CHURCH
LUTHERAN
Our Savior's of Elderon
Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen. Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen. Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen. Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen. Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen. Easter Sunday 2016 INI John 20:19-31
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen.
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen.
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen.
A few days before Easter break Tom’s high school science teacher told his students, “The Easter story is nothing but a myth. Jesus didn’t rise from the grave. Besides that, there’s no God in heaven who would allow his son to be crucified in our place.”
But Tom protested. “Sir,” he said, I believe in God and I believe in the resurrection.”
The teacher answered saying; “Tom, you can believe what you want. However, the real world excludes the possibility of a resurrection. The resurrection is a scientific impossibility. No one who believes in miracles can respect science.”
The teacher then suggested an experiment to prove his point. He reached into the refrigerator and took out a raw egg. “I’m going to drop this egg on the floor,” he said. “Gravity will pull it down to the floor and will most certainly break.” He then looked at Tom and said; “Tom, I want you to pray right now and ask 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 there is a God.”
Tom thought for a moment and then he stood up and started 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 suffer a heart attack and die. Amen.”
There were loud gasps from the class and then silence. At first, the teacher did nothing. At last he looked at Tom and then the egg. Without a word he carefully put the egg back in the refrigerator. “Class dismissed,” the teacher said, as he sat down to clear his desk.
Apparently, the teacher believed in the existence of God more than he thought. Many people are like that science teacher. They deny that God exists, yet they run from him, question him and attack him whenever they get the chance. If they don’t believe there is a God why do they run, from him, question him or attack him? They’re like that teacher who wouldn’t bet his life that God doesn’t exist.
How sad that so many people doubt the existence of God, so many doubt the resurrection. On that first Easter there was a disciple who doubted the resurrection. Do you remember which one that was? Today we’re going to look at that man and see how our own doubts are so much like his doubts. We’re also going to see how Jesus healed this man of his doubts and how he heals us of our doubts. We’re going to do so under the theme
EASTER – FACT OR FICTION
On that first Easter Sunday evening the disciples were all gathered together in a house with the doors locked. Some of them had seen Jesus alive that day and so now they were scared. What would they Jewish leaders do now? Would they be accused of stealing the body and be arrested? Would anyone believe them if they told them that Jesus was alive, that he had risen from the dead?
Suddenly Jesus was standing in the middle of them. He said to them; “Peace be with you.” Jesus always says the right thing at the right time, doesn’t he? He was telling them that they didn’t need to be afraid. He was there with them and so they had nothing to worry about. He showed them his hands and his side to prove to them that he wasn’t a ghost. He was the same Jesus they had known; the same Jesus they had seen crucified 3 days earlier.
Unfortunately, Thomas wasn’t there with them. Later, when he returned the others told him that Jesus had appeared to them. But Thomas didn’t believe them. “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands, and put my finger into where the nails were and put my hand into his side, I won’t believe it.” You can’t get more skeptical than that, can you. I won’t believe unless I see visible proof.
Thomas refused to believe because he was a practical person living in a practical world. His heart was broken on Good Friday when Jesus died. So he wasn’t about to fall for some fantasy. Dead was dead and that’s it. No one in their right mind would doubt it when the Romans said a prisoner was dead. They were experts at killing. It’s not that Thomas didn’t want to believe that Jesus was still alive. But Thomas knew how the world worked. Dead was dead and that was it.
That’s how our world sees the resurrection today. Nice idea, but it didn’t really happen. Many also have their mind set on trying to prove it was just a spiritual resurrection. Jesus only arose in the sense that his spirit goes marching on, sort of like the way Abraham Lincoln continues to influence America.
William Lane Craig is probably the world’s most informed authority on the resurrection. He dismisses the spiritual resurrection theory saying that it would be a contradiction in terms for a Jew of that day to say that someone rose from the dead, but his body was left in the tomb. That’s not how people talked back then. Dr. Craig also points out that several disciples were executed because they would not deny the resurrection of Jesus. No sane person would die for something that didn’t happen. Of all the events that took place that first century, no historical event has better or more widespread documentation than the resurrection of Jesus Christ.
Yet, Christians today, live in a sea of doubt. And when you’re swimming in doubt it’s hard not to get wet, to have that doubt seep into your way of thinking. Have you ever had doubts about Jesus or the resurrection?
Often we’re afraid to face our doubts because we’re afraid of what we might find or what others might think. Yet, those doubts don’t go away, do they? They’re always there and like a cancer they slowly eat away at our faith. Soon we believe in Jesus less and less, we become more and more skeptical, like Thomas.
What can you do to get rid of doubt? Nothing, really! There isn’t any cure on this earth that will take away your doubts. If they find Noah’s Ark on a mountain top, if they find the cloth Christ was buried in, if your friends and family have the most amazing arguments in the world, none of these things will cure your doubt. Only one thing can.
That one thing happened to Thomas one week later. On the Sunday after Easter, the disciples were together once again. But this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked again. And once again Jesus appeared in their midst. “Peace be with you,” he said. Then he focused on Thomas and told him to do what he said he wanted to; touch the wounds the Lord sustained on the cross. “Stop doubting and believe,” Jesus told Thomas.”
This is what cured Thomas of doubt. He became a man of faith who believed in Jesus even though everything he knew about the world would tell him otherwise.
There’s only one way for you to get rid of the doubt in your heart. And that is to have moments with Jesus Christ like Thomas did that Sunday after Easter. Now I realize that Jesus doesn’t physically appear before you and talk to you like he did to Thomas.
But he does still come to you today. He comes in an invisible way through his Word and through his Sacraments. That’s how he speaks to you today just like he spoke to Thomas.
There was an article in “Lightsource,” a WELS publication. It was written by a college student and her experience in college. The article was entitled “Faith vs. Reason.” It was about wrestling with doubts about faith in God. The classes she took had caused her to question the existence of God. She was losing her faith, swimming in a sea of doubt. She was trying to rely on her reason to find proof that God exists, that Jesus rose from the dead.
But it doesn’t work that way. You can’t get rid of doubts that way. Finally, she turned to the only thing that could cure her doubt. She turned to the word of God. “I needed the Holy Spirit to change me and fan into flame once more faith in my heart,” she said. God is the one who changed her and he did it through the Holy Spirit working through his Word.
That’s how Jesus changes you today. In verse 29 Jesus says to Thomas; “ Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet have believed.”
Jesus is talking about you. You have not seen him with your own eyes like Thomas did but yet you still believe. You believe because Jesus comes to you in an invisible way, through his Word. The apostle John tells us that Jesus performed many miracles that aren’t even recorded in the Bible. “But these are written,” he says, “that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing you may have life in his name.”
Stay close to God’s Word. Receive the Lord’s Supper often. Let Jesus speak to your heart just as he spoke to Thomas. Let him take away your doubts about his existence and the resurrection. In Jesus name. Amen.
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