When Thomas Saw His Hands

I want to invite you to take out your Bibles and turn with me to John chapter 20, where we were in our scripture reading just a little bit ago.

We're going to pick up where Brother Mike left off when it's time to read. And we are going to be reading verses 24 to 29.

And the title of today's message is, When Thomas Saw His Hands.

When Thomas Saw His Hands. We have all had times that we would say were stressful.

We have all lived through times of difficulty, of times of anguish, even times of intense grief.

If I were to give each of you an opportunity to come up today and share a part of your testimony, it would undoubtedly have some point where you would share a time where you had a broken heart, where you did not know what to do or where to go, where you felt as if you were lost in the moment of sadness.

We've all been there. But very few people have experienced anything close to what the apostles faced during Holy Week.

Now Holy Week is what we call that period between the time of Jesus' triumphal entry which took place on what's known as Palm Sunday where Jesus came into Jerusalem on the back of a donkey and the people shouted

Hosanna, sang praises to the Son of David and they laid palm branches and their cloaks down before as he came in on the donkey.

That was a time of great celebration. That was a time of great praise. But yet, over the course of a few days, many things in Jerusalem began to look quite dark as the

Jewish leaders stirred up the people against the Lord Jesus Christ.

And there was much desire to see him be put to death as a criminal.

And I want you to just imagine for a moment what it must have been like for the apostles who began the week in celebration and by Friday they were witnessing something they could not believe.

The very one who they proclaimed as king was now being suspended between heaven and earth having been nailed to a cross.

They watched as the attention surrounding Jesus became more and more hostile that week rising to a fever pitch.

They knew at any moment that Jesus could be arrested and of course he finally was.

They had no idea that one among them was conspiring against them and he would betray the Son of Man with a kiss in the garden of Gethsemane.

Consider Peter and the mixed emotions we see in him who in one instance in the garden is willing to take out his sword and cut off the ear of the servant of the high priest and yet within just a few hours was unwilling to even be named a follower of the

Lord Jesus Christ to the point that when they said your accent betrays you, you are from Galilee and he says

I don't know what you're talking about and he even cursed and says I do not know the man.

The internal conflict of the apostles, the conflict between belief and unbelief, between confidence and doubt, between assurance and unassurance was something that must have been immense.

And I've often wondered in my heart, what was Saturday like? What was

Saturday like? This is the traditional understanding.

Jesus was crucified on Friday. He was in the tomb on Saturday or he was in the tomb

Friday. They put him in the tomb Friday. He was in the tomb during the Sabbath, which was

Saturday, and he rose again on Sunday, which means that Saturday would have been the worst day in the life of the apostles.

The worst day they had ever experienced. As Mike mentioned during the prayer time yesterday, a very close friend and friend to our family, the

Stoddard family who we've known for many, many, many years, their daughter being very close friends with my daughter for years, we got the call yesterday morning and it was

Aaron Bell who called me. He is their pastor now and he was already at the home.

And I've been there. I know what that call feels like and I know what it's like to be driving toward the house and not have nothing to say.

What can you say? You can be present, you can pray, you can remind them of the promises of God.

But that day is a hard day. That day is a terrible day.

And this day is what is being experienced by the apostles who are now in hiding, wondering, am

I going to be next? Am I going to be the one who once this Sabbath is over and business has reconvened, are they going to begin rounding us up and stapling us to a tree?

And so they were rightly afraid. They were rightly grieved.

They were rightly broken. Their leader was dead.

They had no idea what was coming next, even though Jesus told them what was coming.

Literally, they had a prophecy from the Lord Jesus Christ on the third day I will rise and yet none of them expected it.

They thought it was over. Story finished in great disappointment, like many who had come before.

But then came the morning, resurrection morning.

And as I talked about in our sunrise service this morning, each of the gospels gives us the story of the resurrection in a slightly different way, but all of them give us essentially the same information.

Women came to the tomb. There was an angelic message.

There was nobody. There was an inquisition.

Why do you seek the living among the dead? So they go to report the event.

Peter and John hear the report and do they take it at face value? Do they take their word for it?

No, they have to see it for themselves. So they dash to the tomb.

And John reminds everyone that he outran Peter. And they get to the tomb and they see that it's empty.

Mary goes to the tomb and as Mike read to us this morning, she's greeted by the resurrected

Christ. Another gospel tells us that the women are greeted by Christ. And then another gospel still tells us that two on the road to Emmaus were greeted by Christ.

