LIFE LESSONS
THOMAS
DR. JIM DIXON
JOHN 20:24-29
OCTOBER 31, 2004
The passage of scripture for today and the movie clip we just watched, “Thomas,” both relate to one of the significant moments in the life of Thomas. This morning we look at the life of Thomas and we have two life lessons from his life. The first concerns the subject of doubt.
In the year 1899, a Missouri congressman named William Duncan Vandiver was speaking to a crowd in Philadelphia and it is said that he concluded his speech with this statement: “Fluffy eloquence of educated men will never convince me. I am from the state of Missouri and you have to show me.”
Now, of course today Missouri is called the “show me” state. Many historians trace it all back to Vandiver’s speech in Philadelphia in the year 1899. The truth is that people in Missouri really aren’t any different than other people in our country and all over the world. It doesn’t matter whether you live in Missouri or Colorado. It doesn’t matter whether you live in North America, South America, Europe or Asia. There are a lot of people in this world who need to be shown. Of course, it was Thom as who wanted to be shown. It was Thomas who said, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails and place my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Of course, because of this, Thomas is oftentimes referred to as “doubting Thomas.”
I think the world misunderstands the biblical view of doubt. It may be that many of you, even as Christians, really do not understand what the Bible has to say on the subject of doubt. If you had grown up in the Roman world, in the Greek world, in the Hellenized world, in the time of Christ—if you grew up in that Hellenized world, you probably would have heard a story. It was a story oftentimes told and it was the story of Orpheus.
In Greek mythology, Orpheus was the greatest musician in the world. Orpheus played the harp. He played the lyre. He was so good that the animals in the forest came to him when he played. He was so brilliant, so masterful that when he played his harp the blades of grass leaned towards him and the branches of trees leaned towards him and waters flowed towards him. This was the stuff of Greek mythology.
Now, Orpheus understood attraction because he himself was attracted to a beautiful young woman named Eurydice. Eurydice was beautiful and Orpheus loved her and she loved Orpheus. They were married and Orpheus had incredible joy in his life because of his love for Eurydice and because of her love for him, but oftentimes in the Greek world, stories were tragedies and this was true of this story. In the course of time, Eurydice became ill and her life fled away. She died and she was taken to the underworld. She was taken to the region of Hades. Orpheus was left in great emotional pain, and he could not bear his loss. He wept and he wept and he cried out to the gods to return his wife to him but the gods were silent.
As this story is told, Orpheus makes this incredible journey down into the underworld, down into the region of Hades, to try to find his wife and bring her back with him. He runs into Pluto who is the god of the underworld. Sometimes Pluto is also called Hades, as the Greeks called him. He made his appeal that Pluto would release Eurydice, that Pluto would release his wife and that he could take her back to our world. Pluto said no. He said it was not possible. Then Orpheus began to play his harp. He began to play his lament on the harp. It was so moving that Pluto, the god of the underworld, began to cry. Persephone, his wife, began to cry. Even the Eumenides, even the Furies began to have tears on their stone faces as the gods of the underworld were moved. Finally, Pluto relented and he said okay. He said, “Orpheus, you can take your wife back to your world, back to the world of light but on one condition. You have to leave her right now and begin your journey home. You’ve got to begin that climb back into the world of light and you cannot look back. You cannot doubt. You cannot look back even once. You must trust that Eurydice is following you. If you look back, I will take her and you will never see her again.”
So, Orpheus began his journey back to our world, back to the world of light. He started out in hope and in great faith and as he journeyed and as time passed, he began to doubt. He began to doubt the gods. What if they were playing a trick on him? What if they were making a false promise? What if it was all just a lark? He began to doubt Eurydice. Maybe she didn’t love him anymore. Maybe she didn’t agree to follow him. Maybe she wasn’t following him now. As he was beginning to approach the world of light, he couldn’t take it anymore and he turned around. He turned around to see because of his doubt and he saw her. She was standing there beautiful. When she saw him, she put her arms out and he ran to her but just before he could hold her, she disappeared and she was taken back to Hades and Orpheus never saw her again. One of the tragic stories of Greek mythology.
I think we live in a world where a lot of people think God is like that. God has a zero-tolerance policy with regard to doubt. That’s what some Christians even think Jesus Christ is like, that Christ has kind of this no tolerance policy. They doubt and they think of the famous words of Christ where Jesus said that, “He who takes and puts his hand to the plow and looks back is not worthy of me.” They misunderstand that passage because it really doesn’t have to do with doubt. It has to do with commitment.
