SPEAKER_00: Good morning.
SPEAKER_00: Our scripture reading this morning is John chapter 20, verses 24 through 29.
SPEAKER_00: My name is Kelsey Meyer, and I serve in Harbor Kids in the 0 to 18 months, and it is my joy to read this morning's word with you.
SPEAKER_00: Again, the scripture is John chapter 20, verses 24 through 29.
SPEAKER_00: Now, Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
SPEAKER_00: So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_00: But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
SPEAKER_00: Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.
SPEAKER_00: Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_00: Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands, and put your hand and place it in my side.
SPEAKER_00: Do not disbelieve, but believe.
SPEAKER_00: Thomas answered him, My Lord, my God.
SPEAKER_00: Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?
SPEAKER_00: Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
SPEAKER_00: This is the word of the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.
SPEAKER_01: Thank you, Kelsey.
SPEAKER_01: Well, good morning, everyone, and welcome to Harbor.
SPEAKER_01: My name is Trevor.
SPEAKER_01: I am one of the pastors here as well, and so glad that you've chosen to join us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: It has been said already, but it is worth mentioning again.
SPEAKER_01: Congratulations to all those who are graduating here this weekend or in the coming weeks.
SPEAKER_01: And uh happy Mother's Day to all the moms out there.
SPEAKER_01: We know that this is uh a season of mixed feelings where there's joy in the room, there's sorrow in the room, and maybe there's some disorientation in the room.
SPEAKER_01: But we're wherever you're at today, we're glad you're here, and we sincerely hope that the Lord meets you through the preaching of his word.
SPEAKER_01: Um in his work, his book, Surprise by Joy, C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, the famous 20th century apologist, kind of narrates his reluctant conversion to Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And his story begins in early childhood with a description of what he calls joy.
SPEAKER_01: Not really a sense of like happiness, but rather an inconsolable longing for something beyond this world that could deeply satisfy his personal inward longings.
SPEAKER_01: But when his mom died at the age of nine, he was sent to boarding school where kind of the cold, harsh realities of dormitory life and the rationalism of the classroom began to cause him to question some of his Christian upbringing.
SPEAKER_01: Before long, the loss of his mother and the disillusionment of boarding school began to lead him down the path of skepticism and eventually atheism until he began to be convinced that Christianity is just irrational.
SPEAKER_01: His skepticism then persisted into adulthood until he met men like J.R.R.
SPEAKER_01: Tolkien, author of Lord of the Rings, and Hugo Dyson, who persistently challenged the assumptions he was making about the Christian faith and encouraged him to consider the evidence for himself.
SPEAKER_01: In time, after years of resisting Christianity, Lewis conceded and converted to Christ while in the sidecar of his brother's motorcycle on the way to the Whipsnate Zoo in Bedfordshire, England.
SPEAKER_01: In his book, he describes that experience like this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, When we set out, I did not believe that Jesus was the Son of God.
SPEAKER_01: And when we had reached the zoo, I did.
SPEAKER_01: Describing his conversion experience later that night when he prayed to receive Christ, he says this.
SPEAKER_01: He says, I gave in and I admitted that God was God and I was not.
SPEAKER_01: I knelt and prayed.
SPEAKER_01: Perhaps that night, the most dejected and reluctant convert in all of England.
SPEAKER_01: Now you must picture me there alone in that room, feeling the steady, unrelenting approach of him who I so earnestly desired not to meet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis's story is important for two reasons.
SPEAKER_01: For one, it shows us that nobody is beyond God's reach.
SPEAKER_01: If C.
SPEAKER_01: S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, the most reluctant convert in all of England, can come to faith in Jesus, then anybody can come to faith in Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: And two, it shows us that it's not unreasonable to believe in Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis had serious doubts about the Christian faith, and he didn't come to Christ because he was delusional or naive or gullible.
SPEAKER_01: He came to Christ because he was confronted time and time again by the evidence for Jesus, and he reluctantly accepted that evidence and believed.
SPEAKER_01: Now, in our text this morning, we're going to meet Thomas, a man just like C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, who found Jesus Christ to be inescapable.
SPEAKER_01: A man like Lewis, who was reluctant to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now, as one of the twelve disciples, Thomas would have been an eyewitness to the life and ministry of Jesus as well as to his death and resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: So Thomas could certifiably verify that Jesus was in fact dead.
SPEAKER_01: And when the disciples come and tell him that they've seen him alive, he's pretty skeptical.
