Transcript

How do you know that the Titanic really sank on April 15, 1912? How do you really know that it happened by hitting an iceberg? No one alive today was there when it sank. But does this mean that it never happened?

Do we need to swim to the bottom of the Atlantic Ocean to see it with our own eyes and to touch it before we will believe?

Approximately 1500 passengers died, but around 700 people survived the tragedy. Those survivors were eyewitnesses to the sinking of that massive ship, and newspapers at that time recorded their comments about what they saw.

No person today questions the sinking of the Titanic because of the records of the eyewitness reports and believing those reports. And just like we believe and know the truth about the Titanic thru eyewitness reports, the same is true of Christ’s resurrection.

In 1 Corinthians 15:3-8, Paul gives us this record, “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures; And that He was buried, and that He rose again the third day according to the Scriptures:

“And that He was seen of Cephas [Peter], then of the twelve: After that, He was seen of above five hundred brethren at once; of whom the greater part remain unto this present, but some are fallen asleep. After that, He was seen of James; then of all the apostles. And last of all He was seen of me also, as of one born out of due time.”

Christ appeared to individuals and groups at numerous times and places after His resurrection. The appearances include: Near the tomb, seen by Mary Magdalene; On a road near Jerusalem, seen by the women returning from the tomb.

On the road to Emmaus, seen by two men; To Simon Peter/Cephas in Jerusalem; In the Upper Room, seen by 10 of the 11 apostles; In the Upper Room 8 days later, seen by all 11 apostles; By the Sea of Galilee, seen by 7 of the apostles.

On a mountain in Galilee, seen by the 11 apostles; Seen by over 500 disciples; Unknown location, seen by James, the Lord’s half-brother, and then by all the apostles; On the Mount of Olives, seen by the apostles; On the road to Damascus, seen by Saul of Tarsus.

The number, variety of circumstances, and the confirming evidence that surround the appearances leave no doubt that Christ rose from the dead.

John 20:19-20: “Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you.”

“And when He had so said, He shewed unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad, when they saw the Lord.”

The “same day” here is earth’s greatest day, the glorious day of Christ’s resurrection. Christ had appeared to Mary Magdalene, the other women who came to the tomb, to Peter, and to the two on the road to Emmaus at this point on Resurrection Day.

It is now the evening of Resurrection day. When verse 19 records that the disciples were together, we know that Thomas was absent and that Judas had killed himself, so there were 10 disciples present.

According to Luke 24, the two followers from Emmaus were also among them, and there could have been more people there. They were all together, with the doors locked “for fear of the Jews.”

They had barricaded themselves in the upper room, remaining under the fear of the same fate as the Lord: of arrest and death at the hands of the Jewish authorities. The Greek word for “fear” here is “phobos.” We get our term “phobia” from it.

I like one columnist’s perspective of fear: “All of us are born with a set of instinctive fears: of falling, of the dark, of lobsters, of falling in the dark on a bunch of lobsters, and of the words Some Assembly Required.”

The disciples had a phobia of the Jewish religious leaders. In their fear, the disciples were assembled together in secret at night with the doors shut and bolted.

Notice that the word “doors,” is plural, meaning that they had locked the door or gate into the house AND also the door to the actual room they were huddled in.

As they were all speaking of the events of the day, listening to Peter explaining how he saw the Lord in Jerusalem, hearing the two from Emmaus tell of their encounter with the Lord on the road, suddenly, without warning, Christ appeared and stood in the middle of the room, and to calm them, He said, “Peace be unto you.”

The Lord said “peace be unto you” to His disciples, and that’s true for all believers.

Peace be unto all believers! We have true, eternal peace because Christ is risen. By His resurrection, we have the hope of everlasting life and our future resurrection.

The disciples saw Him and they heard Him speak. Despite the locked doors, Christ just appeared in the upper room. Nothing could keep Him out.

John, by the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, included the detail of the locked doors to teach of the different nature of Christ’s resurrected body.

His body was unlike Lazarus, whom Christ raised from the dead. Lazarus had been merely resuscitated, then lived with the same limitations, suffered illness and injury, and eventually died again. But Christ had a resurrected, glorified body.