When you look at the subject of doubt in the Bible, you see that God understands our struggle with doubt. All the great men and women of the Bible had times of doubt. You can look in Genesis, chapters 12 and 13 and you can see the doubt of Abraham. You can look in Judges, chapters 6 and 7 and you can see the doubt of Gideon. You can look in Matthew, chapter 14 and you can see the doubt of Peter the Apostle. Of course, in John, chapter 20, you see the doubt of Thomas. Look in Luke’s Gospel, the 7th chapter, and you see the doubt of John the Baptist. In fact, it’s an incredible story in Luke, chapter 7, we’re told how John the Baptist sent his disciples to Jesus saying, “Did I make a mistake?” John wants to know if he made a mistake. Are you really the Christ? Are you really the Messiah? Are you really the one that was promised? John had begun to doubt.
How did Jesus respond? Jesus said to the disciples of John, “Go and say to John, “The blind see. The deaf hear. The lame walk. The lepers are cleansed. The dead are raised from the dead, resurrected. The poor are comforted. Blessed is he who takes no offense in Me.” John doubted and Jesus responded with evidence. Then Jesus praised John and Jesus said to the crowd, “There’s no one born of women greater than John. He did not put him down because of his doubt.
When you come to Mark’s Gospel, the 9th chapter, you see the moving story of that father with his son. This dad was really concerned because his son was gravely ill. The dad asked if Jesus would heal his son. Jesus said to this dad, “Do you believe I can do this?” The father said, “Yes, Lord. I believe. Help my unbelief. Jesus didn’t criticize him for his unbelief. Jesus just lovingly responded by the healing of his son.
So, you see, as you look at the Bible, God understands doubt but here’s the big concern. This is what God is concerned with. God is concerned that your doubt does not keep you from commitment. That’s the concern of God, that your doubt doesn’t keep you from commitment, that your doubt doesn’t keep you from acting on your faith. Of course, the word for faith in the Bible in the Greek is “pisteuo.” This word pisteuo is best understood as commitment. When you come to faith in Jesus Christ, you come to commitment. If you’re a Christian, you’ve made a commitment. You, at some point in time or at some process in time, made a commitment, a commitment to trust Jesus Christ as your Savior from sin and the commitment to obey and serve and follow Jesus Christ as Lord. It’s a commitment of a lifetime. The concern of God is that your doubt doesn’t keep you from that commitment and that once you’ve made that commitment, your doubt doesn’t cause you to waiver. It’s all about commitment.
I’ll tell you a little story about a woman who was born in the year 1820. An incredible woman. I think all of you have heard of her. She was born to great wealth in the year 1820 and she was reared on two lavish British estates. Her family had money with a capital “M.” It was a patriarchal society and it was a patriarchal time and yet she received all of the education that characterized the world of men. She became competent in Greek and in Latin and in mathematics and in history and philosophy. At the age of 16 she was introduced to Queen Victoria, Queen of the British Empire and she then took her rightful place in high society. That was a world of balls and foreign nations and parties. All the parties, all the events, all the wealth, all the opulence did not satisfy her. She was vacuous at the core and in her soul she felt empty.
She’d heard the Gospel many times, but she’d never accepted Christ because she had doubts. She doubted the claims of Christ. When she was 29 years old, she sat down with a missionary and this missionary lovingly shared his testimony. The woman was moved in her soul and she embraced Jesus as Lord and Savior despite her doubt. Despite her doubt, she had faith enough to make the commitment and that day she committed her life to Jesus as Savior and as Lord.
The next year she was 30 years old and she wrote in her diary these words, “I am 30 years old now, the age at which Jesus entered into his public ministry. No more childish things. No more vain things. My Lord Jesus Christ, I only want to serve You.” That year she went to nursing school. Three years later at the age of 33, she graduated and she was put in charge of a woman’s hospital in the city of London. She was director of that hospital. The next year, at the age of 34, the British government asked her to go to Crimea because the Crimean War was taking place. Great Britain and France and the Ottoman Empire were at war with Russia. So, she was given 38 nurses over which she was to have charge, and she was sent to Crimea. She arrived on the muddy shores of Scutari, across from Istanbul. She made a makeshift hospital out of some old Turkish army barracks. The wounded from the Crimean War were brought across the Black Sea to her. When she arrived, there were 500 wounded. They had returned from the Battle of Balaklava and the Charge of the Light Brigade. She began to minister to them and pray over them and serve them.