SPEAKER_01: He's not easily convinced that what they have to say is true.
SPEAKER_01: And yet, despite his skepticism, he reluctantly comes to faith in Jesus through the witness of his friends and the undeniable weight of the evidence for the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so we're in the middle of a sermon series called Encountering the Risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And today we get to see how people who are skeptical about Jesus often meet him for themselves.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're the kind of person who has doubts about Christianity, I want you to see that you're in good company.
SPEAKER_01: Because one of Jesus' twelve disciples had doubts about Christianity as well.
SPEAKER_01: And Thomas isn't naive, he's not gullible, he's not superstitious, he's not like wanting the resurrection to be true.
SPEAKER_01: He seriously doubts that the resurrection is possible.
SPEAKER_01: And if Thomas can come to faith in Jesus despite his skepticism, then faith is a possibility for you as well.
SPEAKER_01: And if you are a Christian and you have been convinced of the claims of Christ, I hope that this text this morning helps you see that those who are skeptical about Christianity aren't always skeptical just because they're hard-hearted or closed-minded.
SPEAKER_01: Sometimes they're just analytical people who use critical thinking and need a little bit more convincing.
SPEAKER_01: And so my hope is that as we work our way through the passage this morning, is that you would grow in compassion for those who find Christianity hard to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Because if it if it was hard for Thomas to believe in the resurrection of Jesus, we shouldn't be surprised when we come across people in our day who find it hard to believe in the resurrection of Jesus as well.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, there are good reasons to believe that Jesus is risen from the dead, and Thomas's story is one of them.
SPEAKER_01: So if you find yourself skeptical of Christ's claims, what I want you to see this morning is that your doubts are not too big for Jesus, because he turns hesitant skeptics into wholehearted believers.
SPEAKER_01: And if you're skeptical of Christianity, I want you to see three things in this text.
SPEAKER_01: Or I want you to do three things in response to this text, really.
SPEAKER_01: I want you to name your doubt, and I want you to believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So name, see, believe.
SPEAKER_01: So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: So I want you to remember as we get started here, kind of where we're at in this story.
SPEAKER_01: It's still Sunday.
SPEAKER_01: Earlier that morning, at the break of dawn, Mary Magdalene and some women went to the tomb to mourn the body of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: While they're there, Mary and those women return to go get the disciples.
SPEAKER_01: Mary Magdalene brings back Peter and John to show them the empty tomb.
SPEAKER_01: They arrive, they peek in, they discover it is in fact empty, and they don't know where Jesus' body is.
SPEAKER_01: So Peter and John, they return home, kind of scratching their heads, believing to a degree, but still uncertain about what this must mean.
SPEAKER_01: Mary, on the other hand, she stays behind.
SPEAKER_01: She checks the tomb a second time, she encounters some angels, and when she turns around, there's Jesus revealing himself to her alive.
SPEAKER_01: And she gets to be the very first person who sees Jesus alive after his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: She then returns to the disciples again and says, Hey, I've seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Later that afternoon, still on Sunday, Jesus appears to ten of the remaining eleven disciples because Judas betrayed him and uh killed himself, and then twomas, for some reason or another, was not there.
SPEAKER_01: So now the disciples have seen the risen Christ, and they, like Mary, return back to Thomas and they tell him the exact same thing that Mary told them, that they have seen the Lord.
SPEAKER_01: Now the language here is really important because in the English uh this sounds like they told Thomas once and then they went about their daily life.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it seems rather casual.
SPEAKER_01: Uh it seems as though uh they kind of are saying to Thomas, Hey, uh, how was your morning, buddy?
SPEAKER_01: Well, what what did you do today?
SPEAKER_01: And Thomas is like, Well, you know, I had breakfast and I put my clothes on, I'm getting ready to go to work or whatever.
SPEAKER_01: And the disciples are just kind of like, oh yeah, well, we saw Jesus alive after his resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but it's not like that at all.
SPEAKER_01: Because in the religion, the original language, this is actually like a present, active, and ongoing reality.
SPEAKER_01: Um, this is like the disciples are persistently telling Thomas over and over again, hey man, I'm telling you, I know what I saw.
SPEAKER_01: We saw Jesus alive and well, standing before us in that place, and we're not making it up.
SPEAKER_01: And you can imagine Thomas kind of be like, Yeah, are you sure it wasn't like the PC8 last night?
