WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:14.820 I'm coming to you from North Central Ohio, we share with you the voice of the Nazarene, a week by week venture into the Word of God sponsored by the Bucyrus, Ohio Church of the Nazarene. We joined our Pastor Reverend Ray LaSalle. And the voice of the Nazarene. 00:00:14.820 --> 00:00:57.929 A few weeks ago, we started a new series on the men that Jesus chose, and there were 12 of them. At that time, on the earth, there were 250 million people in population. And from that assortment, Jesus chose only 12. And it's from these 12, that today, we have 2.5 billion, who claimed to be followers of Christ, all of it can be traced back to those 12. I began in week one talking about how Jesus called those disciples those 12. 00:00:58.859 --> 00:01:02.759 And they were put through a rigorous five dimension tests. 00:01:03.179 --> 00:03:53.969 You know, the action tests, whether you're going to forsake all the follow me and the authority test, you can't really be a leader, until you first of all, are willing to be a good follower. and on it went and in the next week, we dealt with Simon, Peter, he had a propensity to have one of his feet in his mouth most of the time. Then we went on to talk about Andrew and what Andrew did, he just kept bringing people to Jesus bringing people that Jesus he brought, allowed to Jesus, he brought the children to Jesus, he brought hungry people to Jesus, he brought Gentiles just always bringing people to Jesus. That brings us to the message this morning. And the disciple that I'd like to focus our attention on is a guy by the name of Thomas Thomas. And this is what we know about Thomas Thomas was a twin. That word Ditmas then said, Thomas, which is called dunamis, that were did of us means twin, he was a twin. We don't know whether he had a twin brother or twin sister. We don't know whether it was identical twins or fraternal. Twins. He's the only disciple that was a twin. And when you think about what increases the likelihood of being a twin, I don't know if you know this, but one out of every 250 bursts are pregnancies resolved in the set of twins, one about one of every 250. And I know that genetics plays in, in part in determining if you are a twin, and here's something interesting if the birth mother's over 35 years of age, it increases the likelihood of having twins, facts that matter if it's a tall woman, she's got better chances of having twins than a short woman. Black women have more twins than white women do. White women have more twins than Asians are Hispanic people do. And someone said that God makes twins with a face that he really likes. Now, here's something interesting in the gospels, Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Matthew, in his whole book only lists the name of Thomas. Mark writes his book and only lists the name of Thomas. 00:03:46.620 --> 00:04:05.520 Luke only lists the name only John, in his book writes, and gives us some background and history on this apostle name. 00:03:59.009 --> 00:04:10.560 Thomas is believed they grew up in Galilee, and perhaps Thomas and John had grown up together. 00:04:11.819 --> 00:04:20.040 So everything that we learn about Thomas will gather and garner from the book of John. 00:04:14.909 --> 00:04:45.629 And here's what I want you to see three things that I believe to be very important to us from the life of Thomas. First of all, he was cynical. You bet a few people who are cynical, I believe, if he had completed a profile personality profile, he would be assigned to this thing called melancholy, personality. 00:04:39.779 --> 00:04:54.990 They've got to have everything down and everything correct. And here's what I want to say before I start preaching about it. God uses all types of personalities. 00:04:56.670 --> 00:05:00.779 God made you a unique person. 00:04:56.670 --> 00:05:14.009 God gave You have a unique passion, because he wants you to have a unique purpose. So God uses all types of personalities. 00:05:06.089 --> 00:06:42.120 And Thomas, I can tell you, he was pretty pessimistic. That's an optimist with experience. He was very cautious. You had to prove everything to me. He was saying, Thomas read the fine print. He read the label on the back of everything. He read the instructions before he started putting anything together. And he had a tendency to be negative, sometimes some people are so negative, I believe if they walked into a dark room, they'd finally develop. And here's this guy by the name of Thomas. He fours he was concerned, it appeared that the whole world of skies about the fall in the world is coming apart at the seams. The end is here, I better collect a bunch of guns, buy ammunition, store up food, and get a bunch of cash because everything's about to end and we got to run for hiding. I was reading the other day about a guy that was very negative everything. Everything he saw, he said a negative comment about it. It bothered his best friend. And the best friend wanted to be with him, but was tired of all the negatives. Um, so he went fishing without him. And out there from his boat, he saw a dog walking on the water, he thought, boy, if my friend could see that he couldn't say anything negative about that. So he took his friend fishing the next day. And sure enough, that dog came walking on the water. 