Facing Fear with Faith | John 20:19 29
Sermon Transcript
Good morning. Looks like someone told the kids the preacher was coming. They got out of here. Well, it feels like Christmas this morning, actually, this weekend did. Every year that Christmas parade is really cold, and every year we have a 75 degrees Christmas Eve. So I mean, I'm planning on that happening again. Unfortunately, I'd rather Christmas Eve be cold and and the parade not so cold, but it seems like it happens every year. It's almost like it's almost like there's a season out there, anyway. And so we got our Christmas clothes on today. I put my Christmas coat on today. This thing's shrieking over the years. I can't figure it out, like they just don't make clothes the way they used to. I put it on this morning. I thought, Well, too late to change now. So anyway, but there was a man who had an irrational fear that a person was going to sneak into his house and hide under his bed at night. Now, I'm not trying to give you a new fear, all right, but that was one of his fears. And every night, he would wake up and he would check before he went to bed, or he would wake up, or if he didn't, before he went to bed, he'd look under his bed just to make sure no one was under the bed. And so he finally realized this was irrational, so he made an appointment with a psychiatrist, and he went and spoke to him about his fear and told him that every night he has to check underneath the bed, and I don't know what to do. And so the psychiatrist said, Well, why don't we meet three times over the next three weeks? Let's meet once a week for three weeks, and we'll help you get through this. We'll work on this. And so he said, Okay, well, how much would that be? And the psychiatry psychiatrist said, about $80 a visit. And so he thought about it, and he said, Okay, well, I'll consider to get back to you. About six months later, the man, the man, ran into the psychiatrist in the grocery store, and the psychiatrist said, Hey, I never heard back from you. Are you not going to come in for a visit, or what's going on, and why don't you come back? And he said, Well, I was thinking about it, and it was a little expensive to keep coming back to talk about this issue. So I went and got a haircut, and I was telling my barber about my fears and about seeing a psychiatrist, and and my barber said, Well, just just, you know, to to just go home and cut the legs off the bed. So I did, and ain't nobody under there. Now, don't go home and cut the bed the legs off the bed. Anyway. Fears can seem very real. But many times, fears can be completely irrational and or easily solved. They can feel real, but many times it's irrational that someone's going to be hiding underneath their bed, and some of you might check when you get home. Sorry about that, but it is irrational, or they can be solved and and that's why we need to be able to face our fears, no matter how silly or real they are, with faith in Christ, we're looking at passage of Scripture today that's going to show us the importance of facing our fears with faith. It is John chapter 20, as we continue going through the life of Jesus this year. And so we've gone through the life of Jesus this entire calendar year. And so when we get to Christmas time, now we're looking at his resurrection appearances. So he says in verse 19, on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands in his side, and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. And Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you, as the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the 12 called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side. I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again Tom. Was with them. And although 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 and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. And Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God, and Jesus said to him, Have you believed? Because you have seen me, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, Heavenly Father, as we look at this passage today. We come in here to celebrate this Christmas season, celebrate you for who you are. We might come in here with different fears. We all have different places in life that we are and so Father, I pray that we will look at this passage today, and through the doubting of Thomas, we will see the importance of having faith in the face of fear, Lord, I pray that You would speak your words through me today, that your Holy Spirit would preach through and that it would be received in this building today, your spirit would work. And we ask these things in Jesus name amen, wanna give you several things we see about the relationship of fear and faith that we see in this passage, several things about the relationship of fear and faith that we see in this passage, day number one is that fear without faith creates doubt. Fear without faith creates doubt. Verse 19 says that on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, that Sunday evening, the doors were locked in the room the disciples were in for fear of the Jews. Now the disciples were meeting in a a locked room because they were fearful. They were uncertain about what their future held because of their close association with Jesus, a man who was charged with the crime of blasphemy, who was sentenced to death, he was then executed and was put in the tomb, and the disciples did not know what was happening to them next. They didn't know if they were next on the list or what, so they met in secret. So you can imagine their surprise when Jesus appears in a locked room. Now the text never says that Jesus walked through the wall or walked through the door or teleported in, or anything like that. There's many theories as to how he got in there, but all we know was he wasn't there, and then he was there, and he said that he came and stood among them and said to them, Peace, be with you. Now this is just a standard greeting. This is just like saying all of a sudden, you're in a room, there's Jesus. He says, Hey, how are you doing? Good afternoon. Imagine the room filling with what Jesus. How did you get in here? Verse 20, when he said this, he showed them his hands, which had been