I know this is hard to believe, but the Crimean War was so bloody that her hospital grew, and that makeshift hospital had so many wounded and dying that eventually the corridors of her hospital were five miles long. But she labored day and night, all night long. They called her “The Lady of the Lamp” because she would come at any hour of the night to pray or to minister or to serve. Of course, you know who she is because her name was Florence Nightingale. She was born in the city of Florence, Italy as her wealthy British parents were on an extended holiday. Of course, during that Crimean War, she labored and toiled to save the lives of as many as she could. She went to the front lines into Crimea and there she prayed over the dying and she tended to the wounded. Somehow in the midst of all that, she became gravely ill and she herself almost died. Queen Victoria said she never ceased to pray that Florence Nightingale might live.
Of course, she did live. Before the end of the war, she was placed in charge of all the British hospitals in Crimea. At first medical doctors found it hard to submit to her authority but later they appreciated the incredible heart and intelligence and skill that was hers. At the age of 36 she returned to London, England as a national hero. She opened a training school for nurses. At the age of 37, she became ill. Somehow she was broken and exhausted in body and in spirit. At the age of 37 she became ill and she went to bed one night thinking she would never wake up, that her heart would stop. Her heart did stop 53 years later. She died at the age of 90.
During those last 53 years of her life, she was often ill but the world loved her and the world came to her. Heads of State, pastors, ministers, doctors, nurses all came to her for counsel, for prayer, for advice. She really is the founder of the modern nursing movement and she has impacted medical care all over the world. Florence Nightingale. She never let her doubt take away her commitment. Just before she died at the age of 90, they asked her how she wanted to be remembered. Florence Nightingale said, “I want to be remembered as a woman who held nothing back from Jesus Christ.”
How about you? Are you holding anything back from Jesus Christ? Is any of it caused by doubt? Is doubt keeping you from commitment? The people of Christ are called to commitment and service. We’re called to serve the kingdom of heaven on earth. We’re called to be light and salt. How desperately commitment is needed among the people of Christ.
Thomas, despite his doubt, had commitment, and we know how Thomas spent the latter years of his life. It’s really not from spurious books like “The Gospel of Thomas” or “The Acts of Thomas,” or “The Apocalypse of Thomas” but rather from the early church fathers we know that right after Pentecost, Thomas ministered in Jerusalem and Judea and then he was sent as an Apostle to the east. One of the few apostles sent to the east. He went to Parthia and then he went to the region of Mesopotamia. Mesopotamia comes from two Greek words meaning, “between the rivers.” And so, Thomas ministered between the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers in the region of modern-day Iraq. Thomas was there. Then Thomas went further east into the land of India. He went to the Coromandel Coast in southeast India, and he went to the Malabar Coast on southwest India and he evangelized southern India. Even to this day you see Christians in southern India who call themselves Thomas Christians. Of course, ultimately Thomas paid the ultimate price and he gave his life. He died a martyr. He was run through with a lance in Coromandel. He never let his doubt keep him from commitment.
This is Halloween today, and I know that Christians kind of have mixed feelings when it comes to Halloween. The holiday has a mixed history. For centuries, Halloween was a Christian holy day. In fact, the word Halloween means, “holy night.” It means, “hallowed evening.” For centuries in the Christian world, Halloween was the holy night before All Saints Day when Christians all over the world remembered those who had been faithful to Christ in previous generations. Of course, originally Halloween was a pagan festival called Samhain. It was a festival of the dead and it was associated with occultism. I think today Halloween has pretty much returned to its pagan origins.
Amongst the Christian community today, there are some Christians who view Halloween as simply a fun time and they enjoy it. There are other Christians who think, “Well, you know, maybe we ought to distance ourselves from this,” and there are other Christians who are kind of in between. Personally, I don’t think the devil cares about Halloween. I don’t think Satan really cares about costumes and candy. He really doesn’t. I’ll tell you what he cares about. He cares about commitment. That’s what the devil cares about. He doesn’t want you to find commitment to Jesus Christ and he’s willing to use anything to keep you from commitment. He’s willing to use materialism to just kind of sap your commitment. He’s willing to use hedonism and comfort to just kind of suck the life out of your commitment. He’s willing to use doubt to keep you from commitment. That’s what he’s about. We have this life lesson from Thomas concerning doubt. God understands the human condition, but don’t let doubt keep you from commitment.
