The Cure For His Doubt!
Where John was concerned, the resurrection of Christ made
a powerful demand on the intellect; where Mary Magdalene
was concerned, the resurrection made a powerful demand on
the heart; now, with Thomas, the resurrection made a powerful
demand on the will!
You see the problem with
Thomas was doubt, but doubt reinforced by stubbornness and
will. Thankfully, we discover, in this section of Scripture
Thomas finds a cure for his doubt. John 20 v 24-29.
The Church Of Christ!
"But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was
not with them when Jesus came." John 20 v 24.
Thomas is a vivid reminder
of all those believers who for one reason or another absent
themselves from gatherings of God’s people as though
it mattered little. Listen folks, please take note of this
thought, the only other person absent from that first important
gathering with the resurrected Jesus was Judas. That’s
the kind of company wilfully stays away from joining themselves
with God’s people at the appointed time. Before Jesus
left them He had instructed them to gather in that upper
room and wait until He would appear unto them. That was
an appointment with the dear Saviour they should not have
missed on any account. Beloved, appointments with God should
always be kept. Hebrews 10 v 25.
" Not forsaking the
assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more, as
you see the day approaching."
One of the very real signs
of true faith, by way of response to the gospel of Jesus
Christ is to be found in our expression of love to each
other. And how best can I display that love?
Through fellowship with the
people of God. Our Text from Hebrews says, "forsake
not the assembling of yourselves together". The Jewish
people were having a very difficult time breaking with the
covenant and traditions of the past. They kept going back
to the temple sacrifices and rites; they were still drawn
by the legalism, ritual, ceremony, and the outward things
of Judaism. So the unknown penman to Hebrews is telling
them, one of the best ways to hold fast to the precious
things of God, the real things of God that are found only
in the new Covenant of Jesus Christ, is to maintain earnestly
and guard jealously, fellowship with the people of God.
There they could love and be loved; there they could serve
and be served. There is no better place to strengthen faith
in Christ, or to hope continually in Him, than the church,
His body!
"And so much the more
as you see the day approaching" (drawing near)
What did the writer mean
by that statement? Well, there are those who say it refers
to the imminent destruction of the temple, which would bring
to an end all the sacrifices and rituals of that religious
system. The Old Covenant could not by any stretch of the
imagination continue to function without the Temple, which
when the book of Hebrews was written was about to be destroyed
by Titus. But I believe the primary reference is to the
coming of the Lord, which of course, makes the passage apply
to all of us. Beloved, the only place we can remain steadfast
until Jesus Christ returns is with His people. We desperately
need each other, we desperately need to be in fellowship
with each other, which in turn will strengthen and encourage
us day by day.
"For the early Christians,
"koinonia" was not the frilly "fellowship"
of church-sponsored, biweekly bowling parties. It was not
tea, cookies, and sophisticated small talk in Fellowship
Hall after the sermon. It was an almost unconditional sharing
of their lives with the other members of Christ's body."
Ronald J. Sider.
B. The Christ Of The Church!
Charles Colson told the following
story in an address at Reformed Theological Seminary in
Jackson, Mississippi:
I love the illustration about
a man named Jack Eckerd. A few years ago I was on the Bill
Buckley television program, talking about restitution (one
of my favourite subjects) and criminal justice. Bill Buckley
agreed with me. A few days later I got a call from Jack
Eckerd, a businessman from Florida, the founder of the Eckerd
Drug chain, the second largest drug chain in America. He
saw me on television and asked me to come to Florida. He
agreed Florida had a criminal justice crisis, would I come
down and do something about it? And we did. We got the attorney
general of the state, the president of the senate; we got
on Jack Eckerd's Lear jet; we went around the State of Florida
advocating criminal justice reforms, and everywhere we would
go Jack Eckerd would introduce me to the crowds and say,
"This is Chuck Colson, my friend; I met him on Bill
Buckley's television program. He's born again, I'm not.
I wish I were." And then he'd sit down. We'd get on
the aeroplane and I'd tell him about Jesus. We'd get off
at the next stop, he'd repeat it, we'd do the same thing
again, and I'd talk to him about Jesus. When we left I gave
him some of R. C. Sproul's books and I gave him C. S. Lewis's
Mere Christianity, which had such an impact on me. I sent
him my books. About a year went by and I kept pestering
Jack Eckerd. And eventually one day he read some things
including the story of Watergate and the Resurrection out
of my book, Loving God, and decided that Jesus was, in fact,
resurrected from the dead. He called me up to tell me he
believed that, and I asked him some other things. When he
got through telling me what he believed I said, you're born
again!" He said, "No, I'm not, I haven't felt
anything." I said, "Yes, you are! Pray with me
right now." After we prayed he said, "I am? Marvellous!"
The first thing he did was to walk into one of his drugstores
and walked down through the bookshelves and he saw Playboy
and Penthouse. And he'd seen it there many times before,
but it never bothered him before. Now he saw them with new
eyes. He'd become a Christian.
He went back to his office.