00:06:36.569 --> 00:06:45.209 And he said to him, What do you think about that he said, he probably doesn't know how to swim. 00:06:46.920 --> 00:07:09.509 So here in John 1039, therefore they sought again to take Jesus, but he escaped out of their hand. Now, people here in Jerusalem and angry, rebel like crowd decided they want to stone Christ to death. And he slipped out of their midst made his way down to the Jordan River area. 00:07:05.699 --> 00:07:49.680 Now here's what happened. He had some friends, Lazarus and Martha and Mary, a brother and two sisters and, and the sister sent word, Tao Jesus to come back to Jerusalem, for thou, he that thou lovest is sick. Did you catch that? Instead of saying he loves you and he's sick? No, he said, the one that you love is sick. What does that tell us? It reminds us that God loves us in spite of whatever we're going through. If you failed him, God loves you. If you're hurting, God loves you, if you're sick, God loves you, if you're on low tide in life, let me tell you something, God still loves you. 00:07:49.829 --> 00:09:07.379 I want you to know he will allow lovest is sick. God loves you, no matter where you're at in life. And the devil will come along and say, well, this wouldn't have happened. If God loves you. You want I'm saying, keep that in mind. Now what happened? Jesus is away from Jerusalem. And they sin word we need Jesus to come back because Lazarus is sick. And in verse eight, his disciples, they said, Master, the Jews of late salt, the stone lead to death, why would you want to go back to Jerusalem. And then in verse 16, Thomas gets involved in the conversation with the twin. And he said unto his fellow disciples, let us also get gold that we may die with him. That's just gonna die. Let's just get it over with. I knew the end would happen. I knew everything was gonna fail. And he had enough influence that he got the rest of the disciples to go with him to Lazarus. Now, here's Thomas, he's very cynical. He said, let us just go no matter what happens, we're going to die. And I want you to get this folk, that's a terrible way to live your life. always negative. 00:09:01.559 --> 00:09:46.980 Always gloom and doom, the sky is always fall. That's an awful way to live. Because when they got there, they experienced the most amazing miracle that had ever been seen. They experienced the miracle of Jesus resurrecting a man. And that's what the enemy wants to do. The enemy will tell you that things are never going to be good. If you go to church, you'll get COVID and, and a better stay away and, and the devil wants to show you the negative. And if you listen to him, you will miss the greatest blessing of all on the various Sunday that you miss. So Thomas was cynical, but I'll tell you something else. 00:09:43.049 --> 00:10:14.009 Thomas was concerned. Now remember, the rider that speaks about Thomas is John. Okay. Let me tell you something since this, Jesus has taken these disciples to an upper room that had At the Lord's Supper, he had washed their feet. And then he told him, I'm going to die, boys got quiet around the table. And he said, I'm going to be buried, but I'll be resurrected, and then I'll send back to heaven. 00:10:14.399 --> 00:11:17.490 And then he has this conversation with them, of some of the most famous verses in all of the Bible. John, chapter 14, verse one, let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in Me, In my Father's house are many mansions. If it were not sold, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you unto Myself that where I am, there you may be also and whether I go, you know, and the way you know, now, wait, Thomas, he comes into the picture, he says, Lord, we don't even have a clue where you're going. Don't have a clue. I've pastored people like that. They didn't know where the Lord was going where the church was, or anything else. And he said, we don't have a clue where we're going. And by the way, Lord, while we're having this discussion, how can we know the way? How can we know the way? 00:11:17.730 --> 00:11:39.690 Listen, one of the most famous passages in all of divine read, Jesus turned and he said, I am the way I am the way and the truth. And I'm the life. And the three greatest questions in the human heart. Are these. How can I be saved? How can I be sure? 00:11:40.169 --> 