Easter Sunday
Use this guide to help your group discussion as you meet this week.
Transcript
Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. Thank you. and his mom found a took a picture of him and put it on myspace which I'm so glad that my myspace photos did not end up on the internet forever in the form of a meme because those days nah not at all and Brian that's not even his real name his name is Kyle and he took that photo on the right as a joke for a yearbook photo as the yearbook they didn't even let him use it his friends got a hold of it and put it on reddit and boom these guys became for the last decade viral sensations all right they didn't choose to be but this is what they're known for and the internet I don't know if you know this is not a kind place it's not a place where you go for warm and fuzzies it's a very cruel place and scumbag Steve is what he was known for and I'll just show one of the cleaner means I could find for scumbag Steve grandpa gets surgery steals pain meds so I don't know if you caught that he looks like the guy that would steal pain meds from his grandparents that's not very kind that's pretty rude and then we've got bad luck Brian only Facebook friend his mom cyber bullied which means he has one friend on Facebook and it's his mother and she belittles him and makes fun of him all right so that the internet's a cold place right but this is what happens like people get known for things and it sticks with them and these guys are forever cemented as a legacy on the internet as these individuals even though they didn't choose this in the first place I want to talk about somebody who got mean before it was cool today and his name is Thomas so Thomas one of the disciples that's a painting of him we don't know if that's what he looked like there's a few renditions but that's the one I chose for us Thomas was one of the disciples he was an apostle of Jesus when Jesus commissions out his church to go and make disciples Thomas goes and takes the gospel to India he was the first missionary to India he went as far south as Chennai India that's what was one of the most southernmost cities in India and there are churches that exist in India today that trace their history back to Thomas that's incredible there's a gospel movement that's happening in India right now and it's been slowly growing for 2,000 years because Thomas was obedient to the Great Commission and he planted churches all the way in India but guess what if you have any church background that is not how you know Thomas if you have church background at all how do you know Thomas what is he known for it's exactly right doubting Thomas that is how Thomas is known and you know what Chet found a meme this week for Thomas that was on the internet already says hey Thomas do you think Christians will ever appreciate that you are actually a person of great faith I doubt it but it's not fair it's not like the like one moment of faithlessness has cemented his legacy for 2,000 years as the one who doubts right like Simon Peter Simon's original birth his birth name was Simon Jesus gives him the name Peter which means rock which means that his nickname is the rock how cool is that but Peter wasn't always faithful he denied Jesus three times the night that he was arrested and we don't call him denying Simon that's not how that works we call him Peter but poor Thomas is one moment of faithlessness and that is how we remember him as doubting Thomas I want to look at this I want to look at this story that comes from the first Easter today because I think it provides a lot of hope for us I think that Thomas actually is a beautiful picture of the gospel so I'm going to walk through this together and and be encouraged in our faith as we walk through it so let me pray for us and then we will get going I'm thankful for the goodness of the gospel that brings hope that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that eternal life that brings joy that brings eternal life that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy to God that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that brings joy that day, that first Easter morning. So, Mary Magdalene and the other women go to the tomb. The reason they go to the tomb on the first Easter morning is because they're bringing spices.
They're basically perfumed. They're taking care of the body of Christ. They get to the tomb, and it is open, and it is empty. And they go, and they tell the other disciples, and they're a little bit incredulous. They really can't believe what is happening. Two of them sprint towards the tomb.
And this is recorded in John's Gospel, and I think it's funny that he decided to say that he was the faster one. So they're having basically a race there. He's the faster one. He beats them there. Then Peter shows up.
They see the tomb is empty. While this is going on, Mary Magdalene has the first encounter with the resurrected, glorified Christ. And it's beautiful. It's a beautiful story. A little bit later on, two of the followers of Jesus, we don't know who they were, but they are on their, they're on a, going towards the town, Emmaus. And as they're going there, Jesus just walks alongside them.
And they can't tell. Jesus is kind of shielded their ability to see who he is. And they have a whole conversation. They get back. They sit down. They continue.
