"A Lesson From Ol' 'Doubting
Thomas' "
(John
20:24-29)
Everyone has heard the phrase
"Doubting Thomas." In God's
Word, 'Doubting Thomas' was one of the 11 remaining disciples who, for some
reason, was not present with the others when Jesus appeared to them after His
resurrection. Thomas must have been from
Missouri, the "Show Me" state, because he refused to believe the
others when they said they'd seen Jesus.
Thomas refused to accept that Jesus had risen unless he, personally,
could touch the wounds He had received at His crucifixion.
Jesus was very patient to accommodate
Thomas rather than rebuke him for his unbelief.
Eight days later, the text says, (in verses 26-27), that Jesus appeared to the disciples again and this
time Thomas WAS present. Note that Jesus
appeared "out of nowhere" though the doors were locked, and said
"Peace be with you" to everyone.
He then gave Thomas exactly what he wanted, urging him to not remain
"faithless" but to "Believe!" He encouraged him in a
positive manner regarding his lack of faith, rather than reproving him, you see.
Thomas often gets a bad rap for his
doubting, but give him credit, when Jesus let him touch his wounds, he
exclaimed "My Lord and my God!" (verse 28.) Now Jehovah's Witnesses,
who do NOT believe Jesus is God in the flesh, say that Thomas was, in essence,
saying "My God!!" as
if he were taking the Lord's Name in vain.
But if that were the case, Jesus surely WOULD have rebuked him. He did not, but rather Jesus accepted Thomas'
declaration that He is God (as we saw in verse 29.) His response to Thomas' response was "you believe
because you have seen me. Blessed are those who haven't seen me and believe,
anyway."
Thomas was clearly expressing faith
that JESUS IS GOD and Jesus did not "correct the record." That's because Jesus IS God.
In the book of Acts, when Cornelius
wanted to worship Peter, falling at Peter's feet, Peter rebuked him (Acts
10:26.) Then in Acts 14:14 and following, the people wanted to offer sacrifice
to Paul and Barnabas but they were agitated and made them stop. It's inconceivable that JESUS would fail to
put a halt to someone who was falsely worshipping HIM......unless of course the
worship was warranted (and it is.) If
Peter and Paul refused false worship, JESUS would have ALSO...except that in
Jesus' case, worship was and is warranted!!
In conclusion, the real lesson we can
learn from "Doubting Thomas" is not to STAY doubters.
Those of us who live after Jesus
ascended into Heaven can never touch Him like Thomas did, but Jesus said in
verse 29 that there will be those blessed ones who can believe in Him WITHOUT
seeing Him!! And Peter went a step further, for in 1 Peter 1:8 he wrote that
even though we don't SEE Jesus now, we can LOVE Him. So do you believe in
Jesus?? Do you LOVE Him?? Maybe you've
been thinking that it's impossible to believe in Him and love Him until you see
Him in Heaven, but the Bible teaches that without faith it is impossible to
please Him...if we don't believe in Him and love Him NOW we will not GET to
Heaven. Verse 30 of our passage says that "these things are written"
(regarding all the recorded things about Jesus in the Gospels) so that we may
believe that Jesus IS the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in Him
we will have life" (meaning ETERNAL Life, in Heaven.) DON'T be like Thomas
in his DOUBTING. Be like Him by telling
Jesus He is your Lord and your God!!
Let us pray.
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