Blessed To Believe The Risen Savior
Minister: |
Rev. Ronald Van Overloop |
Date: |
4/20/2014 AM
|
Text:
|
John 20:26-29
|
Psalters: |
269, 29, 30, 79 |
- Thomas’ confession.
- Thomas’ confession is the most obvious confession of the deity of Jesus of Nazareth.
- Some say Thomas used this blasphemy to express his surprise as a way to escape the force of this confession.
- Note that Jesus did not rebuke Thomas, but accepted it as an evidence of faith (“thou hast believed,” 29).
- This statement is a devout expression of holy wonder at the fact that Jesus was assuredly his Lord and his God.
- He realized that the man he had been following is assuredly God and it amazed him.
- While deeply humbled, there is also intense joy, that God would die for me and that he is “my” lord and God!
- And may this confession of faith express my willing submission to Him.
- How did Thomas come to this exclamatory confession?
- Thomas’ problem was his unwillingness to believe unless he could see and touch; it was not doubt.
- This desire to experience it with his senses made him to refuse to accept the testimony other his fellow-disciples.
- This testifies to the utter hopelessness Thomas and the other disciples were experiencing because of Jesus’ death.
- Suddenly Jesus appeared through locked doors.
- “Peace be unto you:” He came to bring peace to His troubled ones.
- He immediately singles out Thomas and repeats exactly what Thomas said – He is divine because He was always there!
- Jesus’ wounds manifest Jesus’ deity too – especially the sword pierce into His heart.
- Jesus then speaks of how we can believe and make this same confession.
- The conscious experiential knowledge of our salvation does not come because we see or touch Him physically.
- The Spirit of God was at work in Thomas and works in us giving heavenly illumination.
- Faith is a matter first of the heart, not of the mind nor of our experience.
- We cry, “My Lord and my God.”