00:12:34.289 How can I be satisfied? How could I be saved? He said, I'm the way well, how can I be sure he answers on the truth? How can I be satisfied? He said, I'm the life. And so he said, I'm the WAY the TRUTH live. You can be saved and you can be sure and you can be satisfied because of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, let me give you a little history for a moment of Christian Adam, in 1949, a young preacher from the hills of North Carolina, he got a chance with the youth of Christ made his way to Los Angeles, California, set up the tent near Hollywood. And he was going to have a three week crusade and when for eight weeks, actors, Hollywood actors and actresses begin to come. 00:12:34.679 --> 00:13:59.370 They set and listen to young Billy Graham, and soon many of them were getting saved. And one night, a drunken cowboy actors staggered in and sat down in the back to enjoy and make fun of the preacher and got under conviction. His name was stirred. Hamlin. I've seen him with my own eyes. I heard him as a boy with my own ears in a large tabernacle in Indianapolis. Sheringham Hamlin set there that night, and under a great conviction finally went forward to give his heart to Christ. days later, he made his way to another actor friend's house. It was John Wayne, and John Wayne listen to him and watched him and finally said to him, Stu, he always called spirits do. He said, You know, you're different. You've changed. You used to have the most nasty mouth and the most foul words. You hardly ever drew a sober breath. You were a womanizer, you chased every skirt? What in the world has happened? Would you tell me? And Stuart answered, it's no secret, what God can do, what he's done for others, he'll do for you, too. And Duke said to him, he said, Stuart, you need to write that down. That's a song I think. He laughed, and in 17 minutes had written that song. 00:13:54.389 --> 00:14:04.080 It is no secret. What God can do what he's done. For others. 00:13:59.399 --> 00:14:10.889 He'll do for you with our arms wide open. He'll pardon you. It is no secret. What God can do. 00:14:10.980 --> 00:14:33.539 So I just want to say to you that Thomas was cynical. He was concerned. But Thomas had a great confession. You say, Pastor, I've read the Bible, and all I can get out of it is doubting Thomas. Where did he get that name? Well, let me tell you, John, chapter 20, verse 24. 00:14:28.440 --> 00:15:54.750 Thomas, one of the 12 he was a twin. And at one time they were roommates. Okay, just for your information. How did Thomas get that name? Well, here it says he's one of the 12 he was not with them. When Jesus came to her and the world Tom was was I don't know, but he missed the service. The one that Jesus showed up in he could have been on the golf course could have been out fishing could have been shoveling his kids around I don't know Marie was but he wasn't there. The other disciples were there. They said, We have seen the Lord, you missed a Thomas. But he said unto them, except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side. That's where the Spirit been driven and driven into his side, and less that I will not believe. So that's where he gets the name Doubting Thomas, I will not believe unless let me give you three things very important. Doubt is not disbelief. You say? Well, Pastor doubt is the opposite of faith. No, it's not. Um, belief is opposite of faith. Doubt is when I have faith, but I'm struggling in my faith. I'm struggling. you've struggled. 00:15:50.820 --> 00:15:58.889 You know, there's three types of people those that have doubted. 00:15:54.750 --> 00:16:23.100 Those that will doubt and the rest are brain dead. Pretty simple, the regroups and you need to understand something, we do have an enemy. I think when things happen, our brains are challenged. I think sometimes we forget there's a real devil. I think the greatest trick the devil ever pulled off on the world was to convinced the world that he himself did not exist. 00:16:19.019 --> 00:16:41.639 But when you read Genesis, chapter two, verse 16, God said to Adam and Eve, I planted a tree over here. And if you eat of it, you will die. You can eat up every other tree. But if either the tree is analogy, you'll die. Pretty clear one did, guess what? They ate us out of house and home. 00:16:43.169 --> 00:16:56.730 Now God was so clear, if you eat it, you'll die. But along comes the devil in the form of a serpent, the most subtle creature in all of the field. 