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I wonder if that was a chorus that was sung as the early church met in worship on that

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Sunday evening after Easter when Jesus appeared.

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You know there was one apostle who was missing that night, wasn't there?

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That was Thomas.

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He missed the gathering, and had he been there, he likely would have avoided a week of inner

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pain and doubt, as well as 2,000 years of being known as Doubting Thomas.

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Sometimes it doesn't pay to miss a service, and that was the case with Thomas.

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In fact, I think very frankly we can say that missing a service may result in a loss that

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all of us would regret.

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In Hebrews 10 we are exhorted with these words, Let us consider how to stimulate one another

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to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of

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some.

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Those are good words of reminder for all of us.

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Whatever our practice may be, that we not get into a habit that some have of forsaking

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the assembling of God's people together.

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I believe it's important to make gathering for worship as the church gathers, whether

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it be morning or night, that we make that a priority.

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That we determine it to be a commitment for ourselves and for our homes to be gathered

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with the Lord's people as the Lord's people gather for worship.

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What I'm going to say I want to say gently, but I want to say it also firmly.

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If parents allow their children to determine their regularity or their schedule of attendance

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at church, they destroy something that is very priceless.

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And that is an example of faithfulness.

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It is very easy in the culture in which we live today to excuse ourselves from being

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faithful.

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But in doing that we are doing more than just missing church once in a while.

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We are saying to our children, don't worry about consistency.

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What parents do shapes the values and the priorities of their children.

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When we consider the irregularity of so many it seems in this day, and I speak not only

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of our own congregation, but generally, when we consider the irregularity of attendance,

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I wonder just what the level of commitment will be in the next generation.

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Because the tendency is for each succeeding generation to be less committed than the preceding

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one.

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And so when we see the pattern as it is today, I wonder 20 years, 40 years from now, just

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what the pattern is going to be among those people who profess to be gods.

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Jesus chose to appear at a gathering of his people.

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And where two or three are gathered together, there he is in the midst of them.

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Whether he appears physically or not.

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The text that we have read this morning from John chapter 20 deals with another gathering

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of the disciples.

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The Sunday after Easter, just a week later, Jesus chose to appear again in that gathering

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of his disciples.

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This time it would seem just for the sake of Thomas.

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Thomas was not a bad person.

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He was not a poor apostle.

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Indeed, as we read about him in the Gospel of John, and John is the only one that gives

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us very much about this man, we see some fine qualities in his life.

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Thomas, who was also called Didymus, which means a twin, so whether he had a twin brother

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who was one of the apostles as some people think, or a twin brother or twin sister, otherwise

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we're not sure.

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But Thomas, who was also called twin, was a man of great loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ.

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In fact, he testified that he was willing to die with Jesus.

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He was a man who was devoted to the person of this one with whom he had walked these

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years.

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Thomas was also a man willing to speak out.

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He was rather outspoken, perhaps coming behind Peter in that natural trait, but nonetheless

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one of the apostles who was unafraid to speak out when he felt it was right to do.

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But then we also learned that he was a man of some pessimism.

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He was uncertain about the future.

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On one occasion he said, if Jesus is going to go back to Jerusalem where they're waiting

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to kill him, then let's all go back with him and all die.

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Now he was willing to die, but he expected to die.

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Rather pessimistic in his outlook.

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He struggled with believing when he had no tangible proof to support his weak faith.

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Now Thomas had had the promise of Jesus himself that he would be raised from the dead.

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Furthermore, he had the witness of Jesus' power to raise others, for he was present,

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for example, when Lazarus was raised.

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And thirdly, Thomas had the testimony of ten other men whom he loved and trusted, the other

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apostles.

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And they kept on saying to him, the Lord has risen.

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Thomas we saw him.

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He appeared in our midst.

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He was here.

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He has risen.

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And steadfastly, Thomas refused to believe.

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He could not find within himself the faith to accept the resurrection as a fact.

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Perhaps he had etched on his mind one solitary scene.

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That was a cross on which hung the beaten, bloodied, and still body of his Lord.

