Doubting Thomas

• It was in my first church I got a taste of hard skepticism. It was the kind of case that would make rookie preacher sweat
  • An 8-year-old named Bailey K.
  • Bailey was a precocious little girl, the child of a teacher, she was always incredibly inquisitive.
  • But she also wouldn’t just take ANYTHING because you said so.
  • One day, I was talking to the kids about God and Bailey interrupted the whole thing
    • Do you mean to tell me God has no parents?
      • Out of the blue
    • Yes, Bailey, God is non-created
      • Bailey – I’m not buying it.
      • She then went on to talk about exactly why that was impossible, using arguments that philosophers have used since Plotinus’/
    • A hardened 8-year-old skeptic.
  • But God bless our skeptics, they oftentimes make some of the greatest disciples of Christ
    • They keep on wrestling with the big ideas and, in the contest, continue to grow in Christ.
  • So, let’s read a text about a man who doubted.

^“24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin,^[d] was not with them when Jesus came. ²⁵ So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

²⁶ Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” ²⁷ Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.”  ²⁸ Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

Who was Thomas?

• HAVE YOU EVER MADE ONE MISTAKE AND GOTTEN CHARACTERIZED BY IT?
  • I’m a pretty good talker so when the Russian teacher got a chance to cast her play for the entire foreign language department, I was high on her list.
  • I froze
  • Kids in that class remembered that for the entire year, some, joked with me about it into the class the next semester, continued.
• Thomas gets that name doubting because of one 8-day stretch.
• Didymas, the Twin
• HE isn’t given much character development in the other Gospels but here in John, we learn quite a bit about him in a short period of time.
• First of all, we know he’s a twin.
• He’s called with the rest of the disciples and, in John’s Gospel, he would’ve followed Jesus for about three years
  • He’d have healed and taken part in miracles and seen water changed to wine, Lazarus emerge from the tomb.
• He ends up with a bad nickname, “Doubting”, when, in actuality, he’s displayed amazing faith in Jesus Christ.
  • John 11:14-16 - “Then Jesus told them plainly, “Lazarus has died,¹⁵ and for your sake I am glad that I was not there, so that you may believe. But let us go to him.” ¹⁶ So Thomas, called the Twin,^[b]said to his fellow disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.”