00:16:52.409 --> 00:17:16.740 And he said to the woman, Yea, hath God said, and my message to you ladies, incidentally, is, don't listen to snakes. And if you're dating a snake, get rid of it. And if you're dating, slinky, subdial serpent, guys, you need to get rid of her. 00:17:12.480 --> 00:17:21.569 Don't listen to snakes. And guess what this creature said? 00:17:16.740 --> 00:18:59.250 With the devil speaking through this creature? He said, Yea, hath God said, he's trying to put doubt in her mind, he shall not eat of every tree of the garden. And what the devil is doing is trying to get her mind to doubt. And may I just say what the job of the church is what the job of be as a preacher and other staff members. Our job is not to create doubt, our job is to build belief in what God has done, and that Christ came, and that God can transform your life. Now, here's the second thing. Doubt is not disbelief and doubt can even lead to discovery. I want you to look at John chapter 20, verse 26. And after eight days again, his disciples were within and Thomas with them, this time he did miss the service. And then came Jesus, the doors being shut stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. And he said, Why don't you just reach out your hand and put it in the print of the nail print on my hand, I want you to put your hand here and feel and thrust in and you'll see with a spear went into my, my side, Jesus is saying, reach out to me. I'm trying, I'm inviting you to feel my hands. And something real important. I don't want to beat up on Thomas today. I've spent my life doing that and other preachers to Thomas only wanted to see and to feel what the other disciples had already seen. That's all. You find me where Jesus ever rebuked him. 00:18:59.250 --> 00:19:27.480 Jesus did not rebuke him. He invited him to come and feel that place in his saw, you say, Well, Pastor, I struggle with doubt. Join the crowd. There's not a one of us that haven't dealt with doubt somewhere along the trail of our life. That's why the one person said, Lord, help my unbelief. He was struggling to believe and sometimes there's coming to you said, Well, Pastor, how in the world can I build my faith? 00:19:27.480 --> 00:20:30.359 Well, let's look at how Thomas faith was built. Jesus helped him the first of all three things his words. Now John, the writer knew that his friend Thomas struggled with doubt. And so he writes First John, the first little pistol of John and a buddy of mine, he's now retired but he got saved late and and they stuck him in a boy Sunday school class to teach and that thing grew and doubled and tripled and they somebody asked him What What lesson are you teaching? He said, I'm I'm teaching No matter when I add John and two I, John and three I, John. Well, John wrote the Gospel of John, First John, Second John, Third John and even the book of Revelation. Now he writes, The First Epistle of John chapter five, verse 13. And he said, These things have I written unto you that you might believe, and that you might know that you have eternal life. He said, I've written these things. 00:20:27.450 --> 00:20:43.890 So you'll be believers. And so that you know that you know, you have eternal life, the way to build faith in our lives, is to get into the Word. Get into the word, how can I build faith? 00:20:39.839 --> 00:21:23.430 Pick up the Bible, start reading the Bible. So how do we build faith, we build faith by getting into his word by word, have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against the the second way to build your faith is his presence. Jesus simply comes and he spends time with Thomas. And that builds faith. What I'm trying to say you need to get into the presence of God, it'll build you up. You need to spend time with God. Do you realize that if Satan can't get you to be bad, he'll try to make you busy, too busy, to be spiritual. 00:21:25.589 --> 00:22:43.019 You say, there's just not enough time you have to make time you make appointments, and you keep them for other things? Why not make an appointment with God and keep that appointment? You're in the presence of the Creator of the Universe. Pretty important meeting. So how do I build faith, getting into his word, spending time with God, and the third thing is his body wanting to do he said, Thomas, come here, and put your hand against my, my body. understand something, while we'll build faith in your life is the body of Christ, the body of Christ, okay. Somebody said that we need to isolate and get alone, to be spiritual. God said, You need to be with one another. fact that matter, that little term, one another is 50 times listed in relationship to the church being with one another, spending time together. And he, and he's saying we need each other. I was reading again, the, the, what we call the, the Lord's Prayer. And I need to tell you in advance, actually, it's not the Lord's Prayer. He taught us to pray that prayer. So it's our prayer. 