Seeing and Believing (Ep. 289)

We all know about “Doubting Thomas,” but in reality, a lot of us have also had doubts. How do we face these times of uncertainty in light of Easter? Listen in to a conversation with Ed and Wayne, as they open the word and discuss the way Jesus invites us to seek and trust him. Along the way we’ll hear how FEBC listeners around the world live out their faith in a risen savior who they have never seen, but love dearly nonetheless. It is our prayer this episode will ignite a love for Jesus that will be evident to all around you…Until All Have Heard. 

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:02

Hey, thanks for listening. This is Until All Have Heard from the Far East Broadcasting Company, weekly podcast with Ed Cannon, who is president of FEBC. And Ed, it's always great to be with you.

SPEAKER_01 0:12

Likewise, Wayne. Today I have no idea really what we're going to talk about, but we decided we were just going to share with what's on our heart. Yeah. Right coming right out of Easter. Yeah. It's kind of a high point in the Christian faith for us, a holiday that we uh look forward to, but now it's over.

SPEAKER_00 0:28

Mm-hmm. But we have the year ahead of us, and we have uh, you know, I'm I'm still thinking about what Pastor Mike Fabaras told us last week as we headed into Easter about how to approach it and live with eternity in view. So let's uh let's do that now. Let's let's live with eternity in view here post-Easter, huh?

SPEAKER_01 0:48

Aaron Ross Powell Yeah. Pastor Mike, as I said in that last podcast, he really emphasizes that at our church. He's my pastor. I listen to his preaching every Sunday, and he has a constant focus on saying don't focus on this life. Focus on eternity. Keep an eternal focus on our lives. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 1:07

It's such an important message. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 1:08

Yeah, it is. Well, it's part of Jesus' message, too. This life is short and it'll soon be over. But what we do for Christ will last for eternity. And I think we need to focus on that, don't we?

SPEAKER_00 1:21

Aaron Powell You said you didn't know what we were going to talk about. We do because you've you've got John chapter 20 in front of you there. So you you know we want to draw some things out of Scripture here today for a few moments with our friends.

SPEAKER_01 1:31

Aaron Powell Yeah. Well, okay, just to be clear, that is the extent of what we talked about. But this is one of my favorite verses because you know there's a lot of discussion in the ministry world about, you know, going out and doing humanitarian work and the social gospel, and I believe that that's very important. Absolutely no question. Yes. But at FEBC, that's not our goal. What we do is use the gospel to inspire people to Christ. And so we use the various platforms of media, shortwave, AM, FM, Internet, cell phone apps, social media, TikTok even, you name it, we use it for the purpose of proclaiming the gospel of Christ. And you know, once again, not to diminish the need for humanitarian work. It's critically important Christ called us to do that.

SPEAKER_00 2:18

Yeah, we're great. We're grateful for those who do.

SPEAKER_01 2:20

Aaron Powell But this verse in John chapter 20, starting in verse 30, speaks to my heart in a way that at least shapes my thinking about this. So let me go to Scripture. Um John writes, Therefore many other signs Jesus performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. And I think that really summarizes much of Jesus' ministry on earth. Certainly, his primary ministry was to proclaim the gospel. His primary ministry was to proclaim the gospel and provide the sacrifice, the punishment for our sin. But much of his time on earth he spent convincing people who he was.

SPEAKER_00 3:22

Yes, he did.

SPEAKER_01 3:23

So that they would believe. So this verse, many other signs Jesus also did in the presence of his which we didn't even write down. You can't imagine how many miracles Jesus performed. Even little castaway miracles like looking down on a sick child and healing that child, and no one ever even knew it. We don't even know everything he did, uh, let alone have it described. But John says, these, the few that he has recorded here. I don't know how many miracles John describes in his book, maybe eight, maybe nine, maybe there's, you know, a dozen or so in all of the New Testament that Jesus performed. They were described in these books so that you will believe who he is, because nobody could heal a blind person. Nobody could resurrect a dead person. Nobody could feed 5,000 people with a few loaves of bread and a few fish. So he did that so that people said, There's no question, you're not just a man, you are of God. You can do things that human beings can't do. He's denying the laws of nature to rebuild an eyeball by proclaiming the words to have that happen. So this verse means a lot to me. And it says if Jesus wanted to to heal everybody in his region during his life, he could have done that. So his purpose was not to heal people, his purpose was not to to eliminate hunger or disease or blindness. His purpose was to show people that I am God and this is my message, right?

