Thomas, the Honest Doubter
Study Scripture: John 11:14 – 16; John 14: 5 – 8; 20:24 – 29; 21:1 – 2 Background Scripture: John 11:14 – 16; John 14: 5 – 8; 20:24 – 29; John 21
Lesson #9 August 1, 2026
Key Verse
Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing.
John 20:27
INTRODUCTION
Our Study Lesson today begins with a setting in the Gospel of John which points to God who can be seen through the eye of faith.
It is a precursor to the account of Jesus’ death and resurrection and the pessimism of one particular disciple named Thomas who speaks for the other disciples when Jesus determines to face the hostility of the scribes and Pharisees and rulers of the nation and the tragedy of the death of his good friend Lazarus.
Jesus will use the occasion to highlight the glory of God and show God’s majesty to the disciples.
We should note however that the glory of God is going to be so overwhelming that the disciples and the other human beings around Jesus will find it too much for them to bear when Jesus displayed God’s ability to overcome death.
It is important therefore that we note what the pessimism of Thomas the Disciple means for he determines along with the other disciples that when Jesus is going to where Lazarus is it meant He would be confronting the Jewish leaders that recently tried to stone Him in Jerusalem (Chapter 10:33-39).
And despite Jesus’ escape from them then the disciples did not want Jesus to be exposed to danger again for they loved Him and they seemed to have understood that what would happen to Jesus would be linked to what would happen to them for if the Jewish leaders killed Jesus His fledgling movement would die with Him for the Jewish leaders would come after the disciples next.
Jesus therefore would have to teach the disciples that the time of light, and Jesus was insisting that He was the light, was limited and they should not insist on walking in darkness throughout their lives for then they would stumble.
This introduction of the representation of the disciple Thomas who now appears for the first time in the Gospels in an active way is extremely significant for it introduces Jesus to teach the disciples who He really is.
He introduces therefore the concept of light for He is the light and so the disciples can no more properly understand what His ministry was all about.
We are therefore introduced to the idea of the loyalty of the disciples, and their courage in the face of fear. It tells us that the disciples like us were men of flesh and blood and so we can learn from their reaction to the plan of Jesus about what we will encounter when we follow the Lord Jesus Christ.
When Thomas again appears before us in the Upper Room we see the level of his misunderstanding of who Jesus was. What we will also see is admission of ignorance and because of that we see Jesus revealing some major doctrinal matters and divine reasoning.
Jesus will point out in response to Thomas’s interjections that if they saw Him they saw the Father. He is the pathway to the Father in heaven and His blessings. This belief will quell the troubled hearts, and therefore this is a powerful lesson for us to learn when we understand that Jesus is one with the Father, and when we see Him we are seeing the Father.
In our next encounter with Thomas we will see Jesus appearing after His resurrection from the dead and revealing some things about what it meant for Jesus to be alive again and the fact that His body is going to be glorified.
We might approach Thomas thinking that he is “doubting Thomas”, but we should not let that view of him blind us to the fact that people then sometimes recognize Jesus immediately and sometimes they did not.
So when Jesus entered a room where the disciples were hiding in terror even when the door was locked this led to an important teaching about Jesus for us when He responds to Thomas.
Clearly we learn that Jesus remains the same but He is different as a result of having been killed and brought back to life. The change in Jesus is most significant for us in our present life and in our future life.
The disciples then in contrast to the changes in Jesus remained the same essentially. But they too became different as a result of encountering Jesus who had been raised from the dead.
This of course is a significant lesson for us. Thomas’s encounter is therefore important for us to note.
Jesus’ reaction to Thomas will of course show us that even in His glorified body the wounds of crucifixion remain visible in His hands and feet and side. Our Lord appears that way in heaven in His glorified body and that is significant.
We learn about these things because of Thomas.
Of course we also learned that when Jesus appeared in that locked room with the disciples and Thomas He tells them Peace be with you for Jesus will have to deal with their startled reaction to His appearance. But note that He does not at the same time condemn them or even rebuke them. It is important for Him to to dissolve their fears and heal their griefs.
