Jesus expects ... belief (John 20:19-31)

Introduction

There are many things in this passage that we can see Jesus expects for his followers from the things that he says in this passage.

“Peace to be with you”

It's a greeting, but it is also something that Jesus expects for his followers.

“I am sending you”

He expects us to go – where ever we are able, to the people who he doesn't yet have a friendship with

“Receive the Holy Spirit”

He expects us to live together with the Holy Spirit, so that we can discern Gods will in any situation.

“Forgive or not forgive”

He expects us to know enough about what is happening to be the gate keeper for heaven. Those we forgive are in, any that we don't forgive are not.

“Believe”

He expects us to believe in Him, in what He has done for us and especially in His resurrection.

be blessed

This one applies to us, those who have believed without seeing, more than it does to the disciples that Jesus is talking to in the upper room. -

“Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Activity

Tell people in an unbelievable way that you have some treasure in the box. Find out who believes and who doesn't.

Get one of the non believers to come and take a look. - Then tell the others what he has seen.

Illustration – Belief

“The Easter story is nothing but a myth,” Tom’s high school teacher announced to his class a few days before Easter break. “Jesus not only didn’t rise from the grave,” he continued, “but there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in the first place.”

“Sir, I believe in God,” Tom protested. “And I believe in the resurrection.”

“Tom, you can believe what you wish to, of course,” the teacher said, “However, the real world excludes the possibility of miracles like the resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can also respect science.”

Then the teacher proposed an experiment. Reaching into his refrigerator, he produced a raw egg and held it up. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it toward the floor that the egg will most certainly break apart.” Looking at Tom with a challenge, he said, “Now tom, I want you to pray a prayer right now and ask your God to keep this egg from breaking when it hits the floor. If he can do that, then you’ll have proven your point, and I’ll have to admit that there is a God.”

After pondering the challenge for a moment, Tom slowly stood up to pray: “Dear Heavenly Father,” Tom prayed, “I pray that when my teacher drops the egg, it will break into a hundred pieces. And also, Lord, I pray that when the egg does break, my teacher will have a heart attack and die. Amen.”

After a unison gasp, the class sat in silent expectation. For a moment the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back into the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, and then he sat down to clear his desk.

The teacher apparently believed in God’s existence more than he thought, or perhaps just doubted his non-existence enough. That teacher wasn’t willing to bet his life that God didn’t exist.

About Thomas

Thomas has had a bad press. There is just this one incident in the scriptures where he is shown to doubt, and as a result the phrase “Doubting Thomas” has entered our vocabulary.

The other disciples had also been doubtful, Peter and John you could say were even scornful.

Lk 24:11 But they did not believe the women, because their words seemed to them like nonsense.

Thomas is unlucky enough to have had his words recorded when in front of Jesus. So before we write Thomas off as some sort of archetypal sceptic lets take a look at what we know about him.

He's listed in the names of the 12 Apostles, by Matthew

Mt 10:2 These are the names of the twelve apostles: first, Simon (who is called Peter) and his brother Andrew; James son of Zebedee, and his brother John;

Mt 10:3 Philip and Bartholomew; Thomas and Matthew the tax collector; James son of Alphaeus, and Thaddaeus;

Mt 10:4 Simon the Zealot and Judas Iscariot, who betrayed him.

… and Mark, and Luke. He is listed as one of the disciples present when Mattias is chosen to replace Judas in Acts chapter 1. He mainly features in John.

At the end of John we find Thomas going fishing with Peter, James and John, and Nathaniel, so its reasonable to assume that he too was a fisherman.

When Jesus decided to go to see his friend Lazarus, who had just died, the rest of the disciples were worried that they would be stoned – the Jews there had tried to stone him on his last visit, but in John 11:16 we read: Then Thomas (called Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”

Whatever we think of Thomas' beliefs, we cannot doubt his loyalty.

When Jesus was describing Heaven in John

Jn 14:1 “Do not let your hearts be troubled.  Trust in God ; trust also in me.
Jn 14:2 In my Father’s house are many rooms; if it were not so, I would have told you. I am going there to prepare a place for you.
Jn 14:3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back a and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am.
Jn 14:4 You know the way to the place where I am going.”