SPEAKER_01: Did you like stay out a little bit too late, have a little bit too much to drink?
SPEAKER_01: And the languages that the disciples are persistently and continually telling Thomas, we saw Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: So they're not giving up.
SPEAKER_01: They've encountered Christ, they know what they've seen and heard, and they are continually uh telling him about it.
SPEAKER_01: Now, many of you are like this.
SPEAKER_01: You've encountered Christ for yourselves, and you don't want to keep that news to yourself.
SPEAKER_01: You want your friends and your family members and your neighbors and your coworkers to know about what Jesus has done in your life because you want them to know what Jesus can do in their life as well.
SPEAKER_01: And so you persistently and eagerly are inviting them to church and telling them about Jesus and sharing your story.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the disciples in this moment.
SPEAKER_01: They're excited and they're telling Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: Um, but Thomas still isn't convinced.
SPEAKER_01: No matter how many times the disciples tell their story, he is skeptical about what he is hearing from them.
SPEAKER_01: So he says to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand in his side, I will never believe.
SPEAKER_01: So despite the personal experience of his closest friends, Thomas absolutely refuses to believe what he's hearing.
SPEAKER_01: For him, secondhand knowledge just isn't enough.
SPEAKER_01: He wants empirical evidence that Jesus is in fact risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: And there's a couple things that I want you to notice here.
SPEAKER_01: The first thing I want you to notice is that Thomas refuses to believe even though his closest friends are telling him what they've seen and heard.
SPEAKER_01: And so it's hard for Thomas to be convinced of the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: And if it's hard for Thomas to be convinced, we shouldn't be surprised if it's hard for people in our day to be convinced as well.
SPEAKER_01: Second, Thomas doesn't minimize, dismiss, or ignore his doubts.
SPEAKER_01: He names them.
SPEAKER_01: He draws attention to the fact that he finds the resurrection of Jesus Christ hard to believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now that's important because there's something about externalizing your doubts, verbalizing them out loud, that disempowers them.
SPEAKER_01: There's something just simply about naming what's true that takes kind of the uh the power out of them.
SPEAKER_01: But the third thing I want you to see is that Thomas doesn't just name his doubts, he names his doubts in Christian community.
SPEAKER_01: He's not in his dorm room looking up Reddit or YouTube or Chat GPT trying to find an answer from an algorithm or some kind of artificial intelligence.
SPEAKER_01: And he's not just kind of like reluctantly distancing himself from Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: He's naming his doubts out loud to his Christian community.
SPEAKER_01: And that's important because we not only need to be able to identify what our doubts are, we also need the support of those around us who can help us wrestle with them honestly and work through them intelligently.
SPEAKER_01: And so there's a very real and simple application that if you doubt Christianity, if you have a hard time believing that Jesus is who he says he is and did what he said he's due, one of the best things you can do for yourself is just stay in the room.
SPEAKER_01: Get involved in a harbor group where people of faith can walk alongside you and answer your questions and and and walk you towards Christian faith as you sort out what it is that you believe.
SPEAKER_01: Just think about somebody that you know who's received a hard diagnosis.
SPEAKER_01: What tends to happen?
SPEAKER_01: Well, the first thing is you experience symptoms.
SPEAKER_01: Usually you kind of just shrug them off, assuming that they're gonna go away before too long, but uh once they begin to kind of disrupt your daily life consistently, you you decide that you should probably go visit a doctor.
SPEAKER_01: The pain just doesn't go away.
SPEAKER_01: You start to lose some energy, maybe your strength begins to go, and maybe you just describe the sense of like something feels off.
SPEAKER_01: I can't name it, I can't really pinpoint it, I'm not sure how to describe it.
SPEAKER_01: I just something isn't quite right inside my body.
SPEAKER_01: And so you go to the doctor, and the doctor asks a bunch of questions, they maybe do some type of exam, maybe they order some tests, a blood test, some type of scan, an x-ray, MRI.
SPEAKER_01: Uh who really knows what they might do there.
SPEAKER_01: Uh but then the doctor comes back with a diagnosis.
SPEAKER_01: They might say, You've infertility, you've heart disease, you have spina bifida, you have maybe some type of diabetes or something else going on with your body.
SPEAKER_01: Now, on the one hand, the diagnosis is disorienting, right?
SPEAKER_01: It's not news that you ever expected to hear.