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The Lord that he had followed, and so powerful was that scene in his mind, so shocked were

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his sensitivities by the events of recent days that he had been unable to join the others

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that Easter Eve, overcome with grief, unable to reconcile what had happened to the life-giving

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Christ.

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Therefore he stayed at home, or he hid somewhere else.

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Perhaps he wept by himself.

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You know, there are some people who grieve with others.

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There are some who can only express their grief by themselves.

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Maybe that was the way Thomas was.

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And therefore he did not gather with the other apostles on that first Easter Eve.

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And now eight days have transpired.

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Another Sunday has rolled around.

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Another first day of the week.

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And though he has repeatedly heard the witness that Jesus was raised from the dead, he doubted.

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What I learned from this text is this, that weak faith can never serve Christ with blessing.

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That's putting it negatively.

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Weak faith can never serve Christ with blessing.

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Doubt must be answered and replaced with mature faith if we would know the blessing of God.

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There are four observations drawn from Thomas' experience, which I think will encourage those

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of us who struggle, as he did, with faithlessness or with doubt.

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The first observation that I see in our text is this, that doubt is not an uncommon problem.

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You see, Thomas was not alone as the doubter.

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As a matter of fact, all of the disciples struggled with doubt.

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None of them was a shining example of faith.

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Isn't that right?

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Look back in Luke chapter 24, where Luke reminds us of their attitudes.

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A number of the women had seen Jesus and were telling the apostles these things.

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In verse 11 of Luke 24, and these words appeared to them as nonsense and they would not believe

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them.

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So dear people, when we talk about doubting Thomas, let's remember to talk about doubting

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Peter, and doubting James, and doubting John, and doubting Matthew, and doubting all the

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rest of them, and doubting you, and doubting me.

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Because you see, doubt is not an uncommon problem.

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The struggle with doubt was not limited to those early disciples.

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Every generation has faced doubt as an enemy of the spiritual life.

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The roots of doubt go all the way back to the Garden of Eden, when Satan said to Eve,

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has God said and created in her mind doubt regarding the trustworthiness of God?

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Doubt might be defined as uncertainty, as hesitation, or mistrust.

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Doubt is unsettledness of mind and heart.

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James pictures it this way.

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The one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

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I am talking to some today who are just like that.

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There is doubt within your soul and the result of it is that your life is driven and tossed.

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Back and forth you go because of doubt in your mind.

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Doubt itself is not necessarily fatal, but it is progressive.

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I would compare it to pneumonia.

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If you get a healthy dose of antibiotics, it can be licked, but if you don't, it may

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eventually kill you.

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If left unconfronted, doubt will eventually suck the very life out of your soul.

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Doubt begins with a question mark.

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The question mark then grows into a doubt, which if not checked will develop into unbelief,

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which finally leads one to despair.

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Doubt is the progression.

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Doubt is but one step of that.

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There are some within my hearing at this moment who are doubting the existence of God and

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doubting even the very story of the resurrection of Christ that we have been looking at for

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a few weeks.

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There are others who are doubting the trustworthiness of God because you have experienced some disappointment

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in your life.

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Perhaps you have taken a step of what you thought was faith and obedience, and the result

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of that has been calamity in your life, not blessing.

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And the very thing that you thought was going to bring blessing from God has instead brought

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to you deep disappointment and hurt, and you're doubting, can God be trusted?

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A friend of mine was the director of one of the historic Bible conferences in the United

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States, and it was just going downhill year by year.

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They had to infuse new life, new excitement, he felt, into that ministry.

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And so he sought God's direction, I'm sure, and tried to put together some events that

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would draw people to the grounds and which would get them enthused about being there

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and being a part of this conference and helping to support it.

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One of his ideas was to bring in an illusionist entertainer, or some people call him a magician.

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And he did a number of tricks which impressed the crowd, and they all enjoyed it.

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They were having fun on that day.

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And the final trick that he had, he would lock himself into handcuffs and have chains

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put about him, and then he would allow himself to be dumped into a body of water.

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And within a few seconds, poof, he would appear at the surface of the lake free.

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And so on that afternoon, they put the handcuffs on him, they chained him, took him out in

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a rowboat into the lake at the conference grounds and dumped him overboard.