Thomas responded:

“Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

It was one of those situations. There they all were listening intently, but probably not understanding very much of what Jesus was saying. This can easily happen when there is a very strong visionary leader. The followers really don't have a clue, but they are all so frightened of demonstrating their ignorance that they just sit there and nod in agreement. 

 

Anyone who's ever been in a meeting at work with a very senior manager, many rungs above the normal level that you have to deal with will have experienced the same thing. He will be talking about things you don't understand properly. Everyone is sitting there willing someone else to ask the first question. I remember sitting in a hall of about 250 people, at the end of the presentation the global director asked “Any questions?” There were plenty in my head, and also in everyone else's, but who would be first to ask. My immediate boss, who had quite a stutter, stood up and began to phrase his question. His manager would often explain what he was trying to say over his stuttering, but not this time. Everyone was so relieved that someone was starting the questioning process.

 

That's exactly what happened here. Once Thomas asked a question, Philip felt able to follow up with his own question.

Thomas, it seems to me, is a genuine sceptic, he's not happy just with words, he needs to understand their meaning. Its important to him that he has the message right. So we can't deny his courage here either.

The question that must be asked of Thomas is where was he? Why was he not with the rest of the disciples.

I suspect that Thomas was more badly affected by the events around the crucifixion than the others, perhaps that's because he really believed in Jesus, even though he wasn't always sure what Jesus was on about. If so, then deserting Jesus, running away from the arrest and not supporting his friends and leader, at the most critical time of his life would have hurt Thomas. He would be upset and ashamed at the way he behaved. He may even have been in hiding from the disciples.

Being a realistic person, he would have realised that he could not stay apart from his friends for long, so one week later he is back. The scene with Jesus is played out.

Thomas' reaction when he finally meets Jesus face to face, and in the flesh is “My Lord and my God”. It is the clearest statement of who Jesus is in the entire new testament. Nowhere else and no-one else, neither Paul nor Peter make the statement as starkly and straightforwardly.

You will note that the scripture we read today does not support the picture that Caravaggio painted. Thomas may have said “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it.” When offered the chance he didn't need it. He saw straight away that it was Jesus – something about the tone of voice perhaps underlined to him exactly who it was.

Belief / Faith

How we decide what we think is true is a very complicated subject. Evidence is certainly important but a lot of the time we do not have the knowledge to evaluate the evidence. Sometime there is just not enough evidence or contradictory evidence. An alternative strategy is to develop trusted sources – we call these people friends, in case you're loosing me. What friends say is taken much more at face value than what strangers say.

For Thomas, seeing his friend alive was enough to convince him that everything that He had said before his death was true. He had indeed risen from the dead, and the visual and oral evidence was overwhelming.

The same is not true for us. None of us have seen Jesus alive. That is why Jesus says “blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. Our belief is based on faith, which Hebrews 11:1 describes as "Faith is being sure of what we hope for. It is being certain of what we do not see."

Sometimes our faith, or our belief is stronger than at other times. Sometimes it can be next to non-existent. This can have a number of causes, but there is only one cure. Just as Thomas' doubts were overcome by an encounter with Jesus, so must our doubts be. In our case, that will probably be with the aid of another person.

 

It was probably the first time my faith had waned. After all I had only been a Christian a few years. I didn't understand what was happening. I thought perhaps I was no longer a Christian. I worried about it. No, of course I didn't speak to anyone. I just drifted along, attending church, but not really being there, and wishing I was somewhere else. My avoidance wasn't good enough though. Captain Ron (remember him?) asked me to give my testimony at some outreach event. I tried to get out of it, but (it seemed to me) I was put under quite a lot of pressure. So I agreed. I reluctantly sat down to prepare. All I had to do was tell the story of God in my life, but I wasn't sure of God, in my life or anywhere else.

I went through a process of remembering all the things that had happened. Each discussion I'd had, each argument. Each time I'd told someone that a God was unlikely, only to find out eventually that a God was really quite likely – because there was good evidence He had been here. I wrote, and later spoke, about the small steps that I'd taken from being a sceptical agnostic to a believer.

