Our Beliefs : Sermons : Sermon Archive - 2006 : April 23, 2006

Theme: Blind Faith or True Trust?

Church year occasion: Easter 2

Have you ever been flipping through the channels late at night? There's nothing on, but you keep flipping anyway. You end up watching one of those infomercials, and for some unknown reason, you keep watching -- for 20 minutes or more, until you're convinced that the George Foreman grill is the best grill money can buy, that your life would have no more problems if you had a few of those space-age, space-saving storage bags, and that you too could have bulging biceps and a washboard stomach if you just purchase a big, grey ball that you roll around on a few minutes a week. The people who put those infomercials together know what they're doing. They know that you won't buy on blind faith just because they tell you their product works. They give you visible proof that they work. So the guy selling the exercise equipment will look more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Tom Arnold or Arnold from Happy Days.

We all like to see proof. When we buy a car, we kick the tires, as well as drive it 50 miles to make sure it doesn't break down. Only then are we willing to trust.

Isn't that true of our faith as well? Don't we want our faith to be based on fact? Don't we want proof? That's what Thomas wanted. And he got it. Let's see what Jesus taught Thomas, and what he's teaching us this morning as well as we read John 20:19-31.

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

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

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!"

But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

If you had been present in that room behind locked doors on that first Easter evening, one emotion would have been so obvious in the air you could have cut it with a knife -- fear. And the other emotion that would have gone right along with it was doubt. Think of it. They had trusted this man. They had thought he was their Savior, the promised Messiah. Now they didn't know what to believe. They saw him beaten, bleeding and dying and finally dead. Their life was in a shambles. Now they feared they wouldn't have long to live anyway -- especially after what Jesus' enemies did to Jesus. True -- the women said they had seen Jesus alive. So had Peter, but who knows after what he pulled in the courtyard when he denied even knowing Jesus. And now two disciples had just come from a town called Emmaus seven miles away and said they, too, had seen him. But they didn't know what to believe.

So when Jesus appeared behind those locked doors and said, "Peace be with you," it must have taken minutes or even hours for them to catch their breath. Jesus was alive! But they had seen him dead. But he was alive! What was he there to tell them? That may have brought more fear. Was he here to scold them? "I told you what was going to happen, but you didn't believe me. You couldn't stay awake to pray with me. You deserted me! Peter, you denied you ever knew me! A fine bunch of friends you turned out to be! You all ought to be ashamed of yourselves!" I'm sure all of their failures were weighing heavily on the minds of the disciples. But with a word, Jesus calmed all their fears and doubts. He said, "Peace be with you." In spite of their sins and mammoth failures, Jesus had forgiven them. There was peace between them and God. The risen Jesus took away all fear or doubt.

But Thomas wasn't there. How could he believe something so good could happen after he left his Lord to suffer and die without so much as lifting a finger to help him? So he doubted. He let the devil whisper in his ear that it was too good to be true. He needed proof -- visible, physical proof.

And the amazing thing is that Jesus took the time to cater to his demand. Just like a shepherd searching for the one lost sheep while the other 99 were safe in the pasture, he appeared a week later and brought that message of peace straight to Thomas. He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe." Jesus came down to Thomas' level -- a heart filled with doubts and fears and not willing to believe Jesus and his promises -- and he wiped it all away, filling his heart instead with the peace of forgiveness.

Our fears and doubts often get the better of us, too, don't they? Deep down don't we all want a little proof? We wouldn't mind seeing those nail prints on Jesus' hands. We wouldn't mind seeing Jesus standing in the corner of our worship area just so we can know for sure that he is really with us. We'd like to see the angel walking next to our children when we drop them off at school, or they are at a party, or when we take them to the hospital. We want the money in the bank (and lots of it) so we can be completely convinced that God will take care of our needs. We want the problem-free life -- then we'll know for sure that God loves us and cares about us. We want the explanation after the tragedy that tells us exactly how that awful event worked out for our good, because, frankly, it's not so easy to deal with if we don't know... "Why?"

There are times when we all would like a little proof. But we don't need occasional glimpses of Jesus and his angels to assure us that he is with us and watching over us. We don't need big bank accounts to convince us that God is taking care of us and will continue to do so. We don't need to touch the nail marks to be assured of Christ's resurrection. "Because you have seen me, you have believed," Jesus said to Thomas, "blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed." Really, isn't that what faith is? The writer to the Hebrews says something similar: "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." (Hebrews 11:1) Faith is trust without seeing -- otherwise it wouldn't be faith.

Before I made reference to blind faith. Is that what we have? I don't think that's an accurate term at all. We don't blindly follow our Lord. We follow him with true trust because he has given us so many trustworthy promises. We follow him with true trust because he has given us a rock solid foundation for our faith -- his Word. "Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name."

Consider the source. The Apostle John was the eyewitness who told you what Jesus did, and the rest of the Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit gave John the exact words to write down, so we know it is God's Word. So, consider the source. I might be more apt to believe the U.S. News and World Report story about the latest happenings in Iraq than the National Enquirer's headline about the 600-pound baby from Mars. Consider the source. And that's why we can take God at his Word. That's why we can put our faith in his promises even when it seems like we don't have physical or visible evidence that can support it. So we trust him when he says, "Believe in me and have eternal life" -- even when all our logic would tell us that we have to do something to gain heaven. We trust him when he says, "I'm with you always to the very end of the age" -- even when we can't see him in the room with us, or in the car with us, or at school with us, or wherever we happen to be when tragedy strikes. Our Lord and his Word is reliable. His track record is impeccable. He's never lied to us before, and he never will. And so we trust, not blindly, but seeing clearly all the evidence we need in his Word.

Just a closing thought. Questions aren't bad. God never says to us, "Ask no questions. Never have a single concern or doubt." But he does say, "When you do have questions...when you do have concerns or doubts, I want you to turn to the right place for your answers. Don't turn to your emotions or your intellect or the laws of probability. Turn to my Word, my eternal, unchanging Word." There we will find everything we need to follow him with undivided hearts and minds in true trust. Amen.