forgiven and their sins have been forgiven.
It isn't if I, otherwise it's if you forgive the sins of any, then their sins will be forgiven. It does not say that. It says they have been forgiven because it is death, burial, and resurrection of our Lord that has forgiven sins, not our confession that you are now holy or righteous. It is a complete work of Jesus that has done that, not my granting upon you absolution.
If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. Again, it's past tense. If you retain the sins of any, then they will be retained. Again it's a you do this, it's already been accomplished. You're making them aware that their sins have been forgiven and their sins are no longer retained. But if you fail to communicate the gospel, then what option do they have to repent?
Jesus is sending them to be His witnesses and He's telling them about the gospel. And the gospel is that Jesus has died for us and that He rose again from the dead and that if we have our faith in Him, then we will have eternal life. And if we don't communicate that gospel, there's a little chance.
But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus, didymus means twin, so it's believed that he had a twin. There are several brothers, as we saw earlier, who are disciples. Apparently Thomas, but not his brother, was a disciple.
We're not with them when Jesus came.
Now before so many people get tired, have a difficult week and decide to miss church.
I understand. I get tired.
Sometimes on Sunday morning I go, "Oh Lord," rather than, "Good morning, Lord." I understand.
Thomas failed to show up.
He didn't get to see the Lord.
He didn't have the Lord breathe on Him, the Holy Spirit.
He missed out on a glorious opportunity to rejoice, but instead He did it.
And so because of this, so the other disciples were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord."
But he said to them, "Unless I see His fans, hands, the imprints of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."
Now there's an expression that says, "Seeing is believing."
Thomas doesn't go just that far. Not only does he say, "If I don't see, I won't believe. I have to touch before I believe."
No ghost, no whatever. I have to see Him, and I have to feel the imprints because I saw Him crucified. I saw Him dead. They buried Him. You just don't get up out of the grave. So Thomas was not just a doubter.
He was a refuser.
It wasn't, "Well, I'm not sure you guys are right or wrong." That's a doubt. He's going, "No guys, I just don't believe you."
He's been hanging out with these people for three and a half years. He knows Peter. He knows John. He knows Matthew. He knows the others.
They may not have been perfect, but I pretty much think that their response here is, "We're not trying to trick you. We actually saw the Lord, but He will refuse us to believe them."
But Thomas is not unlike so many other people. They will say, "I will not believe that there is a God unless God conforms to my challenges."
The stupid ones are, "If there is a God, may He strike me dead." You're going, "It's the mercy of God and He doesn't." It gives you a little more time to not be an idiot.
But there's always people who place some condition on belief.
And Thomas' condition is, "I must see and I must touch."
Again, he doesn't ask for faith.
He asks for proof.
Now if I were God, and I'm not, I'd have probably avoided Thomas like the plague.
But our God is merciful and forgiving, and so this happens. After eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. So finally, Thomas is joining the group.
But it's been eight days. These disciples have now seen the Lord and know that He has risen, and they have done so for eight days. They've also had the Holy Spirit for eight days, and Thomas is still a refuser.
And Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, "Peace be with you." Jesus does the same thing as He had done before. He shows up unexpectedly. He shows up even though the doors have been shut, and He gives them the same greeting, "Peace be with you."
Jesus having not been physically with Thomas at the time, He then said to Thomas, "Reach here with your finger and see my hands, and reach here with your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving but believing."
You see, Jesus knew exactly what stood in the way of Thomas, his belief.
But Jesus says, "Here I am. You can touch."
Again, I probably wouldn't have been so magnanimous. But Jesus says, "If this is what you need, here.
Stop being unbelieving but believing."
Thomas answered and said to him, "My Lord and my God." Notice we have nothing here that ever said that Thomas did what he required.
The simple seeing Jesus and the offer to do so convinces Thomas.
Not only is Jesus his boss, but he is my Lord and my God.
He has acknowledged that Jesus is the Son of God, and that He is not only the Son of God, He is His God.
So many of us will talk about God being God, but we don't in reality say He's my God, because there are other things that we want to have as our gods rather than the Lord.
But Thomas makes that confession, "My Lord, my boss, the one whom I will follow, the one who has called me to be his disciple, and I will follow, I will be his servant, and he is my God."
And Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed."
You see, Thomas, like the others, now doesn't have to have faith.
They saw him. There was proof. They saw the resurrected one.
They not only believed because what the women said, they not only believed because of what the other disciples said, He believes, and they believed because they saw the Lord.
Notice what Jesus says, "Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed."
You and I, for those of us who believe that Jesus rose from the dead, are more blessed than they because we came to faith not having to see Jesus physically resurrected. We saw it by faith.
We walk by faith and not by sight.
But what are the blessings of faith? Well, the blessings of faith are, by faith, we are righteous.
By faith, we know that we are His because the Scripture says, "You have been saved by grace through faith." And that not of yourselves is a gift of God. We now understand that we have been saved because we acknowledge that Jesus is the Son of God and that He rose from the dead.
There is that blessing.
We have faith. And as the Scripture says, "Without faith, it is impossible to please God."
We have the opportunity to please God because we have come to faith not seen but believing.
Now I believe not because I just hope so.
I believe because of the evidence. I believe the evidence of the Scriptures. I believe the evidence of the ladies. I believe the evidence of the women, I'm sorry, of the disciples. I believe the evidence of the others that were more than just the twelve. I believe because Paul saw. I believe because there are others that saw. And I believe because the Holy Spirit has told my spirit that Jesus is the Son of God. And therefore, not having seen Him, I still believe without sight.
And therefore, I thank God that I'm blessed.
And so we should count our blessings that we do not have to be like Thomas or others
And our faith will become sight.
You see, the twelve did not have to have faith because they saw Him.
And there will be a day that we will no longer need faith because we will see Him.
Why Paul says there are three great things.
Faith, hope, and love.
But there will become a time when we won't need faith and we won't need sight. I mean, hope.
Because we will see Him.
But since God is love, love will continue throughout eternity.
So that's why Paul says you can try to increase your faith. That's going to be eventually for a short time. You can hope and hope and hope.
If you want to work on something that's permanent and everlasting, work on love.
Now, those who are watching me or those who may be here may have said, "I want to believe,
but I don't know."
I pray that His response to you is like Thomas.
If this is what you need, I'll show you.
But I would be very hesitant to have that heart of a heart and simply say, "Lord, show me You and however You wish to do so, and I'll believe.
I don't need sight.
Give me faith."
I believe He's that kind of God. He's the kind of God who is merciful and forgiving and that if you're truly struggling to find faith, He will help you find it.
If you simply use the lack of faith as a shield to prevent you from having faith, you're of all people to be most pitied because God is there to attempt to rescue you. You prefer to stay in this burning building.
But our God is the kind of God who doesn't leave us on our sins and trespass, but comes
as a good shepherd to find His sheep and to bring them home. My prayer is if you're one of those lost sheep, you are His and He'll bring you home. All God's people said.