Sermon Tone Analysis

*THE APOSTLE THOMAS:  FAILURE OR EXAMPLE?*

*John 20:19-31*

Most of us would consider it an insult to be compared with the disciple known as Thomas.

Often times we look at Thomas and see little more that a failure.

The truth be told, we know little about him.

But we are familiar enough to know that he was the man who doubted that Jesus arose from the dead.

In fact, we seldom refer to him as the Apostle Thomas.

Instead we have long since renamed him.

We have given him a new first name.

We call him “Doubting,” "Doubting Thomas."

Some how this morning I want us to overcome our negative impressions about Thomas and allow ourselves to walk in his shoes.

I want us to see in him some positive qualities that will help us to be better disciples of our Lord.

Actually, the Bible gives us very little information about Thomas.

In the first three Gospels, Matthew, Mark and Luke, all we know about Thomas is that his name is listed among the twelve disciples.

That’s it!

Everything else we know about Thomas is found in the Gospel of John.

Even in John’s gospel he is mentioned only three times.

The first time we meet Thomas is in John chapter 11.

In this episode, word came to Jesus that his friend Lazarus was very sick.

Out of desperation, Mary and Martha sent word to Jesus hoping he would come and heal their brother.

The sisters reminded Jesus of how much he loved Lazarus.

Instead of dropping everything and going to him, Jesus continued his ministry.

Then a few days later, clear out of left field, Jesus told his disciples that Lazarus was dead and that he was returning to Judea to see him.

When the disciples heard this, they became visibly upset.

They are troubled not because Lazarus was dead.

Instead, they remind Jesus in no uncertain terms, "Lord, don’t you remember the last time you were in Judea?

The Jews tried to kill you!

They wanted to stone you!

If you go back, they may very well succeed."

The disciples tried to stop him, fearing for his life and we might add, “Their own.”

It is important for us to notice here, that at no time did Jesus force the disciples to go with him.

There were no demands made.

In fact, Jesus did not even ask them to go.

At any point along the way the disciples could have spoken up and have refused to go.

They could have said, “Hey, this man has a death wish” and have left him.

It was precisely at that moment that we meet Thomas.

Fully realizing the danger of returning to Judea, Thomas spoke up and said to the other disciples, "Let us also go, that we may die with him."

The New Living Translation expresses it this way, “Let’s go, too—and die with Jesus.”

What a statement!

What an affirmation of faith!

It was clearly an expression of love for Jesus.

In essence, he was saying, "If the people take up stones and kill Jesus, let us die with him.

If he is cast into prison, let us go to prison also."

These are powerful words; words that should cause us to remember something that Jesus said on another occasion:

/Greater love has no man than this, that a man lay down his life for a friend./

We see that Thomas loved Jesus so much that he was willing to die right along beside him.

This statement took great courage of the part of Thomas.

Instead of calling Thomas the Doubter, we should call him Thomas the Risk Taker.

No one had to spell it out for Thomas.

He realized that if he went to Judea with Jesus, there was a high probability that he would die also.

Humanly speaking, it would be impossible for 13 men to stand against an angry mob armed with stones.

But Thomas was willing to take the risk.

Why?

Because he loved Jesus with all his heart.

If we love Jesus, we to are called to be risk takers.

Think about it, following Jesus involves a certain amount of risk.

It is a risky thing to get up out of our pew and walk down this aisle and say before God and everyone else, “I am a sinner.

I am sorry for the things I have done wrong.

I am accepting Jesus as my Lord and Savior.”

There is risk involved in committing yourself to be a member of a local church.

It requires a great deal of risk to turn your income over to God and give 10% of it to the church.

It is a risky matter to tell a colleague or friend about Jesus.

One never knows if he or she might be labeled, “holy” or “religious.”

It is a risky endeavor indeed to commit yourself as a church to grow.

It may require doing things differently and occasionally being friendly with a stranger.

Risk!

Thomas, was a risk taker!

If we truly love Jesus and he is number one in our life, we will be willing to take risks!

Think of all the men and women throughout Christiandon who have been willing to take a risk.

There was Moses who stood up before the greatest military force in the world and lead the Israelites out of Egypt.

Then there was David a young shepherd boy who took a risk and faced the mighty warrior Goliath on the battlefield with nothing but a sling and a faith in God.

It was a risky matter for an uneducated fisherman named Peter to stand up on the day of Pentecost before a massive crowd and deliver his first sermon.

It involved risk for Paul to preach to the Roman Emperor, for Martin Luther to nail a copy of his complaints on the church door, for John Wesley to ordain lay people to be preachers in America, for Dietrich Bonheoffer to call Adolf Hitler’s Germany sinful.

It took risk for Mother Teresa to devote her life to the leper colonies.

No church or individual Christian will grow unless we are willing to take a risk.

Thomas is an example of one who took a risk.

The next time we see Thomas is on the night of the Last Supper.

It was the night when Jesus broke bread and blessed the cup and gave it to his disciples in remembrance of himself.

This was to be a long terrible night with moments of pain and anguish eventually leading to the cross.

Being Just hours before his death, Jesus longed to share some special insights with his disciples.

We find these beautiful words recorded in the fourteenth chapter of John.

By now you recognize them:

/ “Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me. 2 In My Father’s house are many mansions; if it were not so, I would have told you.

I go to prepare a place for you. 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself; that where I am, there you may be also.

4 And where I go you know, and the way you know.”

/

 

It was at that moment we hear from Thomas.

He breaks into the conversation, not to be rude, but to ask a question.

He asked, "Lord, we do not know where you are going, so how can we know the way'?"

This tells us a great deal about Thomas.

One popular television aid says, "Inquiring minds want to know."

Thomas was not only a risk taker he was Thomas, the Inquirer.

He was not a man who considered himself to have all the answers.

Instead, he was an individual who wanted to know more.

He wanted to understand what Jesus was talking about.

We need more Christians who are longing to know more about Jesus and his word.

Far to many of us are satisfied with knowing Jesus on a superficial level.

This wasn't good enough for Thomas.

He wanted to know more.

I grew up on a hymn by Eliza Hewitt that went like this:

/More about Jesus would I know,/