00:22:43.529 --> 00:23:16.440 If you want to read his prayers, John chapter 17. It's a chapter is a long one. But it's a great prayer. But he taught us to pray this prayer in Matthew six, verse nine, Our Father which art in heaven, hallowed be thy name, thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth, as it is, do you see Allah started our Father, not my father, our father, he belongs to all of us. And he said, Give us this day, our daily bread, you can put a circle around that little word us. That's not one, that's us. 00:23:16.680 --> 00:23:22.410 This is our prayer. Together us. 00:23:16.680 --> 00:25:09.240 If you don't have a Bible, you need to get your Bible and mark in the Bible. I'm not against all the electronics and all that's fine. But sometimes it's just good to have an old hard copy that you don't mind writing in. And when God speaks to you, and the truth comes alive market, so you can find it at a later time. Give us circle that our daily bread our put a circle around our and he said, and forgive us our debts for circle around our as we that's all of us, forgive our debtors. And he goes on, he said, and lead us that's another circle into not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom the power the glory, forever, amen. Now, where did we get the idea that we don't need corporate worship? We need to be together. We need the body. The church is the body you and I are a part of the body of Christ We're members in particular, you might be the elbow and somebody else may be the hand somebody else the foot now there sit on the eyes somebody else said I'm the mouse somebody else and I'm the air but we're all members together and it makes up the body and we need the body don't ever drop out of church and get angry and and and stay away you need to church we all need to be a part of the the body for we gained strength. Now let me let me touch on whether the area before I land here doubt leads to a deeper life. He's a pastor this guy Thomas's this In a cool guy, this, this guy, there's always questioning and doubting and seem like, whatever what became of him. Very interesting. 00:25:09.779 --> 00:25:19.799 He took the gospel farther away than in the other disciple. He literally took the gospel all the way over the land of India. 00:25:20.460 --> 00:25:44.039 And history tells us that he established churches across India that are still going today. And as you're studying history, you'll find that as the different disciples were martyred, Thomas also was martyred but martyred differently than the others. 00:25:39.299 --> 00:25:51.450 They took Thomas to one side, and they had a soldier with a large spear. And he said, We're gonna ram the spear literally, through your heart. 00:25:53.220 --> 00:26:17.789 And they thought I would disturb Thomas. But it's recorded that he answered, that sounds appropriate for his head when you ran that spear through my heart. It reminds me that one day in my life, when I felt were another spear, had been remembered, I'll not believe unless I can feel his side with a spear when he said I was changed. I was changed that day. 00:26:18.089 --> 00:27:55.109 May I say that doubt in some ways can be a good thing. It can get us to thinking it can get us searching. And it can cause us to question whether or not we're right with God, and it can cause us to make a decision to get right with God. Sometimes doubt can lead us to trusting the Lord more than we've ever trusted him in life. Thomas struggled to get some of the question marks rubbed out. And one day God put a period behind his name and maybe one of the most useful Disciples of the 12. What an impact. It might be this morning, you're struggling with some questions. You're struggling maybe with some doubt, it'd be a great time to approach the Lord and talk to him about what you're struggling with. Fact The matter I think he'll say just come near to me, get into my word and get into my presence and get around the body and and I'll help you to build faith. And I'll roll out the question marks. Anybody like that this morning? Pasture before you close before you turn the lights out, locked the doors? Could we have time together to pray we can. All you would need to do is just get up out of that seat right now and make your way down an aisle and you'd find the pastor to hang around and there'll be some others gather with you. And we can have a word of prayer. And I wonder with our eyes closed for a moment, who lost struggling today, pastor, I'm struggling. 00:27:50.579 --> 00:28:15.750 It's not that I don't have faith. I KNOW JESUS IS JESUS AND LORD OF LORDS. But I'm struggling in my faith. I'm weathering some things that are happening in my life and kind of don't know where I'm at. And I'd like to know where I'm at. Now like for God to help me to settle some issues. Anybody like that this morning? 00:28:17.279 --> 00:28:28.680 Thanks for being a part of the voice of the Nazarene. Visit us every Sunday at 9am with B and C's pastor Ray LaSalle. For more information regarding B and C, visit Bucyrus nazarene.org.