They didn't even know it was him. He walked with them. He talked with them. He shared with them how he had fulfilled the

Old Testament prophecies about him and how Moses and all the prophets had written about him.

And he told them about him, but they didn't know it was him until he sat with them and he broke bread.

And when he broke the bread, it says their eyes were open. They knew it was him. And then he vanished from their eyes.

He was no longer there. So that night, the night of the resurrection, they gather in an upper room.

Verse 19 tells us they gathered because they were afraid of the

Jews. So they locked the doors. And by this, this is the

Jewish leaders, the ones who had sought the death of Christ and they believed they were seeking their death as well.

So they gathered in the upper room behind locked doors and the news began to pour out from each of them.

We saw Jesus on the road. We saw Jesus on the way. Jesus is here. He is risen.

And then in a moment, the glorified, risen

Jesus is standing in their midst, having come behind locked doors, which means he didn't break in and he didn't climb in through a window, but he was manifest in their presence.

And here's the thing. Jesus is not just a spirit. Jesus is the risen, physical, glorified

God -man, but he is not bound by locked doors. He's not bound by the physics of normal movement.

He can move where he wants to move and go where he wants to go and be where he wants to be. So in this moment, he is there in their midst.

And what does he say to them? Look at my hands. Look at my side.

Now why his hands and his side? Remember how he was put to death.

His hands were nailed to the cross. His feet were nailed to the cross.

But that wasn't the only scars that he had. No, he was also beaten before going to the cross.

He was scourged, which would have torn the very flesh from off of his back and off of his chest as the scourge went in and gripped the flesh and tore it as it was ripped back.

And they took a crown of thorns, not little thorns, but large thorns, and they pierced his skull.

His face was bloody. But now the only scars that we know he has are the scars in his hand and the one in his side.

There's no indication that his brow is punctured. There's no indication that the flesh from his back is still rent and torn.

No, this is the glorified God -man and his body is healed. He is no longer broken.

He is no longer dead. But he maintains the scars in his hands to identify him, to say these are the hands of those who saved you.

And this is the side. You remember why they pierced his side? Because they wanted to ensure that he was dead.

The Sabbath was coming. The evening was coming. Sabbath begins in the evening. And they were ready to have these men off the cross.

And so they go and to ensure that they would no longer be able to push up on the nail in their feet and take a breath, they took clubs and they broke their legs.

But when they came to Jesus, he was already dead. No need to break his legs.

But to ensure that he would be deceased when they pulled him off the cross, they took a spear, the head of the spear about the size of a man's hand, and they shoved it up into his side.

And out of the wound poured blood and water. He was dead.

But now, behind locked doors, he says, look at my hands.

Put your hand in my side. I'm not a spirit. I'm not a ghost. I'm the risen

God -man and you know who I am because my hands and my side are my identification marks.

And in this moment, he blesses them. He breathes on them.

He gives them the Holy Spirit. He gives them their mission. They're going to preach the gospel.

They're going to bind and loose. All of these things are happening in that upper room.

But one man is missing. One of the apostles, for whatever reason, why?

We don't know why he's missing. But Thomas wasn't there.

And this brings us to our reading for today. That was an extended introduction, but I will ask you to stand to give honor to the reading of God's word.

And the words will be on the screen. And it says, Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when

Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, we have seen the

Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side,

I will never believe. 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. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my

Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Father in heaven, I pray now that as I seek to give an understanding of this text, that you would keep me from error.

For Lord God, you know that I am a fallible man and capable of preaching error. For the sake of your name, for the sake of your people, for the sake of my conscience, for the sake of your word,

Lord, tie me to the post of scripture and do not let me stray. And I pray, Lord, as today I seek to give an understanding of this text,

Lord, that those who believe would be encouraged in their faith. And those who have yet to believe, those who maybe are struggling with doubt, that today would be a day of confirmation for them, that they would believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ and be saved. And I pray this in his name.

Amen. Who is

Thomas? Thomas is an apostle.

One of the twelve who was chosen by Jesus Christ. And he is mentioned in all four of the

Gospels. But in Matthew, Mark and Luke, what are known as the

Synoptic Gospels, meaning that they tell essentially the same story, they tell it from sort of the same perspective.

In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Thomas is only mentioned in the listing of the apostles.