In the preparation I had a fresh encounter with Christ, and a few days later, when I spoke my testimony I was no longer wondering how and why I had ended up in the church.

 

Last week Warner spoke about praying, if your faith had died. I was in a position where to pray was ludicrous. More was needed, and I am thankful to God and to Captain Ron that the more that was needed was available.

I'm not one of those people who never has any doubts. I find their certainty can be quite frightening. I have always found that having doubts has helped to build my belief in the long term. Asking questions, proposing solutions, and doubting the answers, until I arrive at something that seams reasonable and sensible to me, has worked well for me so far.

It works to strengthen my belief and my faith.

It worked that way for Thomas too, he went on to found the church in South India.

John 20:19-31 - 10am Cafe Style Communion by extension

The disciples were meeting together on the first day of the week. That's today – Sunday. It was late in the evening, so they had finished their day's work, or not yet started their night's work. They were scared - scared of the Jewish Authorities – the temple guard. They were expecting someone to come and arrest them. More than that they were worried about the strange things that had happened. The missing body that Mary had reported, and the very much alive Jesus that she had told them about a little later. What was happening? Imagine it. There you are having followed this prophet for three years – having given up you livelihood to do so, in some cases. Then your leader, or teacher (rabbi) is been arrested by the temple guard and handed over to the Romans to be crucified. That is a difficult enough situation, but now there are reports that he has come back from the dead. What to do.
Have you watched the BBC series “The passion”. The discussion at this meeting was very enlightening. Some simply didn't believe that Jesus was alive. They wanted to go home, and restart their lives. They were afraid of arrest either there in the room, or on the way, and were planning how they could best get home. Some of them were starting to believe, but were not sure, the suddenly, among them – not walking through a door like some 19th Century ghost – just there in the room was someone who talked in the same way that Jesus did, about the same things. There was something extraordinarily familiar about him. As the discussion goes on some of them start to see that its Jesus.
Thomas, who's not there, famously will not believe until he sees evidence, but none of them are really that certain.
Jesus has come to see them, but being Jesus, He is not there for a coffee and chat, or simple to provide re-assurance. He has a very specific reason for appearing to them all at the same time. His first words tell us what that purpose is.
“Peace be with you! l As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.”
What Jesus, what are you saying? You want us to take over your ministry?
Music interlude 1
They must have had 100's of questions, not least worries about getting arrested, and sent for crucifixion.
This is what Jesus had been preparing them for. All their experiences over the last three years were leading to this.
Can you think of some of your favourite stories about Jesus and his disciples, and what the disciples might have learnt through them?
Training and testing
Favourite Stories of Jesus and the disciples
Include Feeding 5000, Matthew 14:13-21
Learning to rely on God rather than yourselves, your abilities and your assets
Raising Lazarus, John 11:1-16
A demonstration of God's power, and a taste of things to come
Driving out demons, the ones the disciples can't do. Luke 9:37-45
Practical experience, proving that some things are harder than others – a test failed?
The response of the 72. Luke 10:1-20
The joy of a successful mission “Even the demons obey us”
The betrayal, arrest and crucifixion. Luke 22:1-23:49
The hardest lesson of all – The things of God are more important that life itself.
All these things were training for the disciples. Jesus has used many different techniques to help them learn, he has shown them what he does, told them stories, sent them out to practice, and tested their learning.
It is fashionable today to talk about whole life learning, and it is true that we are always learning, and that many of us are undergoing some form of training, a lot of the time. Those of us who are still at school, or university are in full time training. As part of any training there will be tests of your success in learning whatever it is you have learnt. Sometimes the tests will be formal exams, at other times they will take the place of observed practice.
What tests do we face in our lives, at school, at work, or in the church?
SATS
Exams
Driving test
Professional Qualifications
Other training courses – Management training

