Mensa Otabil - Choose to Believe
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John chapter 20, verses 26 to 27. After eight days, His disciples were again inside, and Thomas was with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, stood in the midst, and said, «Peace to you.» Then He said to Thomas, «Reach your finger here and look at My hands, and reach your hand here and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving but believing.» Jesus shows up again. Now, when we look at Thomas, on the one hand, we admire him for being curious, for questioning, for interrogating, and for not just believing something he has no evidence for, and we admire him for that. That has some value. On the other hand, we fault him because he is establishing conditions for faith. If God doesn’t do this, then I will not believe in Him, and that’s not how Christianity works. We don’t give God ultimatums and conditions; we believe Him for who He is.
So, one week after this event, after the resurrection, remember the first appearance is on the night of the resurrection. This is a week thereafter; the Lord appears to His disciples again under similar conditions, in the same place, doors shut. This time there is no indication of fear, but the doors are shut, and Jesus comes in. The Bible notes that Thomas was with them this time. Isn’t it amazing? Jesus was not present when Thomas spoke about his unbelief. He wasn’t physically present, but He heard it. That tells us that at this time, Jesus is omnipresent; He can be everywhere at any time, and He can hear things when He’s not physically present.
So, He had the conversation, and the Lord is gracious to Thomas. He is merciful to him, and that is the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. There’s no bitterness, there’s no anger, there’s no frustration, because some other leader would be very frustrated with Thomas, His follower, because Thomas has been following Jesus for a very long time, and now he’s been told Jesus is resurrected, but he can’t believe it. So, Jesus said to Thomas, «You want proof? Okay, My hands, reach and touch them; My side, reach and touch it.» The Bible doesn’t tell us whether Thomas reached to touch, but he saw the evidence, and the evidence was so clear to him that it transformed him from the person that sometimes we call «Doubting Thomas " to «I believe in Thomas.» Church tradition has said that this same Thomas eventually took the Gospel to India, far away in India, and preached the Gospel there, labored in the Gospel, and eventually died for this truth that he discovered this day in the upper room.
Jesus showed up to him, but then Jesus says something; He says, «I don’t want you to be unbelieving, but believing.» So, Thomas, you’ve seen it and you believe, but that’s not what I’m looking for. I want you to be a believing believer, not an unbelieving believer. Unfortunately, there are unbelieving believers; they go to church, they have a church register, they participate, but nothing they do is evidence that they believe in what they are doing. They go as a routine; it’s nominal. It’s all head knowledge, but there is no heart involvement in what is happening. I pray your belief system will not be like that, that you’ll be a real believing believer, that you believe in the crucifixion, you believe in the resurrection, and you believe in who Jesus Christ is. Tomorrow, we’re going to talk further about Thomas and what Jesus said to him after this.
Let us pray. Say with me, «Heavenly Father, help me to be a believing believer. I have settled in my heart that You are who You say You are. In Jesus' name, amen and amen.»