His resurrected body, while still a completely human, physical body, possessed supernatural qualities, and act independently of natural laws.

This included being able to pass through graveclothes and through a rock tomb with the stone still in front of its entrance; being able to vanish as He did before the 2 on the road to Emmaus; and being able to go thru locked doors and to just appear in a room like He did here in the upper room.

Our bodies, one day, will be fashioned like unto His glorious body. These things that the Lord was able to do, we will be able to do one day in our resurrected, glorified bodies.

And unlike Lazarus, who died again, when Christ arose in that new glorified body, He was raised to never die again. Romans 6:9 teaches, “Knowing that Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more; death hath no more dominion over Him.”

Likewise, when our bodies are raised and glorified like unto His glorious body, we live as long as Christ lives. And as the Lord said in Revelation 1:18 says, “I am He that liveth, and was dead; and behold, I am alive forevermore.”

When the Lord suddenly appeared in the upper room, Luke tells us in his account “But they were terrified and affrighted, and supposed that they had seen a spirit” (24:37).

These poor guys go from one fear to another fear, from fearing the Jewish authorities, to fearing the Lord.

They supposed that He was a spirit, but He wasn’t a spirit. As the Lord told them in Luke 24:39: “Behold my hands and my feet, that it is I myself: handle me, and see; for a spirit hath not flesh and bones, as ye see me have.”

Unlike Mary, who believed and embraced Christ at once, the disciples were slow to accept that it was really Him and that it was really true.

After the Lord told them to be at peace, He invited the disciples to examine the proof of His resurrection, showing the disciples His hands and side.

Christ had a real body after He arose; He possessed flesh and bones that could be touched. His body was physically resurrected, like ours will be.

Christ’s body also bore the scars of the nails in His hands and feet, and the scar of the spear in His side. He was resurrected to a perfect, glorified body, yet the scars remained.

These scars of love will be a reminder for eternity of His sacrifice for us so that we might live together with Him.

Verse 20 says the disciples were “glad” and overjoyed at His presence and when they saw the Lord.

Earlier in John in 16:22, the Lord told the disciples: “Ye now therefore have sorrow, but I will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no man taketh from you.” This was the fulfillment of that promise the Lord made to His disciples.

And it’s a reminder for us, how no one can take away our joy that we have in Christ. Because Christ is risen, we have a joy and hope in Him that will never fade away.

The Lord is the source of our joy and gladness. And one day we will see the Lord ourselves, either at the Rapture, or after we pass from this life.

We will see those nail prints in His hands and feet and the scar in His side. We will see our risen Savior face-to-face. And then we can insert our name in this verse “Then was (insert your name) glad, when he saw the Lord” or “when she saw the Lord.”

The change and transformation in the apostles is proof that they saw and knew that Christ was risen from the dead.

Before they saw Christ alive they were in hiding, fearing for their lives. But after they saw the resurrected Christ, they boldly went out and preached Christ’s resurrection.

Peter stood up on the day of Pentecost and fearlessly told the crowd in Jerusalem that day they had crucified their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth, “Whom God hath raised up, having loosed the pains of death: because it was not possible that He should be holden of it. This Jesus hath God raised up, whereof we all are witnesses” (Acts 2:24,32).

In the power of the Holy Spirit, they were resolute and courageous in declaring the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Such preaching cost them intense persecution, the loss of their possessions, and even their lives, but they kept preaching and did not stop making Christ’s resurrection known.

John 20:24-25: “But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.

“The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

In verse 24, we learn how Thomas missed this appearance of the Lord on Resurrection Day. John wrote that Thomas was called Didymus. Didymus was the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic name, Thomas, and both names mean “twin.” So Thomas obviously had a twin brother or sister.

Thomas, of course, has been given the nickname “Doubting Thomas” because of him doubting Christ’s resurrection.

We learn a couple other things about Thomas from two other accounts in John. First, there was the time that Christ told His disciples He was going to see Lazarus, even though Lazarus was already dead and buried. But He was going to raise him from the dead.