There is no extra information about him. And the only thing that I noticed in going through the lists was that he seems to be mentioned each time close to Matthew.

I have no idea why, it just happens to be that it's Matthew and Thomas, Matthew and Thomas. So you can do with that what you will, as far as information goes.

But he is listed among the apostles in Matthew, Mark and Luke. But when we get to the

Gospel of John, we find ourselves getting much more information about this person named

Thomas. Thomas takes a much more visible role. It's John's Gospel that tells us that Thomas was called the twin, which in some of your

Bibles is simply given the transliteration of the Greek word Didymus. Didymus would have been a nickname which would have meant twin, indicating that he likely had a twin brother.

There are three recorded interactions between Thomas and the

Lord Jesus Christ in the Gospel of John that we don't have in the other Gospels.

And I think they paint a really interesting picture of who this man is.

Because most of us tend to focus on only the one encounter with Thomas, and that's the encounter that we read today.

And the encounter that we read today is where he gets his nickname, which of course is Doubting Thomas.

Well, I hope to say today that I think that's a bum rap.

And I say that because first,

I don't know anyone, no matter how strong their faith, no matter how long they have been a believer, that have not at times struggled with a season of doubt or a season of difficulty in their faith.

If it is right to call Thomas Doubting Thomas, then it would be just as fair to call me

Doubting Keith. So I want to be fair and not go labeling someone with a nefarious nickname if I'm not willing also to say that I've struggled as well at times in my own life.

But also, when we compare the other two accounts of Thomas in the Gospels, we don't find a consistent testimony of doubting.

In fact, the very first time we encounter Thomas in the

Gospel of John is actually a time where he demonstrates what I would call an exhibition of brave faith.

An exhibition of brave faith. And when was that? Well, you remember when Lazarus died?

Lazarus was the friend of Jesus. And there was a message that had come to Jesus.

Your friend Lazarus is sick. And Jesus says, we're not going yet. Now, at that time,

Jesus was in Galilee and Lazarus was in Judea. And there was some fear for Jesus to go down into Judea because that was where all the leaders of the

Jews were. That was where all the potential dangers were. And so there was this idea of sort of staying out of Judea, staying out of that area.

And so they said, Jesus, come. And Jesus said, we're not going right now. Then Lazarus dies.

And Jesus says, now we're going. Okay. Now we're going to go.

And remember the story, if you remember back in John 11, Jesus says he's asleep. And they said, well, if he's asleep, he'll wake back up.

He says, no, no, no. I mean, he's dead. He has died. And we're going.

And the other apostle, you know, in Judea, that's where the dangers are. That's where it's not safe.

But Thomas in John 11 says, let us go with him and let us die with him.

Now some people take that as Thomas being a negative person. Let's just go and die.

But I don't think that that's what Thomas was intending to convey. I think in that moment there's a conveyance of Thomas' faith.

Let us go with him, and if need be, we will die with him.

Now all of them said that. Remember Peter, I will die with you. Even if the rest of these leave, we'll die. Where was

Peter? He was denying Christ in the courtyard, right? So all of them claimed this.

But at least we know there was a moment in Thomas' life where he claimed, let us go with him, let us die with him.

Confident, fearless faith. Let us go, and let us die.

So that's in John 11. Then, a few chapters later, we hear from Thomas again.

And this time, it's in the upper room. We have in John's gospel the extended account of Jesus' discourse on the night before his crucifixion.

It's several chapters long, which take us through what we call the upper room discourse.

This is where Jesus talks about, I am the vine, you are the branches. He talks about all these wonderful things. He's going to go away and he's going to send the spirit.

All those are in that section known as the upper room discourse. But there's one section that I bet all of you remember.

And that is the part where Jesus says, let not your hearts be troubled.

You believe in God, believe also in me. For in my Father's house there are many rooms, and if it were not so,

I would have told you. And I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you,

I will come again and take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going.

And Thomas said, Lord, we don't know where you're going.

How can we know the way? And Jesus said, I am the way and the truth and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me. So the first time we're exposed to Thomas, we're exposed to him in confident faith.

Now we're exposed to him in curious questioning. Lord, we don't know where you're going.

How do we get there? We don't know. You say you're going away. You say that you're going to send the

Spirit. You say all these things. And you say there's a house and there's a room for us. But we don't know the path.

We don't know how to get there. And out of Thomas' question, out of this wonderful question, how can we know the way, we get the passage that many of us have quoted many, many times.