He called in his president. He said, "Take Playboy
and Penthouse out of my stores. The president said, "You
can't mean that, Mr. Eckerd. We make three million dollars
a year on those books." He said, "Take 'em out
of my stores." And in 1,700 stores across America,
by one man's decision, those magazines and smut were removed
from the shelves because a man had given his life to Christ.
I called Jack Eckerd up. I said, "I want to use that
story. Did you do that because of your commitment to Christ?"
He said, "Why else would I give away three million
dollars? The Lord wouldn't let me off the hook."
Isn't that marvellous? God
wouldn't let me off the hook. I don't know any theologian
who's better defined the Lordship of Christ than that. And
what happened after that is a wonderful sequel and a wonderful
demonstration of what happens in our culture today.
We are caught up with this
idea that we've got to have big political institutions and
big structures and big movements and big organisations in
order to change things in our society. And that's an illusion
and a fraud. Jack Eckerd wrote a letter to all the other
drugstore operators, all the other chains, and he said,
"I've taken it out of my store. Why don't you take
it out of yours?" Not a one answered him. Of course
not--he'd put them under conviction. So he wrote them some
more letters. But then Eckerd's Drugs began to get floods
of people coming in to buy things at Eckerd's because they'd
taken Playboy and Penthouse out. And so People power removed
the magazines from their shelves and then Dart Drug removed
them from their shelves and then Revco removed them from
their shelves. And over the period of twelve months while
the pornography commission in Washington was debating over
what to do about pornography and while they're trying to
come up with some recommendations for the president about
what to do which will result in laws which if Congress ever
passes them will be sued by the ACLU and will be tied up
in the courts for 10 years--meanwhile, across America, one
by one, stores are removing them. And the 7-11 chairman,
who sits on Jack Eckerd's board, finally gave in two weeks
ago and 5,000 7-11 stores removed it. And in a period of
twelve months, 11,000 retail outlets in America removed
Playboy and Penthouse, not because somebody passed a law,
but because God wouldn't let one of his men off the hook.
That's what brings change. LORDSHIP! End quote!
My brothers and sisters I
care not what it is you are involved in, through this work
a day world. You may be at home looking after children,
you may be in an office with the worst kind of people, you
may be in the workshop of one kind or another, you may be
in the business world, wherever you are, with Jesus Christ
as Lord you will never be the loser, you will always be
a winner.
John 20 v 19-23. Expound
and explain!
Thomas was absent and look
what happened!
John is very blunt about
this v 25 "But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus,
was not with them when Jesus came." He missed it all!
Imagine that! The very first
appearance after His resurrection to His disciples. What
must that not have been like? And Thomas missed it!
Why? Because not was he not
present, and why was he not present? because Christ was
not Lord.
Thomas was hiding in a corner
somewhere. Well, even if it is true and Jesus is going to
appear there’s no point in me going, I mean, He did
not want me as one of His favourites, I was not one of the
three He always had close to Him. Sure I have always been
a back marker, I am not an up front man, nobody knows I
am here. I’m not one of the Lord’s blue eyes,
it hardly matters if I am there or not! And because of such
an attitude he missed the best blessing of his whole life.
He did! Man, Jesus breathed on them and the very power of
God fell on them. A once in an earth time experience, never
to be repeated, he missed it all because Christ was not
Lord of all.
"Make me a captive,
Lord, And then I shall be free; Force me to render up my
sword, And I shall conqueror be. I sink in life's alarms
when by myself I stand; imprison me within thine arms, and
strong shall be my hand." George Matheson.
C. The Word Of The Christ!
You see, Thomas like all
the rest had the words, which Christ spoke before His crucifixion.
Ah! That was not enough for Thomas. Unless I see, and feel
for myself I will not believe. Not you guys, not the Words
of the Lord, not any body or anybody’s word. It’s
not enough; I need more than that!
And beloved, before we start
to tut at Thomas, the truth of the matter is doubt does
the same to all of us.
We have the whole, complete
Word of Jesus Christ. God speaks to us today in and through
the Words of Jesus Christ, the Bible, and still it is never
enough.
Through the book of Joshua
alone He has been reminding us that we have---
The Promise of His Presence!
The Promise of His Power! The Promise of His Place! The
Promise of His Prosperity! The Promise of His Plan! The
Promise of His Possessions! The Promise of his Promises!
And still it’s not enough.
We walk with our heads down in the dust of the ground looking
at the muck and the mess around us instead of looking up
at the one who has already given us the victory.
"Only by desertion can
we be defeated. With Christ and for Christ victory is certain.
We can lose the victory by flight but not by death. Happy
are you if you die in battle, for after death you will be
crowned. But woe to you if by forsaking the battle you forfeit
at once both the victory and the crown." End quote!
Bernard of Clairvaux.
Our God has called us to
be faithful unto the end, whatever that end may be. There
is a cure for Doubt and that cure is to be found in our
continuing to the end.
"When William Carey
began thinking of going to India as a pioneer missionary,
his father pointed out to him that he possessed no academic
qualifications that would fit him for such a task. But Carey
answered, "I can plod." How true it is that God
accomplishes mighty things for his kingdom through those
who are willing to persevere, who are willing to plod faithfully
through one difficulty after another in the power of the
Spirit." James S. Hewett.