To do so meant they would have to go to Judea and near Jerusalem. The last time they had been there the Jews took up stones to stone Christ to death but He escaped (10:39).

The disciples protested the fact of going near Jerusalem, telling the Lord, “Master, the Jews of late sought to stone Thee; and goest Thou thither again?” (11:8).

When the Lord insisted that they were going, Thomas cried out to his fellow disciples: “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” Thomas, out of his loyalty and devotion to the Lord, was willing to give his life for Him.

You could say Thomas doubted here as well, because he was a little pessimistic and DOUBTED that they were going to survive. But he was willing to go and die with Christ.

Next, when Christ was talking going to prepare a place for the disciples in His kingdom, He said He would come again and receive them unto Himself.

Then the Lord said, “And whither I go ye know, and the way ye know.” Thomas, not knowing what that meant, stopped, looked around at the other blank faces, and then he burst out with: “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?”

Thomas didn’t mind speaking his mind! His adage was “If you don’t understanding something, say so, and ask.” His pessimism and straightforward way tells you a little bit about Thomas and why he reacted as he did to the Lord’s resurrection.

No explanation is given for Thomas’ absence when the Lord first appeared to the disciples on Resurrection day. John just states that he “was not with them when Jesus came.”

When Thomas rejoined the disciples, they told him that they had seen the Lord. In verse 25, the tense of the word “said” in the original Greek means that the 10 disciples kept telling him over and over that they’d seen the Lord, that He really was alive.

But Thomas didn’t believe them. Though Thomas had heard the Lord’s promises that He would rise again the third day, he refused to believe that He was really risen.

It seems that Thomas took the death of Christ hard. And the idea of a resurrected Jesus was too far-fetched for him. This being so, he didn’t want to set himself up to be disappointed again. One disappointment was enough in his mind.

Thomas is very relatable. Because, if we’re honest, we have all experienced doubt. We too sometimes find it hard to imagine that God can surprise us. We too often walk with cautious steps. We too let logic override our faith, and question the things we cannot see.

We too make the same mistake that Thomas made in forgetting that “impossible” is one of God’s favorite words to overcome. Thomas’s doubting didn’t spring from timidity, but from a reluctance to believe the impossible, and a fear of being hurt twice.

His realistic, pessimistic, straightforward outlook on things caused him to utter a decisive reply and to give his condition that: “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

“I will not believe” in the original Greek has the emphasis on the negative. It has the idea of “I will in no way believe,” or “I positively will not believe.”

Thomas wanted concrete proof. He felt the news was too good to be true. He would not allow himself to hope until he could be sure that his hope would not be dashed.

It’s been said that Thomas must’ve been from Missouri, “The Show-Me State”! He needed to be shown before he would believe.

And he obstinately prescribed conditions which must be met and declared that he would not believe unless he saw and touched the Lord’s scars in His hands and side.

In his realistic ways, Thomas wasn’t predisposed to believing in something as spectacular and glorious as Christ rising from the dead. And he was not going to believe apart from visual and physical evidence of it.

And amazingly, Thomas refused to even consider believing the testimony of ten competent witnesses who had seen Christ with their own eyes, men who were his trusted friends, and who had no motive to deceive him.

John 20:26-29: “And after eight days again His disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.

“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.

“And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed: blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

Eight days later the disciples were again gathered together. This time Thomas was present. The Holy Spirit again makes mention of the fact that the doors were shut, as He re-emphasizes the supernatural character of Christ’s resurrection body.

But nothing is now said of the disciples’ “fear of the Jews.” Christ’s first appearance unto them had calmed their hearts and taken away their fear of this.

The second appearance of Christ to the apostles as a group in the upper room was expressly made for the special benefit of Thomas. And this was grace and kindness.

The Savior made the same entrance thru the closed doors; He again stood in the middle of them all, and He came with the same greeting of comfort: “Peace be unto you.”

This was done to re-inforce to Thomas that what the other disciples had said about His appearance in the upper room 8 days earlier was indeed true.