What a powerful message this conveys to us when we come to Him knowing what we have done to Him in our past life, and in our disquiet He brings us peace. And with this peace He does solve our fears and heals our griefs.
So what can we say about Thomas?
His personality and his reactions in fear and in doubting leads us to learn magnificent lessons from Jesus. So one writer therefore states for our benefit,
“Jesus does not ignore the past, but graciously moves beyond it. The disciples are forgiven for their failure. This forgiveness sets their distraught hearts at rest. That is his gift of peace.
This is no quiescent peace; it is a peace that make action possible, and so Jesus issues a command: “As the Father has sent me, even so I send you”.
Thomas’s confession therefore is one of the boldest confessions of faith in the entire Scripture. He sets a marvellous example for us.
We are therefore looking at honest doubt and honest faith. It is important therefore for us to see how Thomas came to believe in the risen Christ and so we should not dismiss him as a doubter and simply call him “Doubting Thomas” and leave it at that.
This matter of doubting can make us give people a label which is an unfair one for we remember Thomas moving from as one writer states
“Discouragement, disbelief, a wounded heart, and an outcry against the other disciples to a confession of faith in the living Jesus, My Lord and my God”—that remains unexcelled throughout the entire New Testament”.
So as we study this Lesson let us look a little bit more closely at this matter of belief and how it can be marred by fear, a closed attitude of mind, a lack of trust, probably some laziness and very likely some ingratitude.
This kind of belief can be toxic. Remember that this kind of toxic belief is common in the modern world even among Christians or otherwise professing people who say they are Christians.
All humans have doubt and sometimes this doubt is less than honest doubt for it to can be marred by fear, a closed attitude of mind, a lack of trust, some pride, some laziness, and likely some ingratitude.
When we look around us even among professing believers we do not have to look far to find dishonest doubt explained of course and covered up by what they consider to be a reasoning attitude.
But let us not forget that there can be honest doubt for people sometimes want to believe, what mightily with hard questions for they have hard circumstances that they face.
These people will not accept belief that will not allow them to deal with the troubles of the world for sometimes the doubter has been hurt badly and they experience the reality of terrible pain.
So we should not expect the honest doubters that we meet to refuse answers that are too easy, especially if they do not think that these answers that we give them recognize the any of the questions that they face.
Some honest doubters will hesitate to believe easily for they have this unwillingness to commit too easily.
It is therefore pointed out by many writers and thinkers that we should be careful to recognize that the honest doubter is not a closed person and even their doubt can be doubted for the doubter remains open to believe.
The honest doubter can move from honest doubt to honest faith. This person will be called by God to remain open to receiving the gift of faith.
So note it is important to recognize that all of us human beings are on the same road and we sometimes can be close- minded doubters and we can also be close- minded believers.
Jesus wants us to move forward even if the times do not appear to be convenient.
So note that Thomas moves forward when it was the right time for him to do so, and that time was 8 days after the other disciples see the risen Lord.
At that, time Thomas is present and Jesus graciously invites Thomas to satisfy his need for proof to examine the glorious scars and believe.
All of these ideas have been pointed out to us in the past and so we should never forget that just as Thomas moved ahead from doubt, from honest doubt to honest faith, we can do the same, for the once crucified and once dead friend of ours is also our Lord and our God just as Jesus was to Thomas his Lord and his God.
As we Study let us also remember that there are different circumstances which affect all others as they move ahead in faith. They have their reasons which are different sometimes from ours. Remember that Mary Magdalene believed when the risen Lord spoke her name. That was sufficient for her. That was reason enough for her to move from doubt to faith.
On the other hand the disciples that were assembled and saw Jesus believed because they saw Jesus alive. But note that they did not see or ask to see the wounds of Jesus.