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And seconds went by, and then a minute was gone, and he still hadn't appeared.

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And so they dove in, only to find that he had swallowed the key he had hidden in his

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mouth and drowned.

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What do you do when you try something that you believe God wants you to do and the end

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result of it is disaster?

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One thing you may do is doubt the trustworthiness of God.

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Then there are some that may doubt God's purposes.

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Why?

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Why, God?

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I have poured myself into this job.

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I have given my employer the very best of my life, and now here I am closing in on retirement

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years and I'm laid off.

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God, why is this happening to me?

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There may be someone who is doubting the justice of God.

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I spoke recently with a young lady who has been in her life the victim of abuse.

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She has become a Christian, but one of the things she struggles with is that the one

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or ones who have abused her might become Christians and should be forgiven.

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She said it's easy for them.

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All they do is confess it and accept Jesus, and their guilt is gone.

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But she said, I deal with it every day of my life.

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She says, does Christianity offer any justice for the victim?

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I thought that was a pretty good question, an honest one anyway.

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In the heart of it was that she was doubting the justice of God.

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Doubt is not as uncommon as we sometimes think.

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All of us, from time to time, struggle with doubt.

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How do we handle it?

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In the first place, I think that we must not be afraid to admit it, that we are doubting,

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that there is a question mark that has grown larger and not smaller in our lives.

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Secondly, we must not be slow to address it.

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Because if it's not addressed rather quickly, it can lead on to unbelief and despair, and

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that can bring ruin.

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And finally, we must not be embarrassed to drop it, to drop our doubts.

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There are some people who are, because of intellectual pride or because of peer pressure,

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unable to release their doubts.

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Even though they have satisfactory answers, which have convinced them, in one side of

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their minds, on the other side of their minds they hang on to the doubt, afraid to let go

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of it or embarrassed to let go of it.

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For if they did, then what would others think?

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So I would exhort you, don't be embarrassed to drop it.

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Drop the doubt once you have it answered.

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Doubt is not uncommon, but I notice also that doubt does not deter the Lord's love and

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faithfulness.

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Jesus came to the room that evening.

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His first words, like the week before, were, Peace, Shalom, be with you.

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And then immediately, so the text seems to read, he turned toward Thomas, and he read

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Thomas the riot act.

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Is that what it says?

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He reached out and got a hold of Thomas by the scruff of the neck, and he said, Listen,

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fella.

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Is that what it says?

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No.

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I want you to notice the love of our Lord for Thomas.

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I want you to notice the gentleness.

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I want you to see the faithfulness that Jesus has toward the doubter.

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He came to Thomas, but he did not attack him, nor did he shame him, but he gently erased

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the doubt.

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That reminds me of 2 Timothy 2.13 that says, If we are faithless, he remains faithful,

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for he cannot deny himself.

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God is faithful.

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That is his nature.

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He will always be faithful, even when you and I doubt.

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He is faithful.

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Jesus was patient with Thomas the doubter, and he is still patient today with the one

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who doubts.

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The wounded, the weak, and the weary are special objects of our Lord's concern and care.

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He faithfully and lovingly meets his own at the point of their need and their weakness.

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Why did Jesus appear to Thomas?

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Well, I believe in the first place he knew the potential within Thomas for a dynamic

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witness.

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And church tradition says that Thomas went on to another continent as the apostle Thomas,

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and there was responsible for the establishment of the church in that continent of Southeast

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Asia.

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Jesus knew the potential in that man, and I want you to know if you are a doubter here

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today, Jesus loves you.

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He is patient with you, and he desires to come to you faithfully because he knows the

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potential in your life too.

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He does not want doubt to destroy that.

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But I think also Jesus was desirous of keeping all the sheep which had been given to him

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by his father.

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Not one of them would he allow to stray too far away, and so he sought out that sheep,

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in this case Thomas, that was straying.

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Just as our Lord is out searching today for some sheep, and as a tender loving shepherd

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is calling you back to the place of faith and obedience, though now you are straying

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into doubt.

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Doubt is not uncommon, nor does doubt deter the Lord's love and faithfulness.

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But a third observation I would make is that doubt finds its answer in trustworthy evidence.