SPEAKER_01: This is the kind of thing that happens to someone else, not to you.
SPEAKER_01: And it just begins to disrupt your life.
SPEAKER_01: It begins to occupy your attention, and it begins to cause you to question so many things about yourself and about the world you live in.
SPEAKER_01: But on the other hand, the diagnosis is also a relief because there's something about naming it that opens up a whole world of treatment options that helps explain what's going on inside your body, and that actually gives you a degree of agency in your treatment and in your progress moving forward.
SPEAKER_01: But there's also something that any doctor will tell you is incredibly important to treatment, and that's a support system.
SPEAKER_01: You need people around you who can help you navigate treatment with encouragement and support because there's going to be highs and lows, days that it goes well and days where it's just challenging.
SPEAKER_01: And a good support system can make all of the difference.
SPEAKER_01: And what's true when it comes to a diagnosis is also true of doubt.
SPEAKER_01: And if we want people like Thomas who have doubts about Christianity to feel welcome in our church, we need to be the kind of church that helps people name their doubt and then supports people as they walk through their doubt.
SPEAKER_01: Now that could look like a number of different things, but I think that it looks like at least two.
SPEAKER_01: I think it looks like sympathy, and I think it looks like sensitivity.
SPEAKER_01: On the one hand, it looks like sympathy.
SPEAKER_01: That we're the kind of people who are willing to acknowledge that faith is harder for some people than it is for others.
SPEAKER_01: We're not combative, we're not condescending, we're not talking down to people or being self-righteous, but we're sympathetically entering into their doubts and trying to understand where they come from, what they are, and how we can help from them.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, we also need to be the kind of people who are sensitive both to the Holy Spirit and to them.
SPEAKER_01: We need to be sensitive to where they're at in their faith journey.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe they're at a point where they're not actually ready to talk about their doubts.
SPEAKER_01: They just need to be in a community who welcomes them, even though they're stuck in process somewhere.
SPEAKER_01: Or maybe they're at a place where they actually need us to dive in, roll up our sleeves, and do some tough reading with them.
SPEAKER_01: But we also need to be sensitive to the Holy Spirit to be to know, hey, when do we need to press in?
SPEAKER_01: When do we need to share a story?
SPEAKER_01: When do we need to ask a question?
SPEAKER_01: When do we need to peel back some of the layers?
SPEAKER_01: And when do when do we need to step back and let the Holy Spirit do his work in their life?
SPEAKER_01: Because they're simply not ready for us to push them further than where they're at right now.
SPEAKER_01: Um, at the same time, uh, you might personally have doubts about Christianity as well.
SPEAKER_01: And I want you to know that if you have doubts, you are welcome here.
SPEAKER_01: This is a church that welcomes your skepticism.
SPEAKER_01: This is a church that wants to answer your questions.
SPEAKER_01: This is a church that wants to walk with you as you try to figure out what it is that you currently believe and what it is you think about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: I personally spent 10 years wrestling with deep dark cynicism and skepticism about Christianity in the church when I was in my 20s.
SPEAKER_01: So I personally get it.
SPEAKER_01: Your questions are always gonna have a home with me because if you've asked the question, I've probably asked the question as well.
SPEAKER_01: Um so I want to encourage you, name your doubts.
SPEAKER_01: Like a diagnosis, there's something about naming your doubts that begins to take the power out of them that causes them to be less scary.
SPEAKER_01: But I want to encourage you not to just name your doubts to yourself or to your friend or to your spouse.
SPEAKER_01: Name them in Christian community.
SPEAKER_01: And don't just name them generically, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like, there's a difference between saying something like, yeah, the whole Christianity thing just feels like a hoax, and saying, like, you know, I actually have doubts about the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference between saying, like, uh, yeah, you know, like Christianity just makes me feel uncomfortable, and saying something like, you know, I'm not convinced that the universe had to have an intelligent designer.
SPEAKER_01: It's more helpful to ask specific questions about the resurrection of Jesus, about the origin of the universe, about the reliability of Scripture or Christianity compared to other religions.
SPEAKER_01: And so I just want to encourage you to name your doubts and to name them specifically in community.
SPEAKER_01: So that's the first thing that I want you to do if you're not convinced that Christianity is true.
SPEAKER_01: The second thing I want to encourage you to do is see for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Verse 26 says this it says, Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.