So note people are all different in the reasons that allow them to move ahead in faith and away from those doubts. So one writer wisely comments and we should never forget this,
“What’s required for us to move ahead, we see who do not see Jesus as any of them did, yet believed, or at least want to believe? We might be motivated by the wondrous complexity and beauty of creation, the of other Christians, or an event in life that indicates God is at work. Any of these can lead us from honest doubt to honest faith.
Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed”.
These blessed ones have come to belief.
Jesus does not require perfect faith from the start.
What he asks for is an open heart, one not closed to belief, but not closed by belief either. He asks for this open heart so he can lead us, and keep leading us, from honest doubt to honest faith”.
Let us therefore remember that the wounds of Jesus identify Jesus as the Lord.
The disciples knew Jesus before when He was still alive among them. But now they saw Him and recognized that Jesus was not “some insubstantial spirit or spectre, some hallucination or memory”.
The disciples and Thomas saw Jesus as a real person of flesh and blood who was aware of who He was, aware of His surroundings, able to touch others, and to be touched by them. They knew that He was the Messiah who had come back to life.
So Jesus wants us to see that His wounds are there for us. So what does the words of Thomas and his experience want us to know? I have to repeat the words of one scholar and maybe this will teach us that there are many believers that have thought about Thomas and what he did and what his words and his doubting has meant for us. So we state the words of this writer:
“The wounds tell a story: how the heavy hammer blows cut holes into his hands, how the sharp Roman lance tore through his skin and side, how he caught his wind for what seemed the final time, and the dark curtain of death fell upon him.
These wounds, which once emptied out his life, now no longer gape or bleed. They do not require bandages or the embalming power of spices.
Though still the scars remain, his hands and side are healed, and the old wounds now glow with glory, cause of joy to his disciples.
These wounds are there for his first disciples.
These wounds remain for us.
When Jesus ascends to prepare a place for his people, he goes as a man whose body still bears the marks of execution.
Now he reigns in glory but still his wounds remain.
And, when he comes to judge the human race, we will see again those wounds upon his body. They will tell of abundant mercy. They will reveal our judge as one who chose to die for us.
Yet the wounds of Jesus as a permanent feature of his flesh leave me bothered and bewildered! It seems God should respect the standards we humans so often set, standards of on solid appearance, rather than carry through all ages scars on hands and feet and side.
We humans long for what is clean and flawless. We expect the same from God.
But the God of the Gospels does not sit around eternally self-satisfied, always picture perfect. No, this God reaches out to us, always reaches out, and in Jesus even undergoes our death that we may share his life.
This God chooses to bear forever the disfigurement of nails and spear. This God sacrifices stainless perfection for our flesh and blood fulfillment”
So as we study this study lesson let us understand clearly what the doubts of Thomas has given to us.
THE TEXT
John 11:14 – 16
In this section of Scripture we note that Lazarus is dead. It is important therefore to read the section of the Text in its entirety:
7.“Then after this He said to the disciples, “ Let us go into Judea again”.
8. The disciples told him, “Rabbi, the Jews were just trying to stone you, and you are going there again?
9. Jesus answered, “Aren’t there twelve hours of daylight? If a man walks in the day, he doesn’t stumble because he sees the light of this world.
10. But if a man walks in the night, he stumbles, because the light isn’t in him.
11.He said these things, and asked that he said to them, “ our friend Lazarus, has fallen asleep, (Greek: kekoimetai) but I am going so that I may lay awake ( Greek: exupniso) him out of sleep”.
12. The disciples therefore said, “Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover ( Greek sothesetai.)
13.Now Jesus had spoken of his death, but they thought that he spoke of taking rest in sleep.
14 So Jesus said to them plainly then, “Lazarus is dead.
15. I am glad for your sakes that I was not there so that you may believe. Nevertheless, let’s go to him”.
16. Thomas therefore, who is called Didymus, ( Greek: Didumos) said to his fellow disciples, “ let us go also, that we may die with him”.
Note that the disciples were confused when Jesus told them that Lazarus was asleep, for they thought that Jesus was saying that Lazarus was simply sleeping rather than being actually dead.