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This is evidence that God makes clear in his own time and in his own way.

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In Thomas' case, he had to wait a week.

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Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn't go to wherever Thomas was on that Easter evening

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and appear to him?

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Jesus made Thomas wait a week because there was something about that wait, there was something

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about that struggle within Thomas during those days that was important.

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I don't know what it was, but Jesus had a reason for waiting those eight days.

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But when the time was right and his purpose was ripe, he appeared.

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You may wonder why it is that you have been in doubt, or you have lived with this question

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mark as long as you have.

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Well, it may be that you've missed the evidence somewhere along the way, or it may be that

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God's time for that evidence just hasn't come yet.

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But there is a time when he comes with that evidence that you need.

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In Thomas' case, the evidence involved a repetition of Thomas' own words to him.

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Notice what Jesus says in verse 27, and compare that to what Thomas himself had said in verse

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25 a week earlier.

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Jesus simply repeated to Thomas basically what Thomas himself had said, showing that

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he had been present when Thomas made that statement.

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He knew what Thomas had said, though he was invisible to Thomas' eyes.

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There was some evidence for Thomas.

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He recognized those words.

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They had a, shall we say, a certain ring to them.

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And then Christ came in a supernatural manner, just appeared in their midst, the doors being

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shut.

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That was evidence.

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But the greatest evidence was the wound, or the wounds in Christ's body, wounds that were

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tangible and substantive, wounds that were visible.

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The language here suggests that those wounds were not scarred over, but they were open

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wounds and remain so.

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The body of Jesus does not depend upon blood, as our bodies do.

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Consequently, it technically would be feasible that his body could have open wounds and the

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existence of that supernatural body not at all be endangered.

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Indeed, he said to Thomas, here, reach here your finger.

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See my hands.

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Reach here.

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Your hand.

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Put it into my side.

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He actually exposed the wound in his side and invited Thomas to stick his hand into

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that spear wound.

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Jesus was touchable.

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This was convincing.

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Whether he actually touched Jesus, the text does not say.

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My guess is that he did not.

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He simply exclaimed, my Lord and my God.

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The honest skeptic can find evidence to answer his doubts.

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The preeminent evidence, the one that God gives us above all others, is this written

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declaration of his, propositional statements of truth, the Word of God.

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This is evidence for us.

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This has become the resting place for our faith, the written and the living Word of

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God.

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Evidence will not always be visible or material or miraculous, as was the case of Thomas,

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but the Lord will always provide convincing evidence to the sincere skeptic.

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There are many who are insincere skeptics, who do not believe because they will not to

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believe.

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They don't need more proof.

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They need a new will that's willing to believe the proof they have.

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But the honest skeptic, of which Thomas appears to be one, will respond to the convincing

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proof that God gives to answer the doubts.

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I don't know what kind of proof you may need to answer the doubts within you, but I know

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who can give that evidence.

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Are you looking for it?

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The final observation I want to make is the doubt that is answered matures faith.

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Merrill Tenney wrote regarding Thomas' experience, quote, faith comes to maturity and changes

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the entire direction of an individual life, close quote.

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We have here in these verses the climax of the Gospel of John.

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When Thomas cries out, my Lord and my God, and Jesus responds to him in verse 29, because

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you have seen me, have you believed?

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Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed.

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That is the pinnacle, that is the mountaintop of the Gospel of John.

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Thomas' reply was one of wonder and delight.

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He was overcome with the realization that this was indeed the one whom he loved.

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His reply is further one of repentance and change.

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He had come to that room with a heart filled with doubt and skepticism, but he would leave

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differently, dynamically, because his doubts were answered.

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His words were ones of confession.

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Jesus is called deity, and notice that he does not rebuke Thomas, rather he accepts

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these words.

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He says, my Lord, my God, a belief in the deity of Jesus Christ, my friend, is essential

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for salvation.

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One cannot be saved and doubt that.

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And finally, these words were ones of worship.

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These are words that reflect the word spoken by the hosts of heaven, who perpetually and

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continuously speak of the deity and the glory and the majesty and the honor of God, my Lord

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and my God.

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The doubt that is answered matures faith.