Jesus points to the Old Testament, says, this is what it spoke of, Christ. And then he reveals himself. And then he just disappears. Which is what kind of happens. Post-resurrection, Jesus appears and disappears in multiple places. Then the disciples are huddled in a room together.
The door is locked. And then Jesus just appears before them. And this is a joyous occasion. Finally, the disciples get to see Christ. He doesn't bring shame upon them for abandoning him, which is what they did when he was arrested. He brings peace.
He brings this joyous moment. That is where we pick up in verse 24 when it says, Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, which, by the way, that was his nickname, the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Man, what a bummer. Like that he missed out on this unbelievable first encounter with all the disciples. Thomas isn't there. We don't know why he's not there.
He could have gone out to get dinner. We don't know. But that had to be a huge disappointment. Like if I took some people, if I took some friends to a ball game, and I said, guys, I'm going to go, I'm going to get some hot dogs and some drinks. I'll be back. And then I come, I get my arms full, and I'm heading back, and I get back to my seats, and all of a sudden they're buzzing with excitement, and they're giddy.
I'm like, what happened? What did I miss? And they said, listen, you won't believe this. Peyton Manning just came and sat down with us. Like he sat in your seat, and dude, he is funny. He is awesome.
We took pictures together. We exchanged Numbers. We are boys now that would crush me. I'm a huge Peyton Manning fan. I love the Colts. Like that would be awful for me.
I would be so deeply disappointed that I missed out. And that's not, that has even come close to the situation that Thomas is facing. He has missed out on this. And it picks up in verse 25. It says, So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. 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.
Now, when it says at the very top there, when it says the disciples told him, the phrase told in the original language in the Greek is not just a one-time event of telling. This is a continual retelling. They were telling him over and over, which probably means they were trying to convince him, Thomas, you don't understand. We saw his wounds that were healed. We saw his glorified body. It was glorious, Thomas.
You have to believe us. And it's not like Thomas was a stranger to them. They were friends. They spent three years together, ministering under Christ. Like he trusted them. But he hears this, and he says, No.
No, unless I can see it for myself. Unless I can place my hands in his wounds, I will never believe. And that begins, the nickname that has endured for a long time, of doubting Thomas. Now, it's not a complete portrait of Thomas. Not even in the Gospel of John. You get to John 11, you get to see a story about Thomas that's really cool.
Now, the way that the Gospel of John is written is that the bulk of the Gospel of John takes place in a few weeks. It's mostly the back end of Jesus' ministry leading up to the cross. So this story in John 11 really is just a few weeks before all these events that happened with the death and resurrection. And Jesus tells his disciples, We're going to go back to Judea. That's where Jerusalem is. We're going to go back there, and the disciples say, No.
No, Jesus. It is way too hot there. Like, you will get stoned if you go back. Like, they're trying to convince Jesus, We're not going. And Thomas, in the middle of that, it says in verse 16 of chapter 11, So Thomas called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, Let us also go, that we may die with him. Right?
He says, listen, I don't... If Jesus says we're going, we're going. If we're going to go, then we're going to die with him. That is unbelievable courage in the midst of a lot of uncertainty. And that was just a few weeks before these events here. So, what happened to Thomas?
What happened to Thomas? That not only did he abandon Christ with the other disciples when he was arrested, but we have this story here, where he ends up not believing that he is resurrected. What's going on there? Well, we see it is doubt. I did read some commentaries. I heard some people kind of say, Well, what Thomas is actually doing, it's not really doubt.
And the overwhelming evidence is like, No, he absolutely is doubting here. We don't know the reasons why. We can speculate a little bit. But I want to bet there's some reasons that we also can resonate with as well as the reasons why he is doubting this. As we look at them, I think it makes Thomas very relatable to us as Christians. I think one of the more obvious ones is that this is a little bit of a skeptical doubt.
This is some skepticism that Thomas is facing, that the idea that Jesus rose from the grave, it's hard for him to believe. That could be a possibility. What happens is, is that we look back at the Bible times, and we like to think that because we are like this side of the Enlightenment, so much smarter. We have new understandings of science, and morality, and all kinds of things. This is just something, this is superstitious things that people would believe back then. They weren't really skeptical back then.