What is interesting for us however is that Jesus will now say in Verse 14-15 that He is glad that He was not there and Lazarus had died because of that, for now what will happen would lead to their belief in Him.
So Jesus is going is to call the disciples to believe at a much deeper level than the belief that they had, and so He wants them to go with Him to Lazarus because of a personal reason.
Verse 16. We know that Thomas is a doubter, but in this first mention of Thomas in this Gospel, we learned that Thomas is a human being just like us, and he has his doubts as well as his fears, but he also has his loyalty to the Lord Jesus Christ his Rabbi.
He is undoubtedly a man of great loyalty to Jesus for he knew that the rulers in Jerusalem had tried to kill Jesus. They knew that the village of Bethany where Mary, her sister Martha, and Lazarus lived was only 2 miles or 3 km from Jerusalem so the rulers of Israel with murder in their hearts were quite close to where Jesus was going.
They tried to kill Jesus before and they certainly would not hesitate to try again. So when Jesus insisted on going to Bethany Thomas was afraid that Jesus would be killed. We know for sure that the other disciples felt the same way as Thomas.
We can give the disciple Thomas low marks for faith but as one writer says we have to give him a high mark for courage.
So, what about you? Do you have low marks for faith, but a high mark for courage? Or, are you missing somewhat in both areas.
Think about it!
Remember that Jesus is leading you both to have strong faith and to have strong courage.
The case of Thomas stands out as an example for us.
John 14:5 – 8
In this section of the Text we now see Jesus in the Upper Room for a Passover meal and the disciples are aware of the great conflict Jesus had with the Jewish authorities and the danger for Jesus and for them.
Jesus had foretold the betrayal and sent Judas out into the night to do His treachery. But note that before this Jesus had referred to His death speaking of His death as His glorification. He had commanded the disciples to love one another.
The situation was grim and the atmosphere around Jesus was dark but the disciples did not seem to be believing in the exciting future that they had faced because of their relationship with Him.
So in this situation in the Upper Room Jesus in this situation after the Passover Supper began by washing His disciples’ feet to model the kind of servant ministry that He had had around them.
Jesus knew the circumstances and He made sure that He told the disciples they are not to worry about His betrayal and coming death saying,
“Don’t let your hearts be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me”.
Jesus, note this, is focusing not on His own troubles but instead spent His time comforting His disciples and counselling them that when disaster came faith in Him would sustain them.
Jesus then assured them of their glorious future, saying
“In my Father’s house are many homes”
If it weren’t so. I would have told you. I am going to prepare a place for you.
If I go, and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will receive you to myself; that where I am, you may be there also”
These statements by Jesus triggered great emotions in the disciples and so when Jesus says, “Where I go, you know, and you know the way” that immediately excited Thomas who stood up for the disciples (note that Peter said nothing at that time) and Thomas responded,
“ Thomas said to him,”, Lord we don’t know where you are going. How can we know the way? And this brought the magnificent, thoughtful, and most instructive response which is of great benefit to us,
“ Jesus said to him, I am the way,, the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father, except through me.
If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you know him, and have seen him”.
We should note that what Jesus is saying is only clear to us in retrospect because we are now looking at past events from the future.
We cannot therefore blame the disciples and Thomas for failing to understand that because Jesus would die on the Cross, the way would be opened by which He would return to the Father, and that given this way of the cross Jesus would be glorified.
Verse 5. You can say whatever you want about Thomas but you have to admire the question that he posed to Jesus. We know since we are in the future that after the resurrection Thomas would not believe when others told him they had seen the risen Christ and that then he would be bold enough to tell them that he did not believe what they were telling him.
Here he is pointing out his misunderstanding and admitting his ignorance, but this ignorance is going to lead us to a great series of doctrines.
He does not understand the way and he is brave enough to ask Jesus to clarify. Thomas risks embarrassment in his pursuit of understanding.
We should not be afraid of asking the Holy Spirit to clarify things for us. We have the example of Thomas. Do not risk embarrassment if you are pursuing understanding of the ways of God.