SPEAKER_01: Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
SPEAKER_01: Now I want to draw your attention to the fact that eight days have passed from the moment that Thomas acknowledges his doubts to the moment that Jesus reveals himself to Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: Why is that?
SPEAKER_01: Truth is, we don't actually know for sure.
SPEAKER_01: It could be that in that eight days, Thomas began to harden his heart towards Christianity, plugging his ears towards what the disciples had to say, so when he actually meets the risen Christ, his conversion story is that much more dramatic and that much more convincing.
SPEAKER_01: It could also be that in that eight days, as Thomas is still with the disciples in community with other Christians, that he's beginning to doubt his doubts.
SPEAKER_01: Maybe over that time they're still so convinced that he actually begins to second guess himself instead of second guessing his fellow disciples.
SPEAKER_01: The fact of the matter is, we don't actually know.
SPEAKER_01: But what we do know is that Jesus isn't in a hurry to resolve Thomas's doubt.
SPEAKER_01: He could have appeared to Thomas the moment that Thomas said, Hey, I have questions about the resurrection, but he doesn't.
SPEAKER_01: He waits eight long days.
SPEAKER_01: Because Jesus is content to let Thomas sit in his doubt for a while.
SPEAKER_01: So perhaps Jesus waits eight days because Thomas Simply isn't ready to meet the risen Christ yet.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you are a friend or a parent of someone who is skeptical about Christianity, that can be a really tough pill to swallow, right?
SPEAKER_01: You want so desperately for your friend or your family member to believe the good news of Jesus that sometimes you can feel the pressure to manufacture a spiritual conversation or a conversion, to pressure them or to badger them when actually what they need is to let you leave them alone for a little while, to give them some time and space to process and sort things out and get to a place where they're actually ready to have the conversation.
SPEAKER_01: Now we need to be ready, as 1 Peter 3 says, at any moment to answer somebody's questions about Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: But we also have to be willing to give them the time and space that they need to be ready to have those conversations.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, if you're skeptical, this can be equally frustrating for you, right?
SPEAKER_01: For some people, it feels like Christianity is like catching a common cold, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like you don't really think about it a whole lot, it just kind of happens to you.
SPEAKER_01: One day you're going about your business, somebody tells you about Jesus, and suddenly you're like, ah, that sounds like good news.
SPEAKER_01: I'll believe that.
SPEAKER_01: But for other of us, Christianity is a little bit more like lifting weights.
SPEAKER_01: It kind of takes a little bit of effort for us to get our minds around what's being said and to believe it for ourselves.
SPEAKER_01: And in that way, it's like you see it as novel, maybe you see it as necessary, maybe you see the difference that it's making in somebody else's life, and you're kind of like, you know what?
SPEAKER_01: I'll give that a try.
SPEAKER_01: Not because I'm super convinced or because I'm super excited, but because it can't seem to ignore the fact that this seems true and beneficial in some way.
SPEAKER_01: And at first it's like hard work.
SPEAKER_01: You're not entirely convinced it's gonna pay off, and then uh you just keep going because other people are encouraging you along the way.
SPEAKER_01: But then you discover that there's beauty in the struggle.
SPEAKER_01: If you can kind of push through the discomfort, something amazing begins to happen.
SPEAKER_01: You actually get stronger.
SPEAKER_01: The workout that you once dreaded was actually tolerable.
SPEAKER_01: And before long, the tolerable workout might actually become enjoyable.
SPEAKER_01: Exercises that you thought impossible or weight you thought you could never lift, suddenly you're doing on a routine and consistent basis simply because you've showed up time and again and you've gotten stronger.
SPEAKER_01: Well, I think in some ways, for many of us, the same is true of doubt.
SPEAKER_01: At first, it seems like there's no plausible explanation for what Christians believe about the death and resurrection of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: A lot of answers seem trite or superficial.
SPEAKER_01: You kind of look at them and think, yeah, all right, there can't be much substance there.
SPEAKER_01: But then, as you walk alongside other people in community and you begin to dig deeper into the evidence for yourself, you begin to become convinced by what other people have seen and heard and have to say about Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: Because for some people, faith is like a muscle, it grows best when there's resistance.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes, doubt is just the resistance we need to cultivate a strong and lasting faith.
SPEAKER_01: So maybe that's why Thomas was left in his doubt.
SPEAKER_01: And maybe, if you're skeptical, that could be why Jesus seems to be taking his time with you as well.