Many years ago people from this church started going out to visit couples who wanted to have their children christened. The material was called “Good News down the street” and took the form of six evenings spent with the couple discussing the Christian faith. Perhaps there are some people here now who joined the church as a result of one of these courses. I was on several teams in the early days, and I know that some of you have done many more that I will ever manage. The idea of these teams was that as the teams became more experienced their members would become team leaders, and others would join the teams. Eventually after some experience those new people would also become team leaders, and take on the role of making contact with the couple, agreeing the dates, and who on the team would lead a particular session. We can see that Jesus had been doing similar things with his disciples for the last three years. Some of the stories have tests – as in the feeding of the five thousand, Jesus asked the disciples to feed the crowd. He wanted to see how much they'd learnt – who would they rely on in a crisis – themselves and their worldly abilities, or their heavenly father. When he sent out the seventy two, they had no choice but to rely on their heavenly father, you can't drive out demons with money!
Up to last summer I was in part time training to become a reader. Reader training is all about continuous assessment. Each task results in a piece of written work, or a presentation, or a sermon. There is a mixture of the academic and the practical. To pass the course, I have to be able to demonstrate that I meet a certain standard. So if you don't think my sermon today is up to standard, I suggest that you speak to the Bishop about how the training works, and who they let pass their courses.
At some point the training must come to an end, and the real work must begin. For me that happened last October, when I was licensed as a Reader. There was a special service in Chelmsford Cathedral, and I was presented with a certificate and a bible, and a blue scarf, as a recognition of what I had achieved, and so that others could recognise what I have become.
Now, when I prepare a sermon there is no more worrying about making sure I stick to the script I write for a sermon. If I deviate, all I have to worry about is getting back on track. Now in many ways I was fortunate, because I didn't have to go solo, after having lots of support and review, both Paul, and Warner are very supportive, but have let me do whatever I have come up with. For some of those on my training, though, once the course had finished they had their first experience of preparing a sermon on their own, and delivering it unaided, without any sort of review occurring.
Not all pieces of learning are completed with a special ceremony, mostly though you will get some form of recognition, a certificate, or a licence that allows you to do something, like drive a car, or fly a plane.
Do you remember your first time out in a car – without any passengers? Were you the sort of person who was looking forward to that experience, or were you the sort of person who was dreading it.
His can apply to anything that you do after training.
Ask the question again – get a story or two.
Commissioning
Few of us though will be asked to complete 3 years training, and then be sent on the same mission that resulted in our leader and teacher being arrested and killed. That is what the disciples are being asked to do, although not in those words. It is not lost on them, though I'm sure. In the BBC mini-series “The Passion” Jesus repeatedly says to his disciples “Spread my message”. That is what He is doing here. “As the father sends me so I send you”. They have had the training, they have watched the role model, they tried it in practice, they've had the feedback, and now – its time to get on with the work. Jesus has commissioned them to do the same work that he was sent by his Father to do.
Music 2
So here we have the disciples finishing their course, and being commissioned to go and do the real work. The work they had been training for for the last 3 years. They have no idea at the moment how they are going to spread Jesus' message. They are too scared even to think about it, but seeing Jesus is changing them. His next action is the greatest confirmation of their mission that they could possibly have received.
He breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”. This is more than a certificate, or a license, or even a Blue Scarf, this is recognition and acceptance by God. The apostle Paul says in 2Corinthians 1:21-22 “Now it is God who makes both us and you stand firm in Christ. He anointed us, set his seal of ownership on us, and put his Spirit in our hearts as a deposit, guaranteeing what is to come.” We know that the Holy Spirit does not arrive until Acts Chapter 2, some 50 days from the events of today, but we see here Jesus preparing his disciples for this momentous event. They are ready for the mission, at least all but one of them is ready.
Peter's re-instatement is in the next Chapter.
In the Church of England the Confirmation Service is the special service that the church uses to recognise that people are ready to do the work of the church. The bishop will say of each candidates “Confirm, O Lord, your servant with your Holy Spirit. “. That is just us doing our best to understand what God is doing in his relationship with that person. Each of us must always answer the question for ourselves. Have we received the Holy Spirit? Are we ready to do the work of spreading Jesus' message? Or perhaps are you ready to continue to do the work of spreading Jesus' message?
OIL
In the early church people were anointed with oil as a symbol recognising their commitment and readiness to join with the disciples in the work they had to do.
Announce the oil, and give the option.