Verse 6. So Jesus responds to Thomas,
“ I am the way, the truth, and the life”.
This is one of the great “I am” statements in this Gospel. Let us remember that “I am” is God’s name according to Exodus 3: 14.
This is the teaching of the exclusive nature of salvation, for we are told clearly that the way of salvation is only through the Lord Jesus Christ and through no one else. You cannot be saved by any other way whether it is belief in another person, another religion, another cult teaching, or through any other ritual. All these things proliferate today, and they are false and will only lead you to destruction and the Lake of Fire.
So let us be clear about this/
Jesus is “the way”. If you take direction from any other person you are going to get lost. So note that Jesus is quite clear and does not simply point us to the Father, but He points us to Himself as the pathway to the Father.
Note also clearly that Jesus is “the truth”.
He has the truth that sets you free and He came into the flesh to lead you into the hands of the Spirit of truth.
Jesus is therefore the total opposite to the devil and Jesus warns us, “there is no truth in him” as is states in 8:44.
The warning is quite clear. If you choose to believe in what you call “the truth” and if this belief is outside of the truth in Jesus Christ you are choosing to believe a lie. You will have nobody apart from yourself to blame because of the consequences of your choice.
It might be difficult for you to believe in the truth in the Lord Jesus Christ but we are told clearly in Scripture that if you come to the Lord God for help He will help you. He will never turn you away.
The Lord of the universe who created you and the earth and has all power in His hands is the only real help you can ever have. All other sources of help are fakes.
Now notice the other important fact that Jesus stated. Jesus tells you plainly that He is “the life”.
It is not therefore just believing in the Torah or in the Bible as the book of life.
Jesus is insisting that in Him is life saving faith and practice. He is the life giver.
He came to earth as as a human being so that all who hear and come to Him will have life and may have it abundantly. This is made clear in John 10:10.
Life therefore is a relationship so Jesus will tell you this in John 17:3
“This is eternal life, that they should know you, the only true God and him whom you sent, Jesus Christ”.
We advise you therefore to speak to Christians who have followed Christ and who have proven these words to be truth for Jesus delivers us from false hopes, terrible sins, addictions, bad practices and habits that we don’t seem to be able to go away from.
Jesus is the only one and coming to Him is the only way to have grace conveyed to you. There is no other person that can give you grace. If you therefore refuse the grace that Jesus the Son of God offers, you have refused the only grace that you can have.
Jesus is the only channel of blessing and He will give blessing to you in agreement with the will of the Father.
Do not believe anyone that tells you that any human being alive or dead has the of grace.
Verse 7. The DISCIPLES had been following Jesus for some time and they know Him to a certain extent. But let us remember that it’s only after the resurrection that they will truly know Jesus. After the resurrection their knowledge of Jesus will help them to understand who Jesus is and who the Father is to a much greater level.
We recall that even the brothers of Jesus did not believe in Him and only did that after the resurrection. The conversation that Jesus had with James the writer of the Epistle must have been quite a meeting. But after that meeting Jesus had with him and with his brother Jude they both came to believe in Jesus as the Saviour and the Messiah.
We will assume that all the siblings of Jesus also shared into the belief of James and Jude the brothers of Jesus.
So the resurrection brought a deeper meaning and after that the disciples began to truly know Jesus and through Him the Father.
The doctrine of the resurrection is therefore crucial in understanding Christianity.
If anyone believes that Jesus is not the Saviour and Redeemer and that He did not die on the Cross to bear your sins, and then ascended to heaven to be at the right hand of the Father, you know that those with that knowledge is false.
Verse 8. Quite interestingly the apostle Philip now puts in his little piece,
“ Philip said to him, “Lord, show us the Father and that will be enough for us”.
So now Jesus had to turn to this other disciple. Jesus had to straighten him out after Thomas led the disciples to seek the truth from Jesus,
“ Jesus said to him, “ have I been with you such a long time, and do you do not know me, Philip?
He who has seen me has seen the Father. How do you say “Show me the Father?