I am the way, the truth, and the life. Why did Jesus say, I am the way, the truth, and the life?

Because Thomas said, we want to know the way. We don't know the way. You know, but we don't.

So tell us, what is the way? I am the way, the truth, and the life.

So we have Thomas, the fearless companion of Jesus. Let us go and die with him.

We have Thomas, the questioner. Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way?

And now we come to the upper room. And beginning in verse 24, it tells us,

Thomas was not with them when Jesus came the first time. Thomas was absent.

Where was he? I don't know. Maybe also in hiding. Remember, it says they were behind locked doors.

This is the first Sunday. By the way, this is Resurrection Sunday for them. All of these things that have happened, it's all happened in this day.

This is that night. And they're up. They're in the upper room behind locked doors. And Thomas is not there.

Where's Thomas? We don't know. He might be hiding like they are. Verse 25.

So the other disciples told him. When?

It doesn't say. They found him. They went to tell him. They went to get him. So the other disciples told him,

We have seen the Lord. But notice what he says. Notice Thomas' response.

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. I will never believe unless I see it for myself.

I want you to consider this for a moment. Why did

Thomas make such a specific request? Why did he say, Unless I see the marks in his hand, unless I place my finger into his side,

I will not believe. Why make such a specific demand?

I think the answer is up above. Because that is exactly what they experienced.

Go up just a bit. Go back up in the narrative. And notice what it says in verse 19.

On the evening of the day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the

Jews, Jesus came and stood among them. And he said to them, Peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then his disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So here's what

I consider may have happened. When the disciples ran to tell

Thomas, who wasn't there behind the locked doors, when they went to tell him what they had missed,

I think they included what he said. We saw the Lord. He said, Peace be unto you.

He showed us his hands and his side. Thomas, it's him. And Thomas said, Unless I see his hands, unless I put my finger in his side,

I'm not going to believe. Now again, I want to, for just a moment, just consider the fact of why

Thomas would have had what seems to be an obstinate unbelief, an unwillingness to take the word of his friends.

Just think of all that he had gone through. I talked about this in my introduction.

Think of all that Thomas has seen. He saw

Jesus raise the dead. He saw Jesus give lepers baby soft skin.

He saw Jesus take men who couldn't walk and give them legs that could leap like a deer. He saw Jesus take men whose eyes could not see and give them 20 -20 vision.

He saw Jesus take men who could not hear and give them ears that were able to hear and mouths that were able to speak.

Jesus had done all of these things, but when it came time for the crucifixion, angels did not descend from heaven and take him off the cross.

No, he died right there. And Thomas was having a hard time hoping again.

Thomas was having a hard time trusting again because his hope had been dashed at the foot of that cross.

His hope had been broken when his Savior died.

And now he's saying, and I don't want you to think

I'm reading into the text. I'm giving you my understanding of Thomas' doubt. He's saying, I'm not ready to hope again.

I'm not ready to hope again. The pain of Saturday has led to the obstinance of Sunday and the pain of not wanting to believe something that wasn't true.

So Thomas said, I can't believe it unless I see his hands, unless I put my finger in his side.

I just can't. I'm not able to hope again.

Thomas is in this moment demonstrating brokenness. It is not as if he did not want

Jesus to be alive. It is not as if he didn't have all the desire in the world to see his

Savior risen from the dead. But in this moment, he states emphatically, unless I see him,

I will not believe. I will never believe. And so John's gospel fast forwards the story one week later.

Now in the account, it says eight days later, but you have to understand how the reckoning of time was at this point in history.

When we talk about time now, we normally don't count this day. We count tomorrow as the first day and other.

But in this reckoning of time, it would have counted that day. So Sunday to Sunday would not be seven days.

It would be eight days because you're counting Sunday as well. So when it says eight days later, this is the next

Sunday. So the first Sunday they're in the upper room, they've seen

Jesus. Thomas was not with them. Sometime in the next few days, sometime it may have even been that night after Jesus is no longer with them,

Thomas has been found. He's been told. He said, I don't believe. And now eight days later, his disciples are gathered again and notice the difference this time.

Thomas is with them. Thomas is with them. And although the doors were locked, indicating again that Jesus is manifesting himself, he's not walking in, but he is in some way, shape or form appearing in their midst.

Jesus came and stood among them and said the same thing he said on the first day, which in Hebrew would be

Shalom. But here we simply have the words peace be with you.

