John 20:19–31 | Anchored By Christ's Community

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Levi Stuckey

Crossroads Church - Napoleon

Easter | The Transformative Power of Belonging • Sermon • Submitted 23 days ago • Presented 23 days ago • 41:09

John 20:19–31

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Belonging to Christ and His community anchors and empowers us even in teh face of doubts of fears.

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Last week we saw the amazing story of how Jesus pursued Mary Magdalene. He conquered death and the grave to return her to joy and give her something to share with His community. Nothing else would return her to joy but Jesus and then after her Joy was returned, Jesus commanded her to share her joy with His community, which multiplied her joy personally and out to others as well!

Returning to Joy and sharing it within the context of Christian community transformed Mary and it can likewise transform you!

This is the transformative power of belonging to Christ and His Community!

And this morning, I want to continue in this Easter series by looking with you at another character in the gospel account of Jesus’ resurrection. We’ll be looking at the disciple known as Thomas, who has also been called Doubting Thomas from John 20:19-31, and here’s what we’re going to see from the text.

We’re going to see the transformative power of belonging to Christ and His community; we’re going to see that belonging to Christ and His community anchors and empowers us even in the face of doubts of fears because Christ’s Community is:

I. A Restorative Power (Verses 19–23)

II. A Safe Refuge (vv. 24-27a)

III. A Forge of Belief and Maturity (Verses 27b–31)

Again as we read through John 20 I want you to be on the look out for how you can see Christ’s Community as a restorative power int he lives of those who are His. Be on the look out for how you can see Christ’s community as a safe refuge for those struggling with fear and doubt, and be on the look out as well as to how you can see Christ’s community as a forge of belief and Christian maturity.

Got it? Alright sweet, let’s read John 20:19-31 together and then we’ll talk about it.

John 20:19–31 (NIV)

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though 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; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Alright, so firstly, Belonging to Christ and His community has a restorative, anchoring and empowering effect of the lives of those how are His!

Look at vv. 19-23.

And let’s enter the world of these folks for a minute.

You’ve just spent the last 3 years of your life following an up and coming would be revolutionary around your country. You left your entire life and family behind. I mean you gave up everything to follow this man, and it’s been an incredibly journey. You’ve been confused a lot of the time. Scared much of the time, but Jesus has always been with you. You’ve seen him heal the deaf and the blind. He’s multiplied food and cast out demons. He even silenced a storm that about to capsized your boat in the Sea of Galilee. The dude spoke to the wind and the waves, He commanded them to be silent and in the snap of a finger the waves and wind obeyed Him!

You’ve see Jesus’ power and His compassion. You saw Him flip tables at the temple and drive out the corrupt religious leaders with a whip. But You saw Him weep over Jerusalem and the death of His friend Lazarus. You’ve lived life with this guy. You’ve seen Him, experienced Him love you and challenge you but always with grace and compassion.

He is someone you don’t have to follow, He is someone you so desperately want to follow! He’s one of those leaders. There’s just something about Him. And as crazy of a ride as this has been, His presence has always reassured you. Again, you didn’t always know what was going on, but you knew Jesus did and that He had the power to keep you safe and keep you on the right path forward, but now, Jesus. Jesus is dead.

The man, the God, the messiah you thought was invisible. He was killed like every other would be revolutionary and charismatic leader before Him. He fell like any other.

Now I don’t have to ask you to imagine what this would’ve felt like because we’ve all experienced it in our own lives haven’t we? These folks in our story have lost their peace. They’ve lost their joy, their reason to hope and get out of bed in the morning. They are anxious. They are confused. They are feeling weak, hopeless, abandoned, and afraid.

They are afraid, we’re told in the text, they’re afraid of the religious leaders and context of the larger story would tell us their afraid of the politicians and rulers of Rome as well. Which again, we can relate. Who in here hasn’t been unnerved by the state and direction of things in our Country as well as the currently and potential political leaders?

These folks are afraid for their lives, for their futures and the futures of their families. So they are in a hideout with the door locked.

As I said, our situations are not theirs exactly, but we’ve all been to a hideout before like these men and women haven’t we? Ours aren’t so much locked rooms as they are escapes — to food, alcohol, social media, technology, video games, tv, sports, hobbies. You name it. When we’re afraid and fearful, when we face anxiety, our gut reaction is to find a hideout, to lock ourselves away somewhere and find an escape!