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Doubt is not necessarily the enemy of faith, for doubt that is honestly answered actually

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causes faith to increase.

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The natural doubter is the more credible witness when he's convinced.

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He is suspicious.

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He is critical by nature.

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But when convinced to believe, he is all the more believable and convincing.

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And his worship of the truth that he has discovered is much deeper, even more constraining.

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I want you to notice that the words that Thomas used on this occasion go far beyond any of

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the words of his colleagues when they saw the resurrected Christ.

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This man struggled with doubt longer and deeper than any of them.

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But in the end, when his doubt was answered, his faith seems to have been stronger, his

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understanding deeper, his devotion more keen.

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As he said to the resurrected Christ, my Lord and my God.

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Then Jesus mildly rebukes him in the question that is asked in verse 29.

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And following that gives a beatitude, a blessing.

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It is a blessing to all who come to faith in him without the aid of physical manifestations.

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You and I are not deprived because Jesus does not appear physically to us today.

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Indeed, because he does not appear in that way, we have the greater blessing, the one

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that he speaks here.

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Those who do not see and yet who believed.

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And everyone who has believed since that apostolic generation in the first century share in this

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beatitude of our Lord.

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More blessed are those, indeed, who believe him, whose faith is firmly fixed in him and

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who have not seen him than those who have had the physical manifestations.

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Weak faith will never serve Christ with blessing.

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The doubter, the one with small faith, puts God into a box and demands that God prove

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himself by doing certain things.

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In Thomas' case it was, unless I can put my fingers in the holes of his hands and my

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hand into his side, I will not believe.

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He put God into a box.

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And still today when you and I doubt God, often what we are doing is making him small.

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We're putting him into a box.

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We're saying, God, if you're real, God, if this is you, God, if this is your blessing,

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then this is the way it must be.

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That is small faith.

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Mature faith agrees in advance with whatever God does, trusting God's way, trusting God's

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time, making no demands upon God, but yielding and surrendering to him.

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God wants your faith and mine to mature.

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God does not condemn your doubts, but God does confront them.

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God confronts your doubts with circumstances.

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He confronts your doubts with personalities that he puts in your way.

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He confronts your doubts with problems that expose the doubts and the faithlessness that

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question God as God in your life.

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God confronts the doubts that you struggle with.

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He does that so that you might bring to him your questions, your doubts, that you might

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look honestly at the evidence that he provides, that you might believe that and your faith

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might mature through your doubt being answered.

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Some of you who are doubting today, who are questioning God, who are wondering about God,

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will you come on bended knee before Jesus Christ on this morning and say to him, Lord,

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I give to you my doubts.

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And you provide the evidence, you provide the answer in your way and in your time.

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I make no demands.

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You are my Lord and my God.

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Without seeing and without touching, without having the tangible proof, I bring my doubts

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and my questions and I lay them at your feet.

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And I declare you Lord and God for my life.

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Will you pray with me?

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Our heads bowed and our eyes closed.

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Dear doubter, beloved questioner of God, do you understand his patience?

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Your doubts do not threaten God, nor do your doubts deter him from loving you and faithfully

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seeking you to come back to that place of full confidence in him and also full obedience.

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And this morning he has put his arm around some of you who have strayed in doubt.

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He has confronted some of you who have questioned him.

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Can you sense within your heart being drawn to declare him Lord and God of your life?

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Will you tell him that right now?

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Before we close in prayer, will you at this moment tell him again your doubts and questions

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and declare that you are trusting him without demands on what he should do for you?

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Weak faith can never serve God with blessing.

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Doubt must be answered and faith must mature if we would know the blessing of God in this

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life.

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Father, there are many of us here, indeed if we are honest, all of us, who from time

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to time in our lives have struggled with doubt.

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And many of us can testify that you have been faithful in those times to eventually bring

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us back.

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Some need to make that step this morning of coming back.

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I pray that you will embrace them, that they might sense the warmth and the tenderness

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of your heart for them.

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I pray that they will be able to lay at your feet the questions that are unanswered, the

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doubts with which they struggle, and simply cry out with Thomas, my Lord, my God.

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In Jesus' name, amen.