And then he focuses his attention on Thomas. And you might think, you might think in this moment,

Thomas would receive a hearty reprimand. Thomas, what were you thinking?

Not believing your friends. Thomas, what's wrong with you? Didn't you hear me when

I said I was going to rise from the dead? Thomas, how awful it is to ever experience doubt and you should have been a man of faith.

You shouldn't have struggled. No, Jesus does not condemn

Thomas. Jesus shows a tremendous act of mercy and love to Thomas.

When he says, put your finger here. See my hands.

Put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

Notice Jesus. One thing this tells us, Jesus knows what Thomas said.

This just reminds us of the omniscience of God and the omniscience of our

Savior. Jesus knows that Thomas has said, I'm not going to believe unless I can put my hand in his side, unless I see the marks in his hand.

I'm not going to believe. And Jesus, in this tenderness of the

Savior, and do not get me wrong, I don't want ever for us to consider

Jesus as being weak or in some way a man with a limp wrist.

No, Jesus is a strong and powerful Savior and King, but He's also compassionate. He's also merciful and loving.

By the way, it has nothing to do with the sermon, but just a reminder to all you husbands out there, you can be both.

You can be a man of strength and conviction and a man with a backbone, and at the same time be a man who is comforting and loving and compassionate to your wife and to your family.

You can be both. And Jesus is both. Savior, King, righteous judge, but also compassionate friend and loving

Redeemer. And so He says to Thomas, Put your hand... Come here, my friend.

Is this all you need? Here. Here is my hand.

Here is my side. Put your finger here. And then

He says, and this is where I do believe He knows exactly what Thomas said, He says, Do not disbelieve. That's what

Thomas said. He said, Unless I see it, I will never believe. And now Jesus says,

Stop all that. He said, Don't. He said,

Don't disbelieve. That's what He's saying. Don't disbelieve.

I know. I know, baby. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

And Thomas's answer to Him, My Lord and my

God, friends, this is not a mere exclamation.

This is not merely, Oh my goodness. No, this is a statement about who

Jesus is. Lord, kurios, refers to His sovereignty.

And God, theos, refers to His divinity. And He is expressing both.

Jesus is my sovereign. Jesus is my Lord and God. He is both. And He's standing right before me.

Hakurios mu, kaihotheos mu. My Lord and my God. He cannot believe

His eyes, but at the same time, He cannot help but to express the truth of what

He sees. He sees His Lord. And He sees His God.

And Jesus says to Him, Have you believed because you have seen

Me? Answer, Yes, I believe. I have seen you and I believe. And He said,

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Interestingly, that particular phrase is in the present.

I'm going to show in a moment that it actually applies to all of us who believe without seeing. But there were those who in the present, that time, who hadn't seen

Jesus yet, but had heard of His resurrection and believed. They had already believed without seeing.

But Thomas, he says, You believe because you have seen, but blessed are those who already believe and they haven't seen

Me yet. And they haven't seen Me yet. I want to give three short applications of this text, which

I hope will be an encouragement to you. First, I want to speak to you if you are a person who has yet to believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ. And again, I realize we're in church. We're in church on a Sunday morning. I realize many of you are believers, but I also know that on any given

Sunday, we have those who visit with us or those who are here who maybe have not yet believed on the

Lord Jesus Christ, maybe among our children, maybe even some of us who have made a confession with our mouth, but don't really have the possession of Christ in our heart.

And only you know the answer to that. I want to say this. If you have been struggling with faith,

I want you to know that you're not alone. Thomas struggled when he heard that Jesus was raised from the dead.

He struggled with believing. He said, I won't believe it unless I see it. And I want you to understand something.

He was not immediately put out for his lack of assurance because he's still with them eight days later.

He's still with them in the upper room. If you're not a believer yet or you are a person who is struggling with faith,

I want you to know something. I'm glad you're here. I am very glad that you're here.

There are thousands of other things you could have been doing today, but you came here and I don't believe that it was by accident.

If you're uncertain what to do with the claims about Jesus Christ, I want you to know that you are welcome here and we are glad that you're here, but we do have one goal for you and that is that you would believe on the

Lord Jesus Christ because he in fact has been risen and he's alive today.

We make no bones about our goals. It's our goal that you would believe and that's what we point you to and I believe you have every reason to.