We’ve been afraid, anxious, fearful of the future for any number of reasons: a diagnosis, hopes dashed, a death, a sudden loss of income or a catastrophic event. Life happens. We’ve all experienced a loss of peace, feelings of fear and the utter weakness that cripples us when the problems presented before us are so insanely large they make us feel incredibly weak and small.

This is where these disciples are Church, Life has happened and now they are hunkering down and hiding out. They aren’t courageous. They’re confused and afraid. They aren’t joy-filled, they are anxious and devoid of peace. They have no idea, no assurance that everything is going to be ok, that’s what a lack of peace is. We have no reassurance that everything is going to be ok.

This is all true, but they are together and that’s not nothing.

It’s not nothing. And again, I think you know this.

The distinction between experiencing trauma and being traumatized lies in whether one feels alone during the traumatic event.

Right, we’ve all experienced this. Some events in our past have left us traumatized, emotionally disabled on some level and unable to cope in the present because the pain of the past is still to raw and real. We’ve been traumatized because we felt alone and abandoned in the event. But others of us have gone through similar traumatic events and come through them without being paralyzed or disabled by them. We aren’t completely unscathed but we’re able to cope and live emotionally healthy lives and this is usually because we didn’t walk through that trauma alone!

So I want you to see here, that even though they are facing down trauma, they aren’t doing it alone and that is half the battle, but it’s not enough. It’s not completely useless. There is power in community. This is why groups like AA can have some measure of success, but these groups pail in comparison to gospel based, Jesus charged community!

Why is that, well because when Jesus shows up, He brings with Him the supernatural power of the resurrection which is able to focus a community in a manner that brings true and lasting healing, redemptive focus and eternal purpose!

Just look at the difference in the text. These folks are eking out an existence together there in that room. No one is suicidal or in a depressed heap in their bed. At least they are together. But as much as their togetherness is given them some strength to move forward, no one would say they are thriving. Until Jesus shows up!

And here’s what I want you to see Church, Christ’s in His community has restoration power!

These people are afraid and Jesus meets with them as a community! And when He shows up He takes their fear and returns them to Joy! He takes their anxiety and reassures them with His Peace! He takes their weakness and injects them with courage and a renewed sense of mission by commissioning them and empowering them with His Spirit!

Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

And there may be some in here thinking, well ok, but I don’t need to be in community to meet with Jesus. Listen I hear that. And there is some truth in it. Jesus gives us access to the throne room of God always and forever, that is true, but don’t you think it’s striking that Jesus came not to individuals but to the community?

If you’re not convinced look at the next part. Thomas we’re told isn’t in this group and so He doesn’t see the risen Christ.

Now, we’ve seen that Jesus can show up wherever and whenever he so desires. They are in a locked room, folks. I read this to my boys the other night and I asked them how you get into a room that’s locked without a key or opening the door… answer… Ninja Jesus? Yes, Ninja Jesus! Or rather, Spirit Jesus! Jesus can go where he pleases, but it’s super striking that when Thomas, the doubter comes back to the community, He still hasn’t met the risen Christ? He’s still doubting? Why? Is it that Jesus doesn’t love Thomas? Is it that Jesus can’t find Thomas or that He’s punishing Him or that He doesn’t want to talk to or see Thomas?

It can’t be anyone one of those things because Jesus does seek out Thomas. We’re about to read it again. And when Jesus seeks out Thomas, He does so with love and compassion! He’s glad to see Thomas, but it strikes me and I think it should strike you that Jesus chooses to meet with Thomas in the context of Community!

Church, God cares about all of us equally! And He chooses to use you and me and all of us to sharpen and grow one another! He wants to grow a community, a Kingdom, not just an individual! Individuals make up God’s Kingdom to be sure, but God has His sights set on a community and so He chooses to primarily and powerfully make Himself known within the context of community and not through individual encounters.

Here’s what this means, we should take excluding someone from our fellowship very very seriously! There are reasons to do so, which I don’t have time to get into all those this morning. That’s for another sermon, but doubt is not one of them!

Thomas is not convinced about Jesus, but He still finds safety, refuge and security in Christ’s Community! The folks in that room, they knew where Thomas is at. They aren’t where He’s at, I’m sure they aren’t thrilled with where Thomas is at in his doubt and unbelief, but they still make room for Thomas and his unbelief and doubt!