The Lord immediately gave His attention to the neediest man in the room. And the Lord was patient with the struggles of his heart. And that’s a blessing knowing that He did this with Thomas, because He does the same thing for us.

The Lord came not to scold or shame Thomas. He met him at the point of his weakness. He came to help him overcome his doubts.

Eight days earlier, the disciples heard Thomas’s words, but there was an unseen Listener as well. Christ, knew and heard Thomas’s dogmatic statement. Christ is God, and as God, He is omnipresent and omniscient, knowing all things.

And the Lord uses Thomas’s own words, showing that He knew the prescribed conditions that he had laid down for believing that Christ was risen.

Therefore, Christ told him to look and touch the nail prints in His hands and to thrust His hand into His side, so he might accept the reality of His resurrection.

The fact that the Lord told him to thrust His hand in the Lord’s side shows the size of that wound and that this is a large scar.

Christ gave Thomas exactly what he requested, offering him a personal inspection of the marks of His sacrifice at Calvary. And He extended His hands for Him to see, and said “behold My hands.”

The Lord dealt with Thomas in a very personal way and invited him to deal with his doubts by touching His hands and side.

Imagine Thomas at this moment! The color drained from his face. Eyes wide. Speechless. Face-to-face with the risen Lord.

Then the Lord told Thomas to “be not faithless [or unbelieving], but believing.” This is both a negative rebuke and a positive exhortation.

What the Lord had in view here was about correcting Thomas’s unbelief as well as his character. He wanted Thomas to shake off this habit of doubting, to give up his unbelieving disposition, and that He needed to be more believing and more trusting.

And at this moment, he needed to simply believe what he had thought before was impossible, that Christ was truly risen from the dead.

The invitation to Thomas to fulfill the test and condition that he demanded wasn’t taken up. There was no need to touch the scars in His hands or side.

Thomas was overcome. He did not do as he had boasted. There was no need to; his doubts had vanished, his reservations were gone, and his heart was won.

He was now no longer Doubting Thomas, because the truth and reality of Christ’s resurrection was undeniable with His personal presence in that room.

So Thomas renounced his doubt and declared his faith, and the doubter is transformed into a worshipper, and all he could say was, “My Lord and my God.”

And that is the absolute truth: Jesus Christ is both Lord and God.

Thomas’s confession gave evidence of his faith in Christ, his subjection to Him, and his affection for Him. Thomas recognized the resurrection, the Lordship, and Deity of Christ. He recognized that He was alive, that He is his Lord, that He is his God.

And Christ did not correct him. He accepted what He said, because this is who He is! He is Lord and He is God in the flesh.

In John 10:17,18 the Lord said, “Therefore doth my Father love me, because I lay down my life, that I might take it again. No man taketh it from me, but I lay it down of myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again.”

Christ had power to lay His life down when He pleased at the very moment it was planned, and He had power to rise again 3 days later at the moment it was planned.

And Christ having the power to take His life up again, and raise from the dead, having power over death is an irrefutable declaration of His Deity, that He is Lord and God.

Henry Morris wrote, “The bodily resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead is the crowning proof of Christianity. If the resurrection did not take place, then Christianity is a false religion. If it did take place, then Christ is God and the Christian faith is absolute truth.” Our faith is absolute truth, because Christ is alive.

The disciples and Thomas had the privilege of seeing Christ with their own eyes. The Lord told Thomas that because he had seen Christ he believed that He was risen, but then Christ said, “blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

That includes us! Blessed are we who “have not seen, and yet have believed,” we believe that Christ is risen from the dead.

And as 1 Peter 1:8 says, “Whom having not seen, ye love; in whom, though now ye see Him not, yet believing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and full of glory.”

Peter Marshall said this: “No tabloid will ever print the startling new that the mummified body of Jesus of Nazareth has been discovered in old Jerusalem. Christians have no carefully embalmed body enclosed in a glass case to worship. Thanks be unto God! We have an empty tomb!

“The glorious fact that the empty tomb proclaims to us is that life for us does not stop when death comes. Death is not a wall, but a door. Because the resurrection is true it is the most significant thing in our world today, because He lives we shall live also.”