Jesus Appears......

 ......to His Disciples

 

On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you." And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive anyone his sins, they are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."

Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it."

A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!" Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"

Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."

Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

John 20:19-30

___________________________________________________

Notes on the Scripture

 

The story of Doubting Thomas is an analogy to everyone who has struggled with faith in a God they cannot see. We would all like to be able to see Christ in the flesh and to touch his wounds, so that we could be certain of our beliefs.

But our wish is a false one. Appearances can be deceiving; our eyes and ears are not trustworthy. Many an innocent man has gone to prison because an eyewitness was positive they had seen him commit a crime. Magicians make a living by defrauding our eyes and ears.

It is true, in a logical sense, that being able to see a wounded person who says he is Christ would make it more probable that Christ was the son of God, and that he rose from the dead. But we cannot know God by logic. There is nothing in all the facts gathered by mankind, considered by all the great minds that have lived, that can prove or disprove the existence of God or the life and miracle of Jesus Christ. God cannot be known by logic. Probability has no function in the realm of religious belief.

Knowing God and believing in Him is a matter of faith.

Belief in God should follow with worship and lead to obedience (James 2:14-26) When we know God and we put our faith in Him this shows our obedience to God. (Romans 1:5; Galatians 5).We know God and grow towards Him like a tulip bulb, deep in the earth, grows towards a sun it cannot see or feel, in a kind of faith that the sun will be there to give it life. The central Christian belief is that Jesus Christ is Lord. This belief is necessary for salvation.

________________________________________

May you be blessed today and may you always put your trust in God alone...