Listen, that is ahistorical nonsense. There was absolute skepticism about this. Just because we have the Internet doesn't make us all that much more smarter. In a lot of ways, we're not that much smarter. Like these kind of guys, they could memorize whole books of the Bible. We can barely read an article on the Internet for a minute without getting distracted.
Squirrel! Like, just scroll to something else. Like, they're not stupid. They had skepticism. It took on different forms. Skepticism is really baked into the fallenness of our humanity.
It's what we've always done. Part of this could be Thomas' skepticism and the idea that Jesus was really alive. You know, we see when Paul is on mission, and he's traveling through Athens, Greece, he's meeting with different philosophers and thinkers, and he's trying to convince them of the gospel, convince them of Christ, and they're tracking until he mentions the resurrection. And when he mentions the resurrection, it says they mock him at that idea. It's like, no, that people don't rise from the grave. There might have been some skeptical doubt in here.
Skepticism has always been with us. It's something that if we are honest as Christians, that we face. Thomas certainly did. That's us. Like, we want evidence. We want proof that we can see, that we can touch, that we can measure, that we can taste.
It's right in front of us. That's always been with us. Maybe that's you. Maybe, as you've encountered, the stories about Jesus in the past, this call to faith, even the miraculous events of the Bible. It's just been something that you don't want to, you can't wrap your head around. And if you couldn't see it, you couldn't verify it for yourself.
If you can't measure it, if you can't test it, it's just not something that you want to believe. It's superstitions, and it's not worthy of your life. I think there might be some skepticism bowed up in Thomas. I think also, this could be the result of some hopes that were absolutely crushed when all this happened. That sometimes doubt arises from, crushed hopes. And I think it's possible that would have been what Thomas was feeling.
It's clear from the Gospels that when you read them, that they were expecting Jesus to be a political Messiah. It's clear from the Gospels when you read them that what they were expecting was Jesus to come in and to establish a new rule and reign, a new Jewish state where they would kick out the Roman occupiers, and that Jesus would be this political king and figure. Like when they're shouting Hosanna on Palm Sunday as he's coming in the city, it's this expectation that he's going to deliver this political revolution. And when Jesus finally is crucified and dies, the political movement is over.
Their Messiah was done. And what happened is that Jesus was a little bit of a Messiah of their own making. And that happens with us as well. That sometimes we have a Messiah of our own making. That we have expectations for God and what he should do for us. We're not immune to that.
And when things don't work out the way we want them to, if God doesn't make the things in our life happen the way that we want them to, we get crushed. Like when you don't get the job that you've been shooting for for years. When you don't get the second date or you don't get the spouse that you are seeking. When you don't get the kids that you want. The life of the kids that you want. All the way down to losing loved ones which is incredibly difficult.
Suffering physically and emotionally. Like this life is hard and it is filled with lots of crushed hopes. And when that happens there's part of us, if we're honest, that wants to shake our fist at God because he didn't deliver on what we want in life. And what happens is that leads to doubt. It leads to us doubting God and his goodness and his existence and his love. And sometimes that type of doubt arises out of crushed hopes.
And I would be willing to bet that Thomas probably felt some of that. Taking a lot of hope in the Christ that he thought who he was and then was disappointed. Listen, we feel doubt. There's a lot of different examples of what could have happened in Thomas' heart and what we feel on a regular basis. If you've been following Jesus for a few decades or this is the first time that you've been in a church building in years, we wrestle with doubt. And that is precisely why I love this story.
Because Thomas is relatable. He's an example of who we are. And what I love here, and I think it's not the main point of this text, but it's something that is certainly an encouragement, is that the church becomes a safe place to work out your doubts. That this, our church, is a safe place to work out your doubts. See, what Thomas does here is he doesn't abandon the community of faith when all this happens. Like, he sticks in it.