There’s a second life lesson this morning and that concerns deity, the deity of Jesus Christ. We don’t know much about Thomas. We know he was Jewish. We don’t know the name of his parents. We don’t really know his career or profession. We assume that he was a Jew from Galilee but he may have been a Jew from Judea. It doesn’t matter. For any Jew, the confession of Thomas is amazing because Jews are monotheistic. There’s only one God and yet Thomas made that incredible confession when he saw the resurrected Christ, “My Lord and my God.”
Of course, that confession has become famous in Christian history. Thomas believed in the deity of Jesus Christ. Of course, he had many reasons to believe in the deity of Jesus Christ. As a Jew he knew the prophecies of the Torah. He knew the sacred writings of scripture. He knew the prophecy of Isaiah 9, that the Messiah would be called El Gabor, The Mighty God. He knew the Messiah would be called Aviad, The Source, The Father of Eternity. He knew the Messiah would have divine titles. He knew Isaiah, chapter 7, that the Messiah would be called Immanuel, God with Us. Of course, he knew what ultimately was written by Matthew and Luke. He knew that the Angel of the Lord had appeared to Mary and Joseph. He knew that the child was to be called “Holy, the Son of God.” Thomas had seen the power of the Son of God. He’d walked with Jesus and he had seen, he had witnessed His deity. He’d seen him heal the blind, the deaf, the dumb, the lame, the leprous. Thomas had seen him raise the dead.
Thomas knew that Jesus raised from the dead the widow’s son of the village of Nain. Thomas knew that Jesus raised from the dead the daughter of Jairus, the Ruler of the Synagogue. Thomas knew that Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead in Bethany and Thomas was there. He heard Jesus speak those words, “Lazarus, come forth!” By the power of the Son of God, he came forth because of his deity. Thomas knew. He knew that Jesus was transfigured on the holy mountain. He was not there but he heard the testimony of Peter, James and John, that Jesus was transfigured. He went through a metamorphosis. He radiated pure light and He was revealed in all of His deity. Of course, Thomas knew that Jesus often took the divine name and applied it to Himself. He had heard him do it many times. I’m sure he was stunned.
Jesus took the Tetragrammaton, Jesus took the divine name of Yahweh which means, “I Am,” and Jesus applied it to himself. All the “ego eimi” statements of Christ, all the “I Am” statements of Christ were hints of His deity and of course Thomas knew that Jesus said to the Scribes and the Pharisees, “Before Abraham ever was, ego eimi. Before Abraham ever was, I Am.”
Jesus had told the Pharisees how Abraham felt and even what Abraham was feeling now. The Pharisees said, “Wait a minute. Abraham lived 2,000 years ago. You claim to know Abraham?” That’s when Jesus said, “Truly, truly I say to you, before Abraham ever was, I Am—ego eimi Yahweh.” Thomas heard, so he surely knew that Jesus was deity even before that moment when Jesus appeared to him resurrected and alive and showed him His hands and His feet.
How about you? Do you believe in the deity of Christ? Why is that important? Why does that matter? Does it really matter if Jesus is divine? Does that really matter? God wants you to understand it’s all about authority. I mean if Jesus isn’t divine, if He is not Lord and God and He does not have ultimate authority in your life—if He’s just another good teacher, you can take the stuff you like and ignore the stuff you don’t like, like you do with all other good teachers. The question is, “Does He really have authority? Is He Immanuel? Is He God with us? Does He have that authority?”
We live in a world of authority. I was reading recently where Edgar Bronfman, Jr. who is CEO of Seagram Company had gone into a conference room with his upper-level staff. He took a seat at the conference table and a young executive right next to him said, “Sir, don’t sit there. You need to sit at the head of the table.” Edgar Bronfman turned to him and said, “Young man, wherever I sit is the head of the table.”