SPEAKER_00 5:12

To seek and to save.

SPEAKER_01 5:14

Yeah. And he wants them to believe. And in order to get them to believe, we're hard-headed, stiff-necked people. You know, even we we were chatting in our Bible study this morning, Wayne. Uh, you know, even after the disciples had been with Jesus for three years, they'd watched him perform all these miracles. He had come back from the grave and he meets them at the Sea of Galilee.

SPEAKER_00 5:38

And predicted he would come back from the grave.

SPEAKER_01 5:40

Exactly. And it still says, and some doubted. Right. How could they doubt? Well, I shouldn't question that, because I often think I would probably be a doubter or a skeptic too if I was there. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 5:54

Thomas gets a bad rap, doesn't he? Doubting Thomas. He probably wasn't the only one. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 5:57

But Thomas was one of the first to actually proclaim, you are my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, you've believed. Blessed are those who did not see and yet believed. That's us.

SPEAKER_00 6:13

We didn't see. Aaron Powell You know, there's a little detail in that story that we don't often think about. Jesus invites him to put his hands in his wounds, but we never have the record that Thomas actually did it.

SPEAKER_01 6:25

That's interesting. I've never read that in detail. Wait, I'm going to have to go back and do my homework. But yeah, just a sidebar note. Trevor Burrus Well, i assuming that's the case, that's demonstration of Thomas's faith. Trevor Burrus, Jr. He admitted his weakness. I have to see it, believe it, and touch it. But when he heard from the Lord himself, he believed. That I think is supernatural. Which all of Christ's miracles are. I want to point again to this, John chapter 20. He did these things so that you would believe. You know who else got a bum wrap in that, Wayne, in one of the miracles? Jesus is walking on water. And Peter says to Jesus, Well, call out that I might come to you. And he says, sure, come. So Peter walks on water, but we focus on the fact that he sank. Nobody even took any steps. So Peter obviously stepped on the water as well. We should be celebrating that as more than we've done. Who among us has had the confidence to say we can walk on water?

SPEAKER_00 7:33

Trevor Burrus, Jr. Step out of the boat, yes, as they say. Trevor Burrus, Jr. Yeah, step out of the boat.

SPEAKER_01 7:37

But anyway, back back to the point here, Wayne. What is the point that we're talking about today? It's that after high moments of our faith, emotional highs, significance events, we're we're just basking in the glory of our newfound faith. And then we can often doubt. Say, well, is that really true? We can often slip away and say, Yeah, that wasn't the highlight. And so go back into the patterns of our normal life. Let us not forget that Christ did these things so that we would believe who He is, dying on the cross, coming back to life, speaking to the apostles, walking with the disciples on the road to Emmaus, meeting the women at the tomb, speaking to the disciples, showing Thomas the Gash in his side. He did these things all so that we would believe. So let's not forget.

SPEAKER_00 8:33

Yes.

SPEAKER_01 8:34

The skeptics of the world today point to the things in the gospel. They say, Well, here's a discrepancy. You know, this name's different than that name. And yeah, okay, maybe there's some question marks we've got in our mind. But look at the overwhelming abundance of evidence that's no one's denying. Uh even the historian, the Jewish historian Josephus, declares in his writing, he's secular, he's a Jew. He didn't really become a Christian. Uh everyone renowns his history, even to this day, thousands of years after his death. He's a noted historian of much acclaim. He says in his history that Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He doesn't say people say he did. Josephus says Jesus Christ rose from the dead. He goes on further to say he is the Messiah foretold in the Jewish scriptures. So the abundance of truth overwhelms the minority of contradictions.

SPEAKER_00 9:37

Fabulous. So we've just had this high experience of celebrating the resurrection on Easter, and uh we need to live it out now in the days ahead. Uh we've got uh we've got much to do. Um I'm thinking about uh Christian radio. Of course, time in God's Word and Prayer is a way to keep that keep that uh thought going of Easter. But Christian radio is another way.