He stayed with them for a week in his doubt. And I love that as a picture of that's what we should do. We should be honest about the doubts that have arisen in our souls, in our minds, and actually be here and walk with other Christians and walk that out together. Voice it and actually live that out, walk that out and see where it goes in the context of the community of faith. That's what Thomas does. And for a week, he sat in his doubt.
And then Jesus came to him. Fast forward. Verse 26. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again. And Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
So similar scene. Locked in this room. Together. Jesus shows up. And he doesn't bring discouragement. He doesn't bring the hammer.
He says, Peace be with you. And then he pivots directly towards Thomas. Verse 27. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Did you catch that? He references the same thing that Thomas said a week ago. He says, See the wounds. Place your finger here. Place your finger here. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
Believe. You see, Jesus addresses the heart of the matter. There are lots of different reasons for why we might be doubting, but at the core of doubt is disbelief. It's unbelief. And Jesus stands and says, Thomas, do not disbelieve, but believe. Believe it.
Believe that I have risen and what that means. And I love in verse 28 when it says, Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Now, we don't know, the text doesn't tell us, if he had to put his hands in or not. We don't know if he had to verify it with his hands or not. But we do see his response here.
My Lord and my God. And this is one of the most profound responses in all of the Gospels. You see, my Lord is a flexible statement. Depending on the context of the Bible, it can mean anything from my Lord, meaning the God of the universe, and sir. It's a pretty wide, flexible range. It can be deference, it can be respect, but it also can be this is my Lord and my God.
But there's no question what Thomas means when he says, my God, because no one else says that in the Gospels. No one. He says, my God, meaning that you are the sovereign God of the universe who created everything out of nothing who sustains our very hearts with your sovereign providence. You are the God of the universe. As I see the Father, I see you. You are God.
And commentators, when they talk about this moment, they say, this right here is the pinnacle moment of the entire Gospel of John. For as we're going to see in a moment, this Gospel is explicitly written with the hope that it would convince us to believe that Jesus is God. That's the hope of the Gospel of John. That's the angle he's going for. Believe it. Believe that he is God, which makes Thomas in this moment, the pinnacle moment, the most relatable figure for us.
It makes us look at Thomas and realize all the things that have happened so far that he abandoned Christ when he was arrested. That he questioned whether he was resurrected. Thomas is us. Because we're the kind of people that also say, God, show me that you love me. Show me that you care. Show me that you are real.
And after a week, God approaches Thomas and says, believe. Do not disbelieve. Believe. And Thomas believes. He believes that this is the Lord God. And the relief that he must have felt as Jesus comes to him, calls him into belief, and he finally sees the risen, resurrected Savior in all of his glory.
The amount of relief and joy that he must have felt in that moment. This story is for us. It's for every one of us that have wrestled through the darkest moments of unbelief, the darkest struggles of trying to still believe that Jesus is God. The story is for us. And then in verse 29 it says, Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
That's us. That's the encouragement that Jesus gives us. He says, Thomas, you have seen, but those who believe, those who believe and place their faith in me as the resurrected Christ as their only hope, they are indeed blessed. That is the encouragement that Jesus gives to us. And then in verse 30 it says, Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. But this gospel is that we might believe.
That the skeptic might bring their doubts before the Lord, encounter him, and their doubts may fade. The one who's crushed by hope may encounter the God who gives eternal hope. Do not disbelieve, but believe. That is the hope of this story, is that we might also believe. But that's hard.
It's hard for us. It's hard to believe that. It's hard for us to, like there are times, I have three kids. They're six, four, and two. And I'm trying to raise them. I have some goals in how I'm raising them of where I want them to go.
And I have a big picture in mind for them, but it's hard for them to understand the big picture sometimes. Like they lose it sometimes and they don't get what they want. Like we do Easter baskets on Saturday morning and yesterday, my youngest, she got candy. And when she, you give her three jelly beans and she's a terrorist. I mean just, just went crazy. And like this happens.
My kids sometimes, they want things and I have to say, no, you can't have this. And every now and then I've just got to stop. And I got to get on their level. And sometimes I get, I get eye to eye. Sometimes I hold their face. I'm like, listen, you got to understand something.