We live in a world like that, don’t we? We’ve all experienced authority at work. If you’re a child, you’ve experienced authority at home, in school. As citizens of this nation, we are subject to authorities and of course we’re about to have a presidential election and the President of the United States has great authority. That’s why it’s such an important decision. Great authority, and yet that authority pales when compared to divine authority. Who is King of Kings? Who is Lord of Lords? The Bible says it is Jesus Christ. Where do you find your ultimate authority? Who is the highest authority in your life? Thomas tells us it needs to be Jesus Christ.
In the year 81 A.D., Domitian came to the throne of the Roman Empire. Domitian had been the brother of Titus who had been a Roman Emperor before him. Domitian was the son of Vespasian who had also been a Roman Emperor. When Domitian took the throne in 81 A.O., he took the title “Kurios Theas.” He took the title, “Lord God.” Archeologists have found countless inscriptions with these kinds of pronouncements, “Our Lord God Domitian decrees,” “Our Lord God Domitian decrees.” This was not unusual. In the Roman world, in the Greek world, in the Seleucid world from Caligula to Antiochus Epiphanes, they all took divine titles. Why did they do that? It was all about authority. They all wanted divine authority. They wanted the people to bend the knee. It’s all about authority.
Of course, Domitian, when he took the throne, began to build, began to erect, temples in every Roman city dedicated to himself or he took already existing temples and claimed them for himself. To those temples throughout the Roman Empire, historians tell us people had to go and they had to bend the knee. They had to say “Kurios Caesaras,” “Caesar is Lord.” The word “kurios,” the title “lord,” was a divine title in that context. “Kurios Caesares.” “Caesar is Lord.” By the millions, people made that confession, confessing the divine authority of Caesar. Of course, Christians refused. When Christians were told to say, “Kurios Caesaras,” or “Anathema Jesus,” “Jesus be Cursed,” instead Christians would say “Kurios Jesus,” “Jesus is Lord.” The authority of Christ. That’s what Christians have always believed in through all the year, through all the ages. So, as you live your life, as you go through your days, as you get up in the morning, as you go to bed at night, who are you trying to please? Are you living for yourself? Are you living for someone else? Who are you living for? Jesus is Lord and God. Live for Him. Bend the knee to Him. Don’t let anybody, don’t let anything take away your loyalty to Him and He will bless you.
Barb and I just came back from the east coast. We were in North Carolina. We were outside of Asheville, North Carolina. The Billy Graham Association has a retreat center there in the Smoky Mountains. We went there. I had a meet with 20 other pastors. One day I had some free time and Barb was in Asheville with others. I had some free time from my meetings, and I took a walk around this retreat center called The Cove. I saw a little sign that said “Chapel” with an arrow pointing down a path that went down the mountain. I thought it would just be a little walk down the hill to this chapel. I thought wrong. It’s a long walk, more than a mile through the woods and across little streams going down, down, down to the chapel. The problem was I had to come back up.
As I walked that path, there are 1500 acres at this retreat center, there are scripture verses posted all along the pathway as you walk through the woods, different verses of scripture from the Old and the New Testament. I read them as I kind of walked along. It occurred to me how anointed the place felt, and I thought of the anointing that’s always been on Billy Graham. Have you ever noticed that? Have you ever noticed the anointing on Billy Graham? Have you ever listened to his crusades? Have you ever marveled when he was done and people came forward by the hundreds and the thousands? It’s not like he’s a great homiletician. His words are simple but filled with divine power because God has anointed him, and so he says to crowds of people that we’re all sinners, that Jesus is the Savior and He died for the sin of the world, and he says, “Come. Come and accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior.”
He always says, “If you came in a bus, they’ll wait. If you came with family or friends, they’ll wait,” and you see people rise as the music plays and people come down to the center of the stage. The anointing of God, the anointing of God thick upon him and upon his life. It occurred to me as I was walking through that retreat center called The Cove, that same anointing in some measure is there. You sense it. You feel it.
Do you want the anointing of God in your life? Would you like that? Do you want the anointing of God upon your children? Would you like to have His anointing on your kids? Do you want the anointing of God on your family? On your marriage? Do you want the anointing of God on your workplace? On your life? Do you want His anointing on your life? Then you must make the commitment. Don’t let doubt keep you away. And you must, having made that commitment, bend the knee every day. You’ve got to say, “My Lord and my God.” You need to embrace His authority. You need to live for Him and no one else and you’ll see, you’ll feel, you’ll experience an anointing like you’ve never felt in your life. Let’s look to the Lord with a word of prayer.