SPEAKER_01 9:58

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 9:58

You know, and I think of FEBC's broadcast. Every day people are taught the Word of God is kept in front of people, they respond to it. I'm thinking of this letter I got I'm holding from Japan. Can I can I read this to ask?

SPEAKER_01 10:10

Then I'll build a little bit more on FEBC's response. Okay.

SPEAKER_00 10:15

But listen to this is a this is a little letter's a little longer than I normally share, but I just want to share everything that I've gotten here. Listener comment from Japan. I praise the name of the Lord. I'm writing my letter after twenty years. Now twenty-four years have passed since I was baptized. I believe that I am who I am today thanks to FEBC's broadcast, and I listened every night next to my pillow. I decided that I wanted to believe in this mysterious God, Jesus Christ, and after my father in law passed away, I was baptized. After that, my husband saw me not putting my hands on the Buddhist altar and told me to get out of the house, but the next day when I said I'm leaving, my husband said don't go. This was also a mysterious grace. It has been twenty three years since I was baptized, and many things have happened to me. During very difficult times, listening to FEBC broadcasts every night was a great comfort. The Lord exists also in the radio. I was grateful for the miraculous work of the Lord Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who died on the cross for me, conquered death, and was resurrected, and who continues to do miraculous works even today. Even after undergoing surgery for ovarian cancer in twenty fourteen, the Lord keeps me alive. I want as many people as possible to know about Jesus Christ, the God who gives us eternal life.

SPEAKER_01 11:44

It's not unusual that we hear that it's taken decades, which is similar to Thomas, who had walked with Jesus for three years. So I need to touch the wounds in your side and in your hand. But then seeing he believed. He didn't have to touch, to your point. Right. Seeing he believed. And you know, you mentioned Christian radio. So during the season of Easter, um FEBC staff around the world would have received enormous numbers of responses. We always see that at Christmas and Easter, where people, unbelievers, people typically of other faiths, Buddhism, Muslim faith, atheists, um will write in and call in because of the programs that we put on in Christmas and Easter. But now, after Easter is over, the follow-up starts with our staff visiting people, visiting churches, writing to people, phoning people, messaging people to follow up with that abundance of response we would have gotten on Easter Sunday. So it is our demonstration of our faith. Just like in John chapter 20, Jesus did these things so that you would believe. We proclaimed the word on the radio on Easter, and now so that people believe, we follow up with them, we visit them, we speak to them, we go into the churches, and we reach out to make sure that people understood that message that Christ delivered to us, that message that they heard possibly for the first time on Easter Sunday. Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_00 13:19

And that gives us a major clue on how to pray for our staff around the world, doesn't it?

unknown 13:23

Trevor Burrus, Jr.

SPEAKER_01 13:23

Amen, Wayne. Pray for their perseverance, pray for their safety as they go and visit people and in these communities. In many cases, uh families don't want to have people become Christians, uh oppressive governments resist the spread of the gospel, but that our staff would faithfully follow up with those who have demonstrated interest in the gospel, and when they do, that those people will come to faith.

unknown 13:47

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 13:47

Yeah. So thank you. Seriously, thank you for your prayers. The uh the people, the friends listening who pray for the Ministry of Far East Broadcasting Company, they're so special to us. We appreciate you very, very much. So thanks for your interest as well in finding out more about this ministry by going to our website, febc.org. There you can read reports from various countries of what God is doing. We read one from Japan. It can be repeated over and over again, hundreds and thousands of times, from listeners we hear about and hear from as they listen to the Far East Broadcasting Company programs. And thank you for this perspective post-Easter.

SPEAKER_01 14:22

Well, Wayne, thank you for your your diligent service on Until All Have Heard and your commitment to the Ministry of FEBC. I don't think I've ever told people on this broadcast that Wayne Shepherd serves on the board of FEBC and has for quite some time, so we appreciate that service.

SPEAKER_00 14:38

My pleasure. One uh one of many board members who give other of their time. So thank you, Ed. We'll uh talk to you next week here on Until All Have Heard of Ministry of the Far East Broadcasting Company and online at FEBC.org.