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Our lesson today from John 20 is called Rewarding Faith. It is the story of Thomas, the disciple who did not believe Jesus had risen from the dead. In this account we know he no longer doubted; he saw Jesus and believed. Jesus encouraged him, “Touch my hands and put your hand in my side, stop doubting and believe.” It doesn’t seem like Thomas needed to do that because his response was immediate, “My Lord and my God.” Today allow your response to Jesus to be exactly the same as this.
Before we get into today’s teaching, let’s spend a little time thinking about faith. If you look at how faith is defined, it is obvious that people everywhere have faith. The definition is, “complete trust or confidence in someone or something.” What sets the faith of a Christian apart from all other faith is the object of our faith.
Faith is not unusual, humans everywhere have it, but we want more and more people to make Jesus the object of their faith. Think about the people who deny any god and say they have no faith. What are they putting their faith in? It seems to me the faith of that person lies directly in themselves. They put a lot of trust in the fact that they are right and know what they are talking about. This is a choice all of us need to make, but I for one am not comfortable with having myself as the object of my faith.
There are some who believe Earth has started from a big bang, everyone looks at the same evidence, and many different conclusions are reached. It is my opinion that the conclusion you reach has a direct connection to where you have placed your faith. There is much more that could be said on this; however, what I want to make clear is – faith is not uncommon; most people have faith. The biggest question is what or who do you have faith in? Christians have Jesus as the object of our faith, and as far as I know, this is the best place you could ever place your faith.
One more thought about faith from verse 29. Trying to describe what it is can be kind of hard to put into words. I like what Jesus says at the end of verse 29, I would say this is a great way to describe faith. Jesus tells Thomas, “Blessed are they what have not seen, and yet have believed.” This isn’t a definition of faith, but it’s a good description for some of our faith. Many of us believe even though we have not seen Him.
This idea is also taught in Hebrews 11:1. One translation has it like this, “Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.” Again, there is the certainty of something we believe but have not seen. So, while most of us may not have seen with eyes, like Thomas, we still believe. Some will think this is ridiculous and make fun of your blind faith. But it’s not blind faith because we have seen Jesus change lives, we feel His presence in ours, and we know the change He’s made in us. The obj...