SPEAKER_01: But despite the reason, Jesus is here now, and he says to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands, and put your hand and place it in my side.
SPEAKER_01: Now, this is a super fun moment because Thomas wants proof, and that is exactly what Jesus gives him.
SPEAKER_01: Not only does Jesus give him proof, Jesus gives him living proof.
SPEAKER_01: Evidence by standing in the flesh before him that he is in fact alive.
SPEAKER_01: And what Jesus literally says to Thomas is, hey, Thomas, see for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: Look at my hands, look at my side, and try to come up with a better explanation than the fact that I'm actually risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: Now, the striking thing about this interaction for me is that Jesus says back to Thomas, almost word for word, the exact thing that Thomas had just said to the disciples eight days earlier.
SPEAKER_01: And I think what that means is that Jesus knows your doubts.
SPEAKER_01: He knows your questions, he knows your hangups, he knows your hesitations, he knows exactly what you're working through, and he's not going anywhere.
SPEAKER_01: He can take all of that, and he's still willing and able to reveal himself to you in the midst of the confusion and the skepticism.
SPEAKER_01: But I think what it also means is that evidence in and of itself is insufficient.
SPEAKER_01: At the end of the day, Thomas doesn't just need evidence for the resurrection.
SPEAKER_01: What Thomas needs is an encounter with the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And that is exactly what he gets.
SPEAKER_01: So here's Thomas, confronted by the fact that Jesus is alive, and before he has a chance to respond, Jesus says to him, Do not disbelieve, but believe.
SPEAKER_01: And that, of course, at this moment, is the most reasonable thing that Thomas can do.
SPEAKER_01: Thomas has just seen the risen Christ appear before him and give him living proof that he is alive.
SPEAKER_01: At this time, it would be incredibly unreasonable for Thomas to continue denying the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: At this moment, with the proof standing in front of him, the most logical, reasonable thing that Thomas can do is believe that Jesus is alive.
SPEAKER_01: He has no choice.
SPEAKER_01: Jesus forced his hand and he said he wouldn't believe unless he saw.
SPEAKER_01: So now he's seen, and Jesus says, believe.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you were to examine the conversion stories of skeptics throughout the centuries, you would see that they all almost always follow a similar pattern.
SPEAKER_01: The person doubts Christianity, they refuse to believe based on the uh testimony of other people, they then begin examining the evidence, usually to start off by trying to disprove Christianity, and along the way they encounter Christ and they themselves begin to profess faith in him.
SPEAKER_01: That was the case, as we saw earlier with C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, but he's not the only one who has had that experience.
SPEAKER_01: Another more prominent example in recent times is that of Lee Strobel.
SPEAKER_01: He was a former investigative journalist for the Chicago Tribune.
SPEAKER_01: And when his wife Leslie became a Christian, as a professing atheist, he thought that it was his duty to rescue her from the nonsense that she was believing in.
SPEAKER_01: So he did what any good journalist would do.
SPEAKER_01: He started investigating the claims for himself.
SPEAKER_01: He spent two years doing everything he could to refute Christianity.
SPEAKER_01: And at first, all of the evidence that he was collecting seemed a little bit random and disjointed, like puzzle pieces that didn't quite fit together.
SPEAKER_01: But then as he began to put the pieces together and he began to look at them in different ways and arrange them to see how it fits together, a clear picture of Jesus began to emerge.
SPEAKER_01: And he began to realize that it was more reasonable to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead than it was for him to maintain his atheism.
SPEAKER_01: He actually got to the place where he said it would take more faith for him to stay an atheist than it would for him to believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And so, like C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, after following the evidence, he saw for himself and he believed.
SPEAKER_01: Now the truth is that there is no shortage of evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: If you want to take the time to verify the claims of the Bible, there is plenty of evidence out there that you would find convincing.
SPEAKER_01: You just have to be willing to take a look.
SPEAKER_01: So the critical question becomes this are you doubting or are you merely just resisting?
SPEAKER_01: There's a difference.
SPEAKER_01: You see, doubt is uncertainty about questions that you don't yet have answers to.
SPEAKER_01: Resistance is a stubborn refusal to explore those questions.
SPEAKER_01: One uses questions to investigate faith, the other uses questions to justify unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: So if you're skeptical about Christ, I want to encourage you to do the exact same thing that Lee Strobel did.
SPEAKER_01: I want to encourage you to consider the evidence and see for yourself that Jesus is gone.