Don’t you believe that I am in the Father, and the Father in me? The words that I tell you, I speak not from myself; but the Father who lives in me does his works”.
These are magnificent statements of doctrine. To understand this somewhat we must remember that Jesus told us that no one has seen God at any time and the only begotten Son who is in the bosom of the Father hath declared him. John 1:18
But let us not fool ourselves to believe that we understand all that there is to know about the person of Jesus Christ and the person of God the Father and the relationship between the Lord Jesus Christ and God the Father. The mystery of the Trinity still exists.
What we do know is that when we are in the Lord Jesus Christ we also are in the Father with Him. We need no greater reassurance than that.
We are reminded of the song which tells us that when the mist has rolled away we will know more and we will spend eternity knowing more and more about the Lord Jesus Christ God the Father, and the Holy Spirit.
John 20: 24 – 29
So let us know look with honesty at real life. The disciples knew that surviving the death of Jesus would be difficult. They knew that they have been wounded. But many of them had seen the Lord
Jesus Christ in His resurrected body and they had reached a certain level of belief. But not Thomas
Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene and she had testified about that appearance to the disciples. Jesus had also appeared to the disciples when Thomas was absent and Jesus had declared Peace to them and told them that the Father had sent Him and that He would also send them.
Jesus had breathed on them and told them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained”
Verses 24-27. For some reason Thomas was not there with the other disciples when they heard the testimony of those that had seen the resurrected Christ or had seen Jesus as the other disciples had done. His wounds were still open and so his response was that he would believe it when he saw it.
Thomas went so far as saying that unless he looked at the hands of Jesus and saw the print of the nails in His hand and put his finger into the print of the nails and his hand into the hole in His sides he would not believe.
This sound like us, doesn’t it!
What more do you want God to do to you with all your struggles and difficulties?
You know, Abraham said to the rich man in that story about the rich man and Lazarus. Even if Lazarus was able to go and warn your brothers about what was going on for those outside the bosom of Abraham, they would not believe. If they did not believe Moses and the prophets they would not believe Lazarus even if he came from the dead and went to warn them.
Disbelief is a horrible thing. You had better be careful.
Trust and obey. That is all you should do.
If you choose to trust in yourself and in the false ideas floating around in this world, believing that you have the ability to make the right choice on your own you will go the same way as Dives did.
But do not forget that the Lord Jesus Christ was there with Thomas (as Jesus is always with us anyway) and He knew what was in Thomas’s mind and He heard the words of Thomas. Jesus was invisible to Thomas but Jesus bided His time to reveal the truth to Thomas
So here we face honest doubt and honest faith.
Thomas is now discouraged, wounded, and in disbelief. But his mind is not closed and this doubter remains open to belief and will move from honest doubt to honest faith.
Verses 28-29. A week has passed. Thomas is still shaking in unbelief. The other disciples, those who had seen Jesus were still huddled together in fear behind locked doors. But this time Thomas is with them and he was feeling that it is a pity about what they had told him, but their testimony was probably not true for none of the disciples had gone out to continue testifying about Jesus but was still behind locked doors hiding away.
These disciples we must remember were quite sorry and scared and pitiful as they had been a week before. So Thomas with that kind of testimony remained in unbelief.
What kind of testimony was that for Thomas?
Are you living in fear and hiding away and complaining and expect people that you witness to to accept your Lord Jesus Christ as your Saviour and their Sustenance?
Are we you really serious when we all behave often the way we do?
So there was as one writer says a hush, a breath, a sigh, and then suddenly the Jesus that they had been all thinking about stood in the room in front of them saying, Shalom, peace be with you”.
Then Jesus turned His focus to Thomas, and told Thomas directly
“Touch My side. Reach your fingers here, and look at My hands, and reach your hand here, and put it inside My side.
Do not be in unbelief, but believing”.
Does Jesus have to say the same thing to you?
What a marvellous message! It makes us all cry. It makes me cry when I think of my unbelief and what it means to my life.
