Now What?

Click on the video camera to see the “I am alive” video clip shown before sermon.

Jesus is resurrected. Now what?

What’s the big deal? Easter is over right? We had our family get together. We have had our Easter Egg hunts. We’ve celebrated. What is there to do?

Well, not everybody believes it is true. Not everybody is convinced that Jesus really did rise from the dead. I have talked with a man here in Marion that is convinced that Jesus didn’t died. He is convinced that they took him to Jerusalem and they revived him.

Even the disciples weren’t convinced at first.

Very simply, they were not expecting a resurrection. Now it’s true that Jesus had predicted that he would be put to death and then raised to life. But his followers did not understand it. A resurrection was the farthest thing from their minds. Forget his predictions. Forget all that brave talk. They had given up. Who really expected a resurrection on that Sunday morning? Not the disciples. It was the Jewish leaders who persuaded the Romans to seal the tomb. The enemies of Jesus feared something might happen. His friends weren’t expecting anything.

I can imagine the disciples saying to each other after his death and resurrection, “he said he would rise again. We all believed it. Jesus even believed it. He had never been wrong before. Why not? He said he was the Son of God. We’re sure going to miss him. Wouldn’t it have been great if he had pulled it off? Nobody would believe it. What a party we’d have.”  And Mark says, “When they heard Jesus was alive … they did not believe it” (Mark 16:11). Who could blame them? If you had been there, would you have believed it?

Let’s be honest here …. Statistics tell me that most of us in here still don’t believe it.

Initially, the disciples didn’t believe. They were scared to death to believe that it was true. They didn’t believe Mary when she came running and tell them that the tomb was empty and she had seen the Lord. They weren’t expecting him to rise from the dead. No man had ever done that. But when he suddenly shows up out of nowhere and then shows his wounds in his hands and his side. When they got to see Him with their own eyes His wounds they knew He was the real deal.

But not everybody was there in the upper room when he first  appeared.

Thomas was missing.

John tells us that Thomas was not present on that Sunday evening when Jesus suddenly appeared in their midst (John 20:19-25). The Bible doesn’t say why, but I think I know. There are basically two different ways people respond to sorrow and tragedy. Some seek solace in the company of their friends. They want people around to help them talk it out. Others prefer to be alone with their thoughts. Such was Thomas.

If it is true that Thomas realized more than the others what was going to happen in Jerusalem, then it may also be true that he was more deeply hurt. He was not with the disciples because his heart had been crushed. Everything he had, he had given to Jesus, and Jesus had died. He still loves, still cares, still wants to believe, but his heart is broken. He is not a bad man nor is his doubt sinful. Deep inside he wants to believe. Don’t put him down too hard. We’ve all been in the same place.

Haven’t we?  I mean if we are honest with ourselves we all have once or twice doubted whether this whole death and resurrection thing is true or not.

But all of us at some point in our life have to come to the same conclusion that Thomas did. What was Thomas’ conclusion?

Scripture          John 20

26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”

28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.

29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”

Thomas was a wounded believer. It is not that he was unwilling to believe, like the most of the Pharisees who made sure Jesus made it to the cross. Thomas had seen people healed, he watched Jesus feed 4000 people one time and 5000 another. Thomas had seen the miraculous. But When Jesus died, like the others he thought it was over. He was at the point that he was unable to believe.

Before we truly believe, we have to get to the point where we are unable to believe.

Look at the people the OT and NT .

Moses was unable to believe he could lead the people of Israel out of Egypt

Sarah was unable to believe she could have a baby in her old age

Joseph the husband of Mary was unable to believe that his wife was pregnant by the Holy Spirit.

Paul was unable to believe that this new uprising of Christians was good for the church.

The disciples were unable to believe that Jesus was risen from the dead.

The father of the demon-possessed boy  in  Mark 9 was unable to believe that Jesus could do what he said he could do.  Mark 9 “Have mercy on us and help us, if you can.”

23 “What do you mean, ‘If I can’?” Jesus asked. “Anything is possible if a person believes.”

24 The father instantly cried out, “I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief!”

In other words the father says I do believe but I am having trouble believing as much as you want me to believe.

The father had to be willing to admit that he was unable to believe. He needed help believing.

What happened right after that? Jesus cast the demon out of the boy.

The father wasn’t unwilling to believe – he humbled himself and admitted he was unable to believe.

Do you see the difference?

Those who are unwilling to believe

•  Their heart grows hard towards God
• Pretend that they have life all figured out.
• Act like they have all the answers to life’s questions.
• Never admit their unbelief.

People who are unwilling to believe question everything but never want an answer. They seek but never find anything. They believe everything is true thus they believe in nothing. Their life is full of criticism. They look for arguments instead of truth.

Those who are unable to believe

• Their heart grows soft towards God. (they realize they can’t do this on their   own).
• The pretending stops and they become honest about their unbelief.
•  Understand that not all of life’s questions can be answered.
• Admit their unbelief.

Thomas was unable to believe.

He was broken.   He was crushed.

Before Thomas would believe he had to personally see Jesus. He could not live with a second-hand faith. He had to see for himself. When he says, “Unless I touch his wounds, I will not believe,” there is much more than doubt. There is love, and sorrow, and pain, and a tiny grain of hope. Thomas stands for all time as the one man who most desperately wanted to believe if only he could be sure. Can you blame him? Would you have been any different?

Before we truly believe, there must be a desperation to want to believe.

A desperation that says I want to believe it for myself. I want to trust Him. Prove it to me!

A boy ask his grandfather what it meant to believe in Jesus. The grandfather said come follow me. They stand by a water barrel. The grandfather grab’s grandson by the neck and pushes his head into the water. He holds he head underwater. The boy comes up gasping for air. He grabs his neck again and pushes his head in the water. The boy again comes up gasping for air. He grabs his neck again and pushes his head underwater. The boy comes up gasping for air.

The grandfather says, “when you need Jesus as much as you need air that’s when you know you have begun to believe in Him.”

Even though Thomas was unable to believe. He was desperate.  His whole world had come crashing down around him. The man he risked his life for died.  He was desperate. Everything he believed in came tumbling down. He was unable to believe – he was desperate. His world was turned upside down and it was hard to believe in anything. He was desperate.

Jesus told Thomas to check out the evidence and come to his own conclusion.

Jesus invites us to see the evidence for ourselves and come to your own conclusion. We live in a skeptical, jaded generation that has learned to question everything. We’ve been lied to by people in authority and misled so often by the media and by Hollywood and even some religious people that we automatically doubt any claims to any kind of truth.

When all the evidence has been fairly evaluated, the only possible conclusion will be that Jesus died and was buried and  he rose from the dead. The entire Christian faith hangs on this one fact: Jesus rose from the dead—literally, physically, bodily, visibly.

What was Thomas’ conclusion?

After looking at all the evidence, his response gives it away. – “MY LORD AND MY GOD!”

So, what do we do now? A: Believe without seeing him

He says, “blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”