SPEAKER_01: Because a question that you're unwilling to explore is no longer down.
SPEAKER_01: It's merely an excuse for unbelief.
SPEAKER_01: But the truth is this you don't just need evidence for God, you need an encounter with the risen Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And I'm confident that if you will go the way of C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis, if you'll go the way of Lee Strobel, if you will go the way of so many skeptical people who've gone before you, and you will see for yourself what the evidence has to say, I am confident that you too will encounter the risen Christ and you will come to believe once you've seen for yourself.
SPEAKER_01: So that brings me to my last point this morning, which is believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: So at the tide of the side of Jesus, Thomas converts and he exclaims in verse 28, My Lord and my God.
SPEAKER_01: Now the former, the word Lord, implies superiority.
SPEAKER_01: That's like a master presiding over his servant.
SPEAKER_01: The latter, God, implies supremacy, as in like a creator over his creation.
SPEAKER_01: So when Thomas exclaims, My Lord and my God, what he's essentially saying is, you are superior and you are supreme.
SPEAKER_01: It's a Thomas' way of surrendering himself to Jesus as an ultimate act of worship.
SPEAKER_01: He's submitting himself to the Lordship of Jesus, and he's worshiping Jesus Christ as his God.
SPEAKER_01: You see, belief isn't merely accepting the fact that Christianity is true or good.
SPEAKER_01: Belief is ultimately surrendering to the lordship and supremacy of Jesus.
SPEAKER_01: It's taking your life, your career, your possessions, your income, your relationship status, your calendar, your activities, placing it all at the feet of Jesus and saying, all I am and all I have is yours.
SPEAKER_01: I belong to you.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, it's making Jesus primary in every area of your life, choosing to make him the priority over everyone and everything.
SPEAKER_01: Because when you meet Jesus, that is the most reasonable thing that you can possibly do.
SPEAKER_01: And that is what it means to believe in him.
SPEAKER_01: Now you might be thinking at face value, that sounds kind of miserable.
SPEAKER_01: This idea of surrendering to Jesus and worshiping him as Lord.
SPEAKER_01: And the reason for that is a lot of times when we think about this concept of surrendering, we think of ourselves like prisoners of war, right?
SPEAKER_01: Like we're waving the white flag and we're being taken captive and led away against our will to a life of joyless misery.
SPEAKER_01: But the truth is that surrendering to Jesus isn't so much an act of surrender like a prisoner.
SPEAKER_01: There is some truth in that.
SPEAKER_01: Like if you've been hostile to God, if you've been opposed to God, if you've been warring against God in your heart, then yeah, there is a degree of like laying down your arms and surrendering to Jesus in that way.
SPEAKER_01: But surrendering to Jesus is less like a prisoner of war, and it's more like a captive being set free.
SPEAKER_01: It's like you've been set free to live the life that God has actually called you to live and to be the person that God has actually called you to be.
SPEAKER_01: You're giving something up, yes, but you're getting something so much greater in return.
SPEAKER_01: Just take Saint Augustine as an example.
SPEAKER_01: He was a theologian from the fourth century.
SPEAKER_01: So we're talking the 300s.
SPEAKER_01: And before his conversion, he spent years pursuing what he described as fruitless joys.
SPEAKER_01: He traced sexual pleasure and social status and worldly ambition.
SPEAKER_01: And he enjoyed a lot of worldly success.
SPEAKER_01: He became a famous rhetorician and was known for his teaching and for his speech.
SPEAKER_01: And he would be what you would describe in that day of what we describe in our day as like celebrity culture.
SPEAKER_01: He had everything you could possibly want, and he pursued life to the full.
SPEAKER_01: But in time, he was convinced kind of against his will by the teachings of Ambrose of Milan that Christianity was actually true.
SPEAKER_01: And he understood that if it was true, logically he should believe it.
SPEAKER_01: But he was absolutely terrified to let go of his old pleasures because he assumed that following Jesus meant a life of joyless misery.
SPEAKER_01: But then one day he discovered that God was not merely asking him to lay down earthly pleasures, he was replacing them with a far greater one, himself.
SPEAKER_01: In his famous book, Confessions, Augustine describes his conversion this way.
SPEAKER_01: He says, How sweet all at once it was for me to be rid of those fruitless joys that I had once feared to lose.
SPEAKER_01: You drove them from me, you who are the true, the sovereign joy.