Notice however that Thomas didn’t touch Jesus at all but fell on his knees and very likely whispered, “My Lord and My God”
Thomas moved ahead in faith, and went from honest doubt to honest faith recognizing that the person he knows who was in front of him was once crucified and was once dead, was also his Lord and his God.
Let us notice carefully that Jesus said, “Blessed are those who have not seen, and have believed”.
You might have been once a failure but now you have passed beyond where failure was to the point where success has meaning to you.
You might once have been overcome by fear but now in the Lord Jesus Christ you have in the real reality and you deserve allegiance to Jesus.
Note that if the other disciples who had seen Jesus before and on whom He had breathed had really felt the spirit of the risen Christ they should not have been acting the way that they were. They should not have been hiding in the dark in that locked room.
So Thomas really had been right to doubt what they seemed to doubt themselves.
So let us look at ourselves for Thomas is pretty much like all of us.
We have our own doubts and we do not like to admit them. So let us remember the story of Thomas for it’s a story of one man who doubted once but didn’t doubt afterwards. It’s the story of a honest man who loved the Lord too much so that he did not as one writer says “ confuse what he believed to be true with what he only wished were true. He needed proof”.
Just remember as you cry. You might have some unbelief in you but remember that God doesn’t mind that. God prefers you to be honest with your doubts. Do not pretend you don’t have them. If you keep on pretending that you don’t have doubts you will only be able to give God an emotional response to Him.
But God wants your minds and your hearts. He does not mind if you wrestle with your faith because He knows that He will give you what is stronger and He knows that He has given you the Spirit within you so that you will succeed.
So we are glad Thomas stood up and challenged Jesus to prove it, to prove who He was.
Notice that Jesus did not mind and tell Thomas that he was being stupid and ridiculous or that what He Jesus had given the other disciples was good enough for him.
Note that was not what God did. Jesus loved Thomas so much that as one writer says Jesus went back searching for the one lost sheep and then picked up Thomas and put him on His shoulders and carried him forward.
Thomas’s bold confession of faith is our model.
John 21:1 – 2
After all those things Jesus showed Himself to the disciples on the shores of the sea of Tiberius.
There Jesus now had to confront Peter who had Nathaniel, Thomas called the Twin, the sons of Zebedee and two other disciples, go fishing while they waited for Jesus.
Can you imagine that? After all the experiences they could not wait for Jesus to show up. They wanted to go fishing. All the disciples went and got into a boat and spent the entire night fishing but were catching nothing.
The next morning Jesus had to turn up, stand on the shore and shout to the disciples, asking them if they had any food. They answered Jesus they had none. And so Jesus told them to cast the net on the right side of the boat and they will find some food
But they were obedient and they did as Jesus had told them even though they did not know it was Jesus yet. Then the nets were straining with food.
Then they realized that it was Jesus on the shore that had called out to them. Then Simon Peter responded when he realized that it was Jesus as John the beloved disciple had said.
Then we know he had to face the rebuke of Jesus and the instruction to feed His sheep.
But even then Peter was aggrieved at the repeated call of Jesus to feed the sheep and the lambs for he could only bring the excuse forward that Jesus knew that he Peter loved Jesus.
CONCLUSION
So we come to the question, do you love Jesus? Do you really do? Are you prepared to fall back on the position that Jesus knows that you love Him?
You think about that?
The answer you give yourself might determine whether you are a honest doubter or whether you are not a honest doubter.
So what can we say to the disciples? What can we say to some of the disciples who will be leaders and to the others who forget that they are saints of God, separated from the world to be ambassadors for Christ, and to offer spiritual sacrifices?
Can any of us think that we can make an excuse for not doing as the Lord Jesus Christ commands?
Are you still in a locked room? Are you still fearful, maybe somewhat lazy, proud, suffer close- mindedness, and simply are not showing the fruits of honest doubting which leads you to saying, My Lord and my God, and really meaning it by showing the fruits that comes from the work of the Spirit in your life?
We pray that myself, you, and all who profess to be Christians, are honest doubters..