My Lord and My God

John 20:24-29

Have you ever been in such a time of anguish or grief that the truth of the gospel was more than you could believe at the moment? Maybe you lost someone you dearly loved? If so, perhaps you can relate to Thomas. He lost Jesus. When Jesus died, all the wonderful things he said and did seemed meaningless now that Jesus was dead. Perhaps Thomas thought he would restore His Kingdom and rescue them from the oppression of Rome... that Jesus would rule with fairness and justice. But now that he is dead, all hope is lost. What about his teachings and his promises? Where is God when I need him the most?

Yet strange things were happening. It is described in John's gospel, beginning in chapter 20, verse one. On Sunday morning, the first day of the week some of the women said they went to His tomb and His body was gone. Peter and John ran to the tomb and went in. There was nothing there but the grave wrappings.
When John went in "he saw and believed." For until this moment "they still hadn't understood the scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. Then they went home".

But Mary stayed behind. She saw angels and she saw Jesus! She went back and told the disciples "I have seen the Lord!" In Luke's account it says that "... the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn't believe it." Luke 24:11

Then that "Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors... Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! 'Peace be with you,' He said... He showed them the wounds in His hands and His side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!... He breathed on them and said, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.' "

Doubting Thomas by Carl Bloch

But Thomas was not there when Jesus appeared to them. "They told him, 'We have seen the Lord!' But he replied 'I won't believe it unless I see the nail wounds in His hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in His side." These were Thomas' friends who saw Jesus, the risen Christ and yet he did not believe them. I was not there, you were not there. How can we believe this really happened?

Well, eight days later, they were all together behind locked doors and this time Thomas was there when Jesus suddenly appeared. There He was standing among them. What must Thomas have thought at that moment? Pause and think about that. Put yourself in his shoes. How would he have felt? Then Jesus said,"'Peace be with you'... Then He said to Thomas, 

'Put your finger here, and look at My hands. 
Put your hand into the wound in my side. 

Don't be faithless any longer. 
Believe!' 

'My Lord and my God! Thomas exclaimed."

"Then Jesus told him, 'You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing Me.'" That is us today who believe based on these eyewitness accounts in God's Holy Scripture. But how can we know they are true? Eyewitness accounts are valued in history and even in determining guilt or innocence in our court system. All of Jesus' Apostles were tortured and killed, except John none and none of them recanted their story, even in the face of horrible torture and death. You can read about this in Foxes Book of Martyrs. John was also tortured by being boiled in oil. He survived and was punished by being sent to the Island of Patmos. I have been there before and saw the cave where he wrote his gospel, epistles, (letters) and the book of Revelation.  In this epistle that John wrote around 90 AD he said this,  

"We proclaim to you the one who existed from the beginning, 

who we have heard and seen. 

We saw him with our own eyes and touched him with our own hands. 

He is the word of life..." 

I John 1:1

 Years earlier, Peter wrote to the pilgrims of the Dispersion in the early 60's AD. These people had never seen Jesus, as the apostles and disciples did. The people Peter was writing to are like us... trusting in Him though we Have never seen Him.

"You love Him even though you have not seen Him. 

Though you do not see Him now, you trust Him; 

and you rejoice with a glorious inexpressible joy. 

The reward for trusting Him will be the salvation of your souls." 

I Peter 1:8, 9

There were other miracles that Jesus did that John did not record in His eyewitness account of the gospel of Jesus Christ. But the purpose of all that he wrote was

"so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, 

and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name." 

John 20:31

These are powerful verses. I will end this post with the rest of what he said in his letter:

"This one who is life itself was revealed to us, and we have seen him. 

And now we testify and proclaim to you that he is the one who is eternal life. 

He was with the Father, and then he was revealed to us. 

We proclaim to you what we ourselves have actually seen and heard 

so that you will have fellowship with us. 

And our fellowship is with the Father and with his Son, Jesus Christ. 

We are writing these things so that you may fully share our joy, 

so that your joy may be complete."

 I John 1: 2-4 

The reward for belief, for trusting in him, is the salvation of your souls, life in the power of his name and complete, inexpressible joy!!! I pray He will touch you today... that His peace will be with you and He will strengthen your faith through His word.

All of these Bible verses are quoted from the NLT Bible for simplicity and greater understanding of God's word.