Sunday
04/24/22 - Sidney UMC
Sermon Title: “Thomas and the Peace of Christ”
Old Testament Scripture: Psalm 150
New Testament Scripture: Acts 5:27-32
Gospel Lesson: John 20:19-31
As today is the Second Sunday of the season
of Easter, I greet with the resurrection greeting, He is Risen! He is Risen
Indeed! Alleluia!
With this said, how many of us have
ever been skeptical or doubted something before? We read something or were told
something, and we just thought, “that cannot be true.” Has anyone ever had an
experience like this? I remember seeing the “National Enquirer” magazines on
the rack at the checkout when I went to the grocery store with my mom. I saw
some crazy articles on the cover of that magazine. Call me skeptical, but I
guess I just did not believe a creature that was “half-man and half-marlin” was
found in Florida.
I remember about 20-25 years ago our culture was fixated
on space aliens and flying saucers. There were shows all over television where
people claimed that they had seen, photographed, or maybe even filmed an alien aircraft.
Some people even claimed that were abducted by aliens and taken aboard and alien
space crafts themselves. I even remember there was a big special show on years
ago called “Alien Autopsy.” In the show, which I think was made in 2006, the
folks making the show claimed that an alien aircraft crashed landed, and that
they recovered the bodies of the aliens from this aircraft. This show literally
showed the dissection and autopsy of these supposed alien bodies.
I also remember the obsession with the
Air Force base many call “Area 51.” This is base that claimed to recover alien bodies
from Roswell, New Mexico in 1947. As the story goes, as many of you know, an
alien space craft crash landed, and the Air Force took these alien bodies and
put them in a bunker in “Area 51.” In fact, some people still believe those
aliens bodies are in area 51.
A famous quote from Oswald Chambers about
belief is:
So here is the million-dollar question
then this morning folks, are space aliens real? Do they really exist? I have never
seen one. Have you? There are some people that I have met that have made me
wonder however, but I have never seen a flying saucer, or the Big Foot, or the Loch
Ness Monster. Maybe you have seen a flyer saucer, or a space alien, but I never
have. So, are they real or not?
I use the example of space aliens and flyer saucers, the
Big Foot, the Loch Ness Monster, and other such things, not because I am going
to preach a whole sermon on the topic, instead I want to talk about the resurrection
of Jesus Christ. Now none of us here where there when the tomb of Joseph of Arimathea,
where Jesus was entombed, was found empty on Easter morning. How do we know
then, I mean really know for sure, that Jesus was risen? The best answer we
have is that various followers of Jesus Christ saw the empty tomb and saw
clearly that Jesus’ body was not there. No historical or biblical scholars I have
read would deny that on Easter Sunday, Jesus’ tomb was empty. They may debate
why it was empty, but they generally all agree that it was empty.
A skeptic could say though, “Well ok Pastor Paul, Jesus’
body was gone, but how does that prove he was resurrected from the dead?” A
body missing, versus Jesus coming back to life in the flesh is something very different.
Other than the empty tomb though my friends, as recorded in the gospels, hundreds
of people saw the risen Christ after the stone was rolled away form the tomb,
and after Jesus’ tomb was found empty. I am talking about Jesus who died on the
cross, on Good Friday, was wrapped in burial linens, and a large stone was put
in front of his tomb to seal it. This stone was removed, Jesus was gone, and various
people saw him after he was resurrected.
It is certainly quite a claim, but like whether space aliens
or the Big Foot exists or not, it is in part us having faith they exist. There
is also the evidence too. For example, in a court of law someone is found
innocent or guilty based upon the evidence. You might personally believe the person
is guilty, but can you prove it? Can you prove to me that there are actually
space aliens or the Big Foot? There certainly seems to be a body of evidence out
there, but can we prove it? Some say that they believe in space aliens, and
some say no.
Christians for nearly two thousand years, however, have believed
in the resurrection of Jesus Christ on Easter morning, not simply because the
stone was rolled away from tomb, and that Jesus’ body was gone. Christians believed
this because hundreds of people saw Jesus after his resurrection. Reports of
Jesus still having the nail holes, walking with some disciples on the road to
Emmaus, other places, and appearing to the disciples, and Thomas this morning. Jesus
eats with the disciples after his resurrection, and in fact makes breakfast for
Peter and the other disciples on the beach. This is when Jesus asks Peter three
times if he loves him. So, yes, the disciples did not just have visions, they
saw Jesus physically alive in front of them.
In
our gospel of John reading for this morning once again, Jesus appeared to the
disciples and perhaps other early followers this morning, Thomas was not
present in this meeting, however. The disciples told then Thomas after the fact
that Jesus came to them, but Thomas said, unless I see Jesus for myself, I will
not believe.
I
used to think that the Apostle Thomas was weak in faith, and that his doubt was
a terrible thing. Do not get me wrong, it is wrong to doubt Christ, but we are
all human, and sometimes like a court of law, we want to see the evidence.
There are then similarities with things like the existence of space aliens, the
Big Foot, etc. With this said, almost two-thousand years later, one third of
the world’s population is Christian, and the vast majority of Christians have always
believed that Jesus rose from dead, was seen and interacted with hundreds of
people after his resurrection, and then ascended into heaven.
Before
getting into our gospel of John scripture for this morning more deeply, I would
like to touch on the other scriptures for this morning. In our Psalm 150
reading for this morning once again, the Psalmist tells us to:
1 Praise the Lord! Praise God in his sanctuary;
praise him in his mighty firmament! 2 Praise
him for his mighty deeds; praise him according
to his surpassing greatness! (Ps. 150:1-2, NRSV).
We
praise and love God, not only because we accept God and our faith, but we have
evidence too. We believe, we see, and we experience God.