Like I love you. I'm for you. What they don't realize is that I have hopes for them. I want them to one day, my biggest goal for my kids is they would believe in Jesus. Like that's, that's at the top of the list. Everything's way far below it.
But they would believe in Christ. They would be virtuous adults that are kind, that are graceful, that are loving. That they, that they would be able to take care of themselves. Because I'm a pastor and my retirement plan isn't super great. I don't, it's just, any boomerang action when they come back is not going to go well for them. Like I, but I, there are things I have in store for them and there's, I've got to plan the way that I, that my wife and I raised them.
The things we say no to, the things we say yes to, they don't realize that. And every now and then I just kind of get in front of them and say, listen, I love you. I am for you. I have your best interest in mind. You've got to trust me. You've got to trust me as your dad.
That what I, what I'm doing right now is ultimately for your good. And what Easter gets to be for us every year is that kind of reminder. In the midst of doubt, all the things that we may be facing, that God just holds us and says, listen, I love you. You may be wrestling with doubts and frustrations, some anger, confusion. Life is hard. There are lots of things that we face that make life difficult.
We have real doubts, but Easter is the reminder that God loves us, that He has a plan for us. He just points back to the empty tomb. The evidence that the tomb is empty, that Christ has been resurrected, that there is no one that has ever, that ever found this body, that they're never going to find it because Jesus walked out of it for us, that we have life in Him. And it is God's evidence that He loves us and that He is worthy of our trust. And that He can always point back to this, that every year as we pause to remember the death and resurrection of Jesus, that those events are God holding us and saying, don't you see, I love you.
You may be wrestling with skeptical doubt. I could go back and forth on, listen, the Bible is one of the most trustworthy, verified, ancient sources. It's unbelievable how trustworthy it is that these are eyewitness accounts of what happened with the empty tomb. But ultimately, there are lots of reasons you can find for skepticism. And Jesus holds out the scars and says, I am resurrected. Believe.
Do not disbelieve, but believe. You may have lots of crushed hopes that life may not be working out the way that you want it right now. The hope of the gospel is that you would have eternal life in Him. That means that things don't always get better this side of eternity, but what's held out in front of you is eternal life that is filled with endless joy that pales in comparison. The life and the sufferings that we have now pale in comparison to the joy that's found in eternity with Christ. Christ.
That's all made possible by the resurrection. I don't know how you came into this room. I don't know if this is the first church that you've been in in a long time. Maybe you've been outside of community. Maybe you've experienced real loss and real pain. Maybe for you, doubts aren't because of skepticism.
They're not because of any type of crushed hopes. For a lot of people, doubts are just the result of sin. It's saying, I want to live my life on my terms and I don't want God telling me how to live my life. So I'm going to do me. Maybe you're here and this message confronts you and what can happen when you get outside of the body of Christ, when you get outside of the church for a while and you come back into and you hear something like this, what can happen is man, I just, I don't know. Like I can't.
Y'all don't want me around here. I got to clean my life up. Like I got to get some stuff straightened out before I can ever be a part of a church like this. And I don't want you to miss what Jesus says here. He doesn't say behave and have faith. He says believe and have faith.
That ultimately what we're trusting in is not our only hope but what Christ has done for us. That as we celebrate it on Good Friday that Jesus went to the cross where he was nailed to the cross for our sins and our rebellion. And that what happens there and what Chet was walking through Friday night is that as he took our sin that he gives us his perfect record that we don't bring our good works we bring our sin and our burdens and through believing of what he has done for us on the cross and trusting that he walked out of the tomb on our behalf we get this life that is offered. But you got to believe.
Do not disbelieve but believe. That's the command that Jesus gives us. My open prayer for you this morning is that you would be confronted by this message confronted by the command to believe and that you'd be willing to take a step of faith. My hope for you this morning is that this is the first time you've been around church community in quite some time that you'd stick around a little longer that you'd work through some of your doubts with us and that ultimately that you would believe. Jesus holds that out in front of us. He holds it out as he held out his hands before Thomas and he says do not disbelieve.
Believe.