They treat Thomas’ weakness with gentleness and love!

Do we? Do we do this in our community? Each and everyone of us have weakness. Some of us are weak in faith. Others are weak in obedience. Others still are weak in service and generosity. Some of us are weak in character. We don’t look like, think like, or act like Jesus. Some of us don’t even know if we believe any of this stuff? We’ve got a group of weak people here Church and here’s what I want you to hear me say: God means for us to be a safe refuge for the weak!

This does not mean we alter what we call sin. No we call a spade a spade, but we do it with gentleness and compassion not with condemnation!

If Jesus can treat Thomas the way He does in this story, then I believe He calls us to do likewise. We also need to treat weakness with gentleness and compassion. Say it with me: We are a people who treat weakness with gentleness and love!

Why? Because not only is Christ’s community a restorative power it is also a safe refuge for weak people!

But hear this. While we treat weakness with gentleness and love, we don’t celebrate weakness here!? We don’t celebrate cowardice or shy away from challenge, no we want to look like, to live like, to be more like Jesus and so that means we also must accept that Christ’s Community is a forge of belief and maturity!

Look at what Jesus does!

He reminds Thomas of who his is. Thomas you are not a doubter, you are child of belief! Come here, see my hands. Put your hands in my spear pierced side. Stop doubting and believe!

Have you all ever seen that show, forged in fire? It’s a reality TV show about knife and sword making. I think it’s a sweet show. I’ve never made a sword, but I think it’d be super cool to do so some day.

If you haven’t seen the show, it doesn’t matter, I mean other than you’re missing out on great television…you’re loss. It doesn’t matter if you haven’t seen the show, here’s what I want you to know, forging steel into a weapon is a painful process. The metal workers heat up the steal to crazy, glowing hot temperatures and then pound the snot out of it with a hammer.

Anyone who has ever said that proverb about ironing sharpening iron should have to forge some iron and some point in their lives.

This work is not for the cowardly and neither is the Community of Jesus!

While Christ community is a safe refuge for the weak, right we are going to treat weakness like Jesus does, with grace and love, but we are not going to be content ever leave anyone in their weakness or immaturity. No we will offer healthy correction to one another! Healthy and gracious candor. We will speak the truth in love, which will be challenging at times to hear!

Unbelief is not an acceptable way of life Thomas! Stop doubting and believe Thomas!

And know that if you do, you will be blessed!

This is what love looks like Church. I’m so tired of what our culture calls love! It’s garbage!

They say love is letting people do and be whatever they want to do or be with no care for how that might affect their lives!

How does this make any sense? How is this loving Church?

My 2 year old daughter thinks the red glowing thing on top of the oven is pretty, that it would be fun to play with, our culture says, well if that’s what she wants then love your daughter, let her play with the glowing hot burner. It’s her heart’s desire and her heart knows what it wants best. So let her follow her heart! If you don’t let her follow her heart, you don’t love her!

Church this is not love, it’s abuse. This is what hate looks like, not love!

Christ community is a safe place for the weak, but it’s also a forge where belief and maturity is formed. We love people enough to pull them up and into Christ, which is challenging at times, but oh is it so life giving and transforming as well!

Hear me, Church, Christ’s community is a restorative power. If you lost hope, joy, peace, rest, Jesus and His community can restore those things to your life! The Community can remind you that you’re not a lone and helpfully point you to Jesus, who regularly and primarily chooses to make Himself the most known within the context of His community! It’s a safe refuge for the weak and it’s a forge of belief and maturity.

So join us! Come and find a place to belong here!

And know that when you do, you will be treated, even as weak as you are with gentleness and compassion because that is the kind of people we are. Just like Jesus, we accept people where they are and treat their weakness with gentleness and compassion, but again just like Jesus, we love you too much to let you stay there in your weakness!

We as a community will be ruggedly committed to be with you and for you unto Christ-likeness which means we’re going to lovingly correct you another along this journey, just like Jesus lovingly corrected Thomas.

And know that blessing will come into your life if you belong to a community like this. Belief will be forged as will Christ-likeness and maturity!

Belonging to Christ and His community will anchor you in faith and empower you to thrive even in the face of fear and doubt.

Thank you Jesus for dying and rising to make such a community! Help us live well within it!