There is so much evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Entire books have been written about it and we are reminded all the time of why we have reason to believe what we do, but if you're not there yet,

I'm glad you're here and I pray that God would open your heart to believe. Second, if you are a person who trusts in the

Lord Jesus Christ and believes in his resurrection, I want you to understand the blessing of faith that Jesus says in this passage because in this passage,

Jesus says, blessed are those, what? Who have not seen and yet have believed and I don't know about you, but I've never seen

Jesus personally. I know there are people today who claim to have had visions of Jesus and Jesus coming into their house.

I remember one guy said Jesus was playing saxophone at the end of his bed. Pretty sure he was lying. And then another guy who said

Jesus had coffee with him on his front porch. Pretty sure that one was also not true. Jesus said the greater blessing comes to those who believe without seeing.

Now does that mean we engage in blind faith? No, but we do take the words of those who have seen and we believe them by faith.

You understand that the men who saw Jesus raised from the dead are the reason why the church exists today.

Jesus actually said about the apostles, he said that the church is built on the foundation of the apostles.

He is the chief cornerstone, but those men who saw him raised from the dead, they went to their deaths, not proclaiming something they merely believed, but proclaiming what they had seen and heard themselves.

Will men die for a lie? Not if they know it's a lie. People will die for things that are untrue.

People die for things that are untrue all the time, but not knowingly so. The disciples died not proclaiming a

Jesus they'd never seen, they died proclaiming a Jesus they had seen and that Jesus is alive today.

In fact, over 500 people saw Jesus alive according to the apostle Paul and those pillars of the church became the foundation.

They became the seed. As the old saying goes, the seed of the martyrs became the foundation of the church.

The blood of the martyrs, rather, is the seed of the church. And that's what those men and women became.

Thomas was unable to take the words that they had said. He had to see it for himself.

Do you or can you trust without seeing, knowing that we have every reason to believe?

If so, then you're one of the ones that are blessed in this passage.

You believe and yet you have not seen. Finally, and thirdly, I want to not miss the theological truth that is here.

Jesus is no mere man, but this passage says that he is

Lord and God. Now, it's hard for people to understand sometimes when we say

Jesus is God. We say Jesus is God incarnate. He is the second person of the Trinity made flesh.

He is the one who came to demonstrate God to man and also represent man to God.

Only as the God -man could he do that, represent God to us and represent us to God, being both prophet and priest and, of course, also king.

And when Thomas said, my Lord and my God, he was not expressing merely some type of exclamation, but he was actually telling us who

Jesus is. So if you are a believer today, understand this. You have not received

Jesus merely as Savior, but you have received him as Lord and God.

If you're a believer, I praise God for your faith. But no matter where you are, this text has something for you.

If you've heard the claims of Christ and you yet to believe and you're struggling with doubt, well, you stand with Thomas before he saw

Jesus. And I would urge you to consider what he did not, and that is the truthfulness of the claims of those who saw the resurrected

Jesus. There's every reason in the world to believe in Christ. And if you have believed in Christ and trusted in him,

I encourage you to remember today the blessing of your faith and the one in whom you have placed your faith, he who is truly

Lord and God. And now finally, I want to give a final word about Thomas.

After this, Thomas did not fade into obscurity. But instead, we see him again in the book of Acts, chapter 1, verse 13, where he is with the other apostles preparing to go to the upper room where he will receive the

Holy Spirit. He remained a faithful witness for Christ and according to tradition, he was responsible for taking the gospel all the way to India.

And today in India, the Mar -Tama Church exists to honor him and his witness for having brought the gospel to India.

It is a testimony to what Thomas saw with his eyes and then proclaimed with his lips that Jesus is risen.

He is risen indeed. Let us pray. Father, I thank you.

I thank you for the opportunity to talk again about your son, Jesus Christ, and to do so today through Thomas and his narrative and his story.

And I pray for those today who may be like Thomas or experiencing a struggle with unbelief.

Father, I pray that you would give them the gift of faith. Open up their eyes to see and their ears to hear and their hearts to believe.

And Father, for those who have believed and will now receive of the table, may we be reminded,

Lord, of the great blessing that we have in the resurrection of the

Lord Jesus Christ. And may in this celebration of the table, we be reminded of his death and his return.

As he has said to us, every time we eat this bread and drink this cup, we show forth his death until he comes.

Lord, give us faith, strengthen our faith, and encourage our faith to trust in the