SPEAKER_01: You drove them from me and took their place.
SPEAKER_01: O Lord my God, my light, my wealth, and my salvation.
SPEAKER_01: You see, surrendering to Jesus is not merely the loss of joy, it's the exchange of lesser joys for greater joy, for the joy of God Himself.
SPEAKER_01: Why?
SPEAKER_01: Because worldly pleasures masquerade as freedom that only lead to bondage.
SPEAKER_01: While surrendering to Christ at first glance looks like bondage, but it actually leads to freedom and joy.
SPEAKER_01: It's a little bit like that game that you may have played when you were a kid called Bigger and Better.
SPEAKER_01: We start off with something like a quarter.
SPEAKER_01: You go knocking door to door, asking, Do you have anything bigger and better than this?
SPEAKER_01: And someone gives you a dollar, so you go to the next door and say, You have anything bigger and better, and they give you two dollars and so on and so forth.
SPEAKER_01: Yes, you're giving something up, but you're ultimately exchanging something of lesser value for something of greater value.
SPEAKER_01: You're trading up into the Christian life.
SPEAKER_01: That ultimately is what it means to believe in Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: Now, if you are a believer this morning, that should give you an incredible sense of assurance and satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: When you go to work this week and people look at you backwards for being Christian, or you get blank stares, or the awkward conversation start when you mention that you went to church, you can have an incredible sense of assurance that you are not wasting your life.
SPEAKER_01: You are building your life on the solid foundation of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
SPEAKER_01: And whatever lesser joys you give up, you are getting something so much greater in return.
SPEAKER_01: And that should give you a deep sense of satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: That while you're making Sunday mornings a priority, while you're guarding your time throughout the week so you can be a part of a harbor group, while you're making tough choices about your daily life and your family, and you're navigating the awkward conversations at work over being a Christian, you can know that in Jesus Christ, when you surrender to him, you get a deeper and sweeter satisfaction.
SPEAKER_01: And you are not a fool for giving up that which can only temporarily gratify, to take hold of that which eternally satisfies.
SPEAKER_01: At the same time, I would imagine that there are some of you who, like C.S.
SPEAKER_01: Lewis described in his book, you can feel the steady, unrelenting approach of the God that you earnestly desire not to meet.
SPEAKER_01: The Lord has presented himself to you, and you have a choice to make.
SPEAKER_01: Those are your only options.
SPEAKER_01: So my question becomes what's it gonna be?
SPEAKER_01: Will you with Thomas say, My Lord and my God?
SPEAKER_01: Or won't you?
SPEAKER_01: That ultimately is the question that this text puts before us this morning.
SPEAKER_01: Let's pray.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we thank you for our time and your word, for the way that Jesus reveals himself to Thomas the skeptic.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we take heart in knowing that one of your earliest disciples had a hard time believing that you were risen from the dead.
SPEAKER_01: We thank you for including this in Holy Scripture that we might be encouraged, that if someone like Thomas can believe, then certainly any of us can too.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, we confess this morning that our hearts are dull.
SPEAKER_01: They're resistant.
SPEAKER_01: We have doubts and questions.
SPEAKER_01: And sometimes our doubts are really just resistance.
SPEAKER_01: But Lord, we ask that you would overcome that this morning through the power of your preached word.
SPEAKER_01: We ask, Holy Spirit, that you would enlighten our hearts and our minds, that we, like Thomas, may declare, My Lord and my God.
SPEAKER_01: Lord, I pray for my brothers and sisters.
SPEAKER_01: Would this word strengthen them in their faith, giving them deep assurance that they are building their life on a firm foundation?
SPEAKER_01: May it also, Lord, deepen their satisfaction in the Lord Jesus Christ, knowing that whatever it is they've given up in this life to follow Christ, it is well worth it.
SPEAKER_01: And Lord, I pray for my friends who do not know Jesus, who would say, Yep, I'm Thomas.
SPEAKER_01: I'm skeptical, I have doubts, I don't believe.
SPEAKER_01: Or today, would they encounter the risen Christ?
SPEAKER_01: And would they, with Thomas, declare you Lord and God?
SPEAKER_01: We know that has to be a work of your Holy Spirit as we said together in our profession of faith.
SPEAKER_01: And we ask, Holy Spirit, that you would affectually call them now.
SPEAKER_01: In Jesus' name.
SPEAKER_01: Amen.