In
our reading this morning from the Book of Acts once again, we have an example of
the disciples defending Christ, and defending the gospel. This is of course
after Jesus ascended to heaven, after the day of Pentecost, and at this point
the apostles and the early Christians were fully committed to Christ, the
gospel, and the church. In looking at Acts 5:27-32 for this morning once again,
it says:
27 When they had brought
them, they had them stand before the council. The high priest questioned them, 28 saying, “We gave you strict
orders not to teach in this name, yet here you have filled Jerusalem with your
teaching and you are determined to bring this man’s blood on us.” 29 But Peter and the apostles
answered, “We must obey God rather than any human authority.
30 The God of our ancestors raised up Jesus, whom you had killed by
hanging him on a tree. 31 God exalted him at his right hand as Leader
and Savior that he might give repentance to Israel and forgiveness of sins. 32 And we are witnesses to these
things, and so is the Holy Spirit whom God has given to those who obey him”
(Acts
5:27-32, NRSV).
This reading from the Book of Acts is very important. Why? Well,
if you remember on Good Friday, the Apostle Peter, and the majority of the other
apostles ran from Jesus’ crucifixion. Peter denied knowing Jesus three times,
and everyone except the Apostle John and the women who followed Jesus fled. Yet,
after Jesus’ resurrection, the disciples, the women that followed Jesus and
hundred of others saw him. Some of them ate with him and walked with him. Then
in the Book of Acts, Jesus ascends to heaven, and before doing so tells that the
disciples to wait for the Holy Spirit. Jesus tells them that when they receive the
Holy Spirit that they will fully understand, and this happens on the day of
Pentecost. On this day the Holy Spirit moves, the Apostle Peter preaches a
powerful sermon, and over three-thousand people come to Christ.
In our reading for this morning from Acts 5:27-32, this is
after the day of Pentecost and the disciples and early followers of Jesus
Christ are all in on preaching gospel, serving Christ, and growing the church.
This is why in our Book of Acts reading for this morning, the disciples, especially
Peter are saying we will preach Christ, his gospel, and grow his church, no
matter what you do to us. This is so true that according to church tradition, all
the disciples except the apostle John died brutal deaths for there faith. The
Apostle John was put in exile and died on the Island of Patmos.
The point of all of this though, is that if the disciples
and the early followers of Christ did not really believe that Jesus rose from
the dead, and if they lied about seeing him after his resurrection, why would
the die for there faith in him? I mean it really makes no sense. If Jesus was not
resurrected, I would tend to think that the disciples would go back to fishing
and the other jobs that they had. Why would they give up the rest of their earthly
lives for a lie? Yet, in fairness they had to be sure.
This brings us to our gospel of John reading this morning,
where the Apostle Thomas, or “Doubting Thomas,” as we often call him in this story
says that he will not believe that Jesus is resurrected and alive unless he
sees him and can put his finger in Jesus’ nail holes in his hand, and put his hand
in Jesus’ spear wound on his side. Once again, the gospel of John reading for
this morning from John 20:19-31 says starting in verse 19:
19 When it was evening on that day, the
first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met
were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said,
“Peace be with you.” 20 After
he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples
rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As
the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and
said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are
forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained” (Jn. 20:19-23, NRSV).
So,
the disciples are hiding, because they are afraid that they might jailed or
killed for being Jesus’ followers. As a result, they are not preaching the gospel
and growing the church for the same reason. Then, the risen Christ shows up,
and says “Peace be with you.” This is part of the reason, among others, that we
share the peace of Christ with each other in worship services. We do this to
model what Jesus did in scripture like this scripture this morning. Jesus shows
the disciples the nail holes in his hands and the spear wound in his side, and
disciples rejoice. Jesus then tells them “Peace be with you” again and tells
them that he is sending them out to preach the good news and grow the church. Jesus
then breathes on them the Holy Spirit.
The
problem, however, is that Apostle Thomas was not there to witness all of it. As
a result, he had a hard believing what the disciples told him. How did Thomas
know that they were telling the truth? Picking up in our gospel of John reading
for this morning it says starting in verse 24 once again,
24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one
of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him,
“We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the
nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in
his side, I will not believe” (Jn. 20:24-25, NRSV).
Our gospel of John lesson for this
morning then concludes saying,
26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.” 30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name (Jn. 20:26-31, NRSV).
Jesus
then appears to the apostle Thomas, to “Doubting Thomas,” and then Thomas believes.
Jesus then says to Thomas that the majority of people that believe in him will
never see him in the flesh on earth, as Thomas was seeing him resurrected, in
the flesh, in this scene. The Apostle John then says that Jesus did other signs
in the presence of the disciples that are not written in this gospel. John then
concludes saying that he recorded these encounters with Jesus in his gospel
account this morning, so that all of us would believe that Jesus is the risen
savior, the son of God. The Apostle John lastly says, we can have new life and new
hope in the name of Jesus Christ.
So as
Christians we do not just believe the Jesus was resurrected, appeared to disciples
and hundreds of others after his resurrection, and ascended to heaven only
because people said they were eyewitness of these things. People claim to have
seen flyer sauces, space aliens, Big Foot, and the Loch Ness Monster, but have
any of those people been willing to sacrifice everything to live that believe
out. Were they willing to die for it?
Jesus
appears to his disciples after his resurrection to encourage them, so that they
may believe. They believe so strongly in fact, that after the day of Pentecost
the disciples and the other early followers of Christ will go forth, loving,
healing, forgiving, preaching, and building the church. Despite persecution and
what happens to many of them, they believe in Jesus Christ and his resurrection,
and they are willing to devote their life to it. Sometimes we need evidence, we
need proof, and this morning the Apostle Thomas was no different. So do we believe,
or we are still waiting for more evidence. Amen.
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