In Him is Life

[00:00:01] Well, good morning, Church. Happy Easter. [00:00:04] It's good to be with you. He is risen. [00:00:08] Get to celebrate that today. [00:00:11] Man, it's so good to be with you. [00:00:13] I feel like we went from the dead of summer to now we're back to winter. [00:00:18] Body's a little confused. But I'm glad to be here with you today. And if we haven't had the chance to meet yet, my name's Chet, and if you're a guest with us today, I'd love to meet you and shake your hand and. [00:00:31] And hear your story. But today I want to talk about the resurrection and what that means for us. But right before we do, would you bow your head in prayer with me, Father? We thank you so much, Lord, for what today means that you died and you rose again. [00:00:52] And, Father, that gives eternal hope and eternal life for all of us. [00:00:58] Help us, Lord, to see that, to receive it in our hearts and in our minds today. [00:01:06] Help us to see, Lord, what Thomas saw, that you are our Lord and our God. [00:01:13] And help us to follow you all the days of our life. [00:01:17] Thank you for today, Lord. Draw us near to you. [00:01:21] Guide us as we think about these things and talk about these things. And I ask this in the great name of Jesus. [00:01:28] Amen. [00:01:31] Well, I don't know if you've ever had just a really unlikely event occur in your life, but it turned out to be, like, a pretty great blessing. Like, something really kind of cool came out of it, but it was sort of just very unlikely. And I remember some years ago, my good friend, her sister was getting married. So as my friend's sister was getting married, and I got invited, Allie and I got invited. And then another friend of mine got invited to this wedding. [00:02:04] His name was Jason. And we went to high school together. And so we were good buddies, and we went to this wedding. But it was kind of like one of those, like, sympathy invites, you know? Cause we were sort of like on the outer skirts of the relationships, but we got invited. And when you sort of get invited that way, you know, it's like the people who are planning the wedding, they're like, let's put all the outcasts at the same table. [00:02:27] You know what I'm saying? And so we ended up there, which that was fine, and we were just glad to go. And it was this really nice, big and beautiful wedding. And as we were there, there's a couple other people that were, like, very distant family of the bride or the groom. And they had brought. Each had brought a date with them. And so when we Were kind of doing the. Just introductions, you know, and just saying hi. It's always a little awkward part in those situations. [00:02:54] And, you know, introduced the. One of the people's date, and his name was Jason. [00:03:00] And then the other guy's name was Chet. [00:03:06] Now, Church, this was a miracle. [00:03:12] I know you don't have the name Chet, but I do. [00:03:15] And here's the deal. You don't meet Chets very often. Never like, you know, I've never been in school. And be like, the teacher's like, oh, what are we gonna do? We got two Chets in this class. [00:03:25] That's never happened to me. [00:03:28] And so we met these two guys. And so there was Chet and Jason, and Chet and Jason. [00:03:36] And you better believe in that moment, we became best friends. [00:03:41] And it was so. We had such a great time. [00:03:45] There was a photo booth. I have like 800 pictures of the Chets and Jason's. [00:03:51] And this was so unlikely, right? They weren't even invited. They were the dates of people who were invited. Like, what are the chances? [00:03:59] Two Chets, two Jasons. We were best friends that night. I've never talked to them since. [00:04:08] I believe that they were angels and they were raptured up into heaven after that. It was so wonderful. And they were really cool, too. Like, they were great guys. You would have loved them, which made me happy. Cause, you know, if you're gonna carry that name, Chet, I want you to carry it well. [00:04:27] And he did. [00:04:28] But it was an unlikely thing that. That ended up being a great blessing. And I bring that up because I think when we think about Easter, Easter is an unlikely event. [00:04:41] In fact, the people that were there struggled to believe it, struggled to understand it, struggled to comprehend it. Because they saw Jesus die, but no one expected him to rise again. [00:04:55] But in this unlikely event is the greatest blessing that you and I could ever have. And so today, I wanna talk about that with you today. And we're gonna look at an account that happened just shortly after Jesus rose again. And it's an account about one of Jesus followers, a man named Thomas, and how he wrestles and struggles to understand all that had happened. So today I'm gonna read to you from John, chapter 20. And John is one of the four biographies of Jesus that we have. There's Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. And John is the final one. [00:05:33] And here's how the story begins. It says this. Now, Thomas, one of the 12 called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. Now, this is an important detail to note. What we read just before this story Is. Is that there were 11 or at this point, 10 other disciples that Jesus showed up to, that they saw him die, and then he showed up resurrected, and he said, hey, I'm alive and I have a mission and a purpose for you. And he commissioned them. He said, you're gonna now go out into the world, and you're gonna share what you have seen with others. [00:06:15] So all of them were there except Thomas. So that's what John's talking about. So Thomas wasn't there, but the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. So, Thomas, you are not going to believe what happened. We have seen the Lord. [00:06:34] But here's what Thomas said to him. [00:06:38] Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the market of nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. [00:06:50] And Thomas, we could say, is very skeptical. Is that fair? [00:06:55] And in a sense, can you blame Thomas, Right? Thomas sounds very much like a modern person today, doesn't he? Like Thomas is like, okay, prove it. [00:07:07] Show me. And unless you show me, unless I see the wounds of Jesus, I know Jesus died. [00:07:13] I know he was crucified. I know he has wounds on his wrist and a wound in his side. And unless I see that, unless I touch it, I'm not gonna believe. [00:07:25] Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. So they were all together. [00:07:31] And although the doors were locked, see, this was a very chaotic time for them. And no one knew what to do. And they were afraid of what was gonna happen and if people were gonna come after them, if authorities that had killed Jesus, if they were now gonna come after them. So they're hunkered down. They're locked away. [00:07:51] And Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. [00:07:58] Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands. Put out your hand. [00:08:03] Place it in my side. [00:08:05] Do not disbelieve, but believe. [00:08:09] And Thomas answered him, my Lord and my God. [00:08:14] Jesus said to him, have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who've not seen and yet have believed. [00:08:23] And then John, the one who's putting all of this together, he writes this. He said, now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book, but these are written. So you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. [00:08:45] Now, this is so powerful. John is saying, listen, I know this sounds unlikely, but it's true. [00:08:54] And John is saying, and if if you believe it, it will fundamentally change your life. [00:09:03] And for 2,000 years, people who have wrestled with the resurrection of Jesus and come to believe and to trust have been radically transformed by it. And John is saying that. He's saying, that's what I want for you. But here's what's so interesting. This story of Thomas is right at the end of all that he's written. And it's at the end of the other Gospel stories. Matthew, Mark, Luke, and then John. John is the final one in the list here. And this story, I believe, is really here to help people like us who hear this and read this and think about this, but might wrestle with believing it. [00:09:52] And this story is meant to help us to navigate through those difficult waters, because we see that Thomas struggles in this and he struggles with some barriers that I think a lot of us can probably identify with. [00:10:06] The first barrier is that the disciples experience the resurrected Christ, but Thomas isn't with him. [00:10:14] And as we read the story of what happens, and as we read about Thomas through other parts of the Gospel of John, it seems to be that maybe there was a bit of unhealthy isolation that was happening in Thomas life. [00:10:31] And I think maybe that's something that we can tend to do in our own lives too. [00:10:37] Do you ever find yourself in a bad spot and so then you just sort of withdraw from the people around you and you withdraw maybe into your own mind? And have you ever found that sometimes our mind can be a scary place to be anybody? Or am I the only messed up one here today? I need to talk to some messed up people today, right? And sometimes there can be in the uncertainty and the pain and the challenge and the confusion of. Of life. Sometimes the way we try to deal with it is we try to just pull back. [00:11:16] But then what happens is we get even more confused. Anyone and we get even more lost. Because if it's just us trying to figure it out alone, there's a lot of ditches on that road. You with me? [00:11:30] And it seems that part of Thomas problem might be connected. He's withdrawing. And part of the way that God shows himself to us is through other people and through relationships and through community. That's why days like today are so important, that we come together to talk about these things and to think about these things. Now, the other barrier with Thomas was that he was skeptical of this, right? Thomas is no different than you and me. [00:12:03] When someone dies, Thomas expected that they stay dead. [00:12:09] And that's what we expect too, right? [00:12:12] Thomas wasn't some Naive person. [00:12:15] He was normal, like you and I. And so when he hears about this, he's like, whoa, this is hard to believe. This is a stretch. And he was skeptical of it. And many times we can read the story of Easter, and we can read the stories in the New Testament about the life of Jesus. And sometimes we can come to them with, like, a skeptical eye, like, is this true? Is this made up? How should I take all of this? [00:12:46] And here's what I think is really, really powerful. [00:12:51] That for 2,000 years, the story of Jesus has faced the most difficult questions, attacks all of these kinds of things, and has absolutely stood the test of time. [00:13:08] And that it's okay to seek out answers to our questions. And I think we should. [00:13:15] But I think that if we are gonna be skeptical, we also have to be open to. To really exploring the evidence. You with me on this? I just heard recently there's a new book out by a guy named T.C. schmidt. And the book is called Jesus and Josephus. [00:13:33] And T.C. schmidt is a Ph.D. from Yale. He's an academic. And if you go try to buy this book on Amazon, it's like $110. [00:13:42] You know how these textbooks are, college people. [00:13:47] But the good news is you can get it all online for free. [00:13:52] There's like a PDF, and I'm pretty sure it's legal. There's no copyright. [00:13:58] I'm assuming it is if it's out there. The Internet never lies. Amen. [00:14:03] So, anyway, so hopefully I don't get in trouble for saying that, but. So you can read it for free. But the book Jesus and Josephus is this really interesting deal because Josephus was a historian that lived around the time of Jesus, and he lived in Jerusalem, and he was Jewish, and he was part of a wealthy Jewish family in Jerusalem that was part of the priesthood that had Jesus killed. [00:14:35] So Josephus grew up with these guys, knew these guys, was part of all of this. And Josephus was an incredibly talented person. [00:14:46] He was a priest at one point. He was a general. [00:14:51] He was a historian. Don't you hate people that are good at everything? [00:14:55] Josephus seems to be one of those guys, but he is a great treasure to history because he wrote insane amounts of pages about all of the history of the Jewish people in Rome during the time of Jesus. [00:15:13] And so everyone looks at Josephus as an authoritative voice on the time right around the New Testament. Now, here's what's interesting. Josephus has this whole section in his history called Antiquities, and it's about Jesus. He writes about his experience of what he saw and heard happen to Jesus. And it's this very famous section, it's called Testimonium Flavium. [00:15:43] Pretty fancy sounding, right? Yeah. [00:15:45] And it has this basically, it tells the gospel story, basically that Jesus died under Pilate, that people thought he was a prophet, that people claimed he rose again. [00:15:57] And it just essentially corroborates everything Matthew, Mark, Luke and John say. [00:16:03] Now here's what's interesting. [00:16:05] For many decades people have said, no, that can't be authentic to Josephus because it seems like it is too pro New Testament, like it just aligns too much. And so this had to have been something that was added later on. Well, to make a long story short, TC Schmidt has been a Josephus scholar for his whole life. [00:16:29] And basically he argues conclusively that it is absolutely authentic, that Josephus actually corroborates it. And it's the earliest time that Jesus, death and resurrection is mentioned outside of the New Testament. It's right in that window. Now all of that is to say is that there is incredible historical corroboration with what we read in John and Matthew and Mark and Luke. And so to just be overly skeptical without actually looking into it is to really miss the truth of it. You with me on this? [00:17:13] And so Thomas is skeptical. He says, all right, unless I, I won't believe it. But here's also what John says, and this is maybe even more important. [00:17:25] All through John's gospel, John says that Jesus is the light, but in our lives we can get stuck in the darkness. [00:17:36] And John says we often prefer the darkness over the light. [00:17:43] And so what John says is actually the real problem we have with God is not an intellectual problem, but it's a heart problem. [00:17:53] It's not what's actually happening in our heads, but it's what's happening in our hearts. It's kind of like this. My son Teddy is 2 and when I pick him up out of his crib from a nap or in the morning when will often have the hallway light on. And so I kinda take him out into the hall and then Teddy will get like this scrunched up face and he'll go, too bright, too bright. And it's really cute. [00:18:20] Too bright, you gotta see it. [00:18:24] And he's like, the light is, it's too much. And John is saying there's something in us that reacts that way to the true light. [00:18:38] As we experience light, it's exposing, it's humbling, it's transforming. [00:18:45] If Christ died and rose again, then I can't think about life in the same ways. It demands change. And sometimes, instead of stepping into that reality, we would rather shy away from it. You with me on this? We would rather say, oh, man, I don't wanna deal with that. I don't wanna open up the possibility of that. And so sometimes what our struggle is not actually about evidence and proof and those kinds of things, but it's about, am I willing to humble my life before the reality of God? Am I willing to allow God to change my life from the inside out? Or am I trying to. To keep my grips on all of this? And I think that's really the real issue going on here. But here's the good news. Jesus comes to Thomas in his doubt and in his struggle. And Jesus comes to us today, too. See, I love this picture that John says, they're all locked away in this room. They don't want anyone to come in. [00:19:53] Are you ever at home sometimes. And someone rings the door bell and you're like, okay, no one I actually want here rings the doorbell. Amen. Like that. You're like, this is a solicitor. You're like, kids, be quiet. Shut the lights off, hit the deck, act like we're not home, and they will go away soon enough. Amen. [00:20:15] Is that not what we all do? [00:20:17] Yeah. Cause you're like, if you really know me, you don't ring my doorbell, right? [00:20:22] You text me, I know I'm here, okay? [00:20:27] And these guys, right? They're playing that game, like, all right, somebody's at the door. Be cool, be cool, be cool. Get down. Be quiet. But Jesus, none of those barriers can keep Jesus out. Now, here's the deal. In our lives, we can create barriers between us and Jesus. We can create barriers that keep us from taking a step towards him. But. But there is nothing that can stop him from taking a step towards us. You with me on this? [00:20:56] And this is what we see in this passage, that he comes and those barriers don't mean anything. And he appears before Thomas. [00:21:06] And I just could imagine that there had to be, like, a millisecond where all the disciples see Jesus appears, and they're like, oh, Thomas has been pretty lippy. [00:21:23] What's gonna happen, right? The boss is here. [00:21:27] And this one has not been loyal. [00:21:30] I think of that. I think of the scene in the movie Hook. Any Hook fans? Yeah. Cool. Three of you. [00:21:38] Dude, this happened to me last night, too. It's a great movie. [00:21:43] I know it's decades old, but it's awesome. [00:21:46] But there's a scene where Captain Hook, he's presented in the movie. And he comes out giving this speech about how great he is, and all the pirates are out there. And then after the speech, he's like, but one of you didn't believe me. [00:22:02] And they're all like, wasn't me. And he's like, no, no, one of you did. And he points to this guy, and eventually he makes his way to this guy, and he gets into his face, and he's like, you didn't believe I was gonna make it out of that? You didn't believe I was gonna come back and do these great things? And finally, the pirate, he breaks down and he goes, I'm so sorry. You're right. I doubted you. [00:22:22] And you expect that maybe he's gonna get some mercy, but instead he gets thrown into a chest with scorpions. [00:22:29] But it's a great movie. It really is. [00:22:34] But I guess Hook doesn't treat doubters very nicely. [00:22:39] You're either in or you're out. [00:22:43] If you stumble, you're done. [00:22:46] But I'm glad that is not how Jesus Christ treats doubters and treats those who struggle and treats those of us who stumble and slip our way forward. Amen. Church, what does he do? He comes to Thomas and he says, peace. [00:23:10] And he says, thomas, all right, look at my wounds. [00:23:14] Don't disbelieve, but believe. [00:23:19] And, Church, I want you to know that Christ is not here to make an example out of us. [00:23:27] He didn't go to Thomas and say, all right, guys, this is what happens to doubters. [00:23:33] Cast this man away. [00:23:35] No, he comes to Thomas. Here's why. Not because he wants to make an example out of him, but because he wants to make an apostle out of him. [00:23:46] Get this. If you read the story right before this that I mentioned at the beginning, Jesus meets the other apostles and other apostles, and he commissions them. He sends them out. Now, part of being an apostle meant that you actually physically saw the resurrected Christ, and he looked you in the eye and said, all right, now you're on a mission. Now go change the world. That is what was required to be an apostle. Thomas wasn't there when that happened. So here's what I think is actually happening in this passage. This, that Jesus is not showing up just to meet the conditions of Thomas beliefs, but to give his life an entirely new purpose. [00:24:31] He says, thomas, now you are ready for the life that I have for you. And, Church, I want you to know that Christ comes into our lives not to make an example out of us, but to give our life new purpose. [00:24:50] The apostle Paul says it this way. He Says that God wants to show your life and my life as an example of the riches of his kindness in grace in Christ Jesus. [00:25:05] That's the type of example that he wants to make out of us, that he will stand us up and people will look and they'll say, wow, God is really gracious. [00:25:17] God is so much more merciful than I could ever imagine. Just think about how cool that is for a second. What that means is that you'll arrive in heaven through Christ and people will look and they'll be like, oh, my gosh, you're here. [00:25:35] And you'll look back at them, you're like, oh, my gosh, you're here. [00:25:40] There'll be a lot of confusion there. I believe that. [00:25:43] But then everybody will say, oh, my gosh, God is that merciful. [00:25:48] God is that gracious. [00:25:50] God is that forgiving. God is that kind. [00:25:54] God is that powerful, and he will be glorified. You with me on this. [00:26:00] And that is his heart towards us today. And then Thomas does this awesome thing. He says this beautiful confession of faith. [00:26:10] My Lord and my God. [00:26:13] Now, if you read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you will not find a more powerful confession of faith than that one. [00:26:22] So here's Thomas, skeptic to this absolute model of what it means to understand who Jesus really is, from one extreme to the other. [00:26:36] My Lord and my God. [00:26:40] Now, both those phrases are so meaningful. But when he says, my Lord, here's what it means. Thomas was born as a Jewish man, and he knew the Old Testament, and he knew all about the promises and the hopes of what his people longed for and what the Old Testament promised. [00:27:03] And so when he says, my Lord, that is a shorthand way of connecting all those ideas together. And ultimately, what he's saying is, he's saying, wow, you are the one we've been waiting for. [00:27:17] You are the one we've been hoping for. You are the one we long for. [00:27:24] And here's the truth. Don't we all long for something deeper than we can find in this world? [00:27:34] Don't we long for a greater love, a greater hope, a greater purpose, a greater strength, a greater wisdom? All these things Thomas says, I realize these are all right before me, in you. [00:27:49] And you are my God. You are not just a great teacher. You are not just a wise man. You are. You are not just. You are God who has come. You are ultimate reality. And Thomas makes this beautiful confession, and John writes that because he wants us to see Christ that way today, too, he wants us to see that Christ is Lord, and he Is God that the one we've been looking for, the one that we've been searching for, whether we know it or not, not is Jesus Christ. And John said, when we see that there is the real blessing of life because Jesus is the light of all men Church. The truth is there's a lot of darkness in our hearts and in our lives. [00:28:43] You can't overcome it, I can't overcome it. But the light of Christ can. [00:28:49] He is the true light. [00:28:51] He is the true Lord. [00:28:55] There is no one you and I can trust to lead and guide our lives more than Him. [00:29:03] Other people will fail you. Things in this life will fail you. But he never will. [00:29:10] Because he is Lord. [00:29:12] He is the true lover of. Of our souls. [00:29:17] All of us. We long to be loved perfectly. [00:29:22] No one in this world can do it, but Christ can. [00:29:27] Even though we are messed up and not super lovable, sorry to break it to you. [00:29:35] He still loves us because he gave his life for. For our sins. He's a true lover of our souls. He is leader and he is life itself. [00:29:49] I think without him there is a haunting emptiness to this life, but with him there is fullness and meaning and purpose. I love this quote by Joseph Campbell. He's an author that writes a lot about narratives and stories and how they're structured and really interesting stuff. [00:30:08] But he says this. He says people say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. [00:30:16] I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think what we're seeking is an experience of being alive. [00:30:25] So that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being in reality. [00:30:33] So we actually feel the rapture of being alive. [00:30:37] Now, just to really put this very simply, what, what he's saying is. He's saying. [00:30:42] He's saying we feel dead, we feel hollow, we feel empty. And he said what, what we're really seeking is, is not meaning in life. He's like, that bar's too high. [00:30:54] We just want to feel alive. [00:30:57] We want to feel like there's something happening in us, that this all isn't random and meaningless and empty and hollow. [00:31:08] We long to feel a real sense of life. [00:31:12] Now, I find that so fascinating because that's what John is saying to us. [00:31:16] He's saying we are dead without Christ, but in him is life. [00:31:23] And what we all long for and what we need, he offers freely to us, no matter our struggles and doubts and stumbling. And we can receive that today. Let's pray. [00:31:43] Father, we do just acknowledge that you are the light of all people, that you are the resurrection and the life. [00:31:55] Father, we acknowledge that, we celebrate that and we want to experience and receive that today. [00:32:05] I pray, Lord, just in each of our hearts, we could follow Thomas example and we could say Jesus Christ is my Lord and my God. [00:32:19] I pray we could see that not with our physical eyes, but with eyes of faith. [00:32:30] I pray we could see your wounds and your love for us. [00:32:34] That your blood was spilled and your body was broken. [00:32:38] That he who knew no sin became sin so we would become the righteousness of God. [00:32:46] Help us to see that it wasn't us that loved you, but you first love loved us and gave yourself for us. And Father, would you bring that life that you promised into the very depths of our soul? [00:33:00] Where we are dead, will you make us alive? [00:33:03] Where we are lost, would you find us? [00:33:06] Where we are stumbling, Would you strengthen us? Where we have drifted, would you anchor us? [00:33:13] And would it all be to the glory and honor of Jesus Christ our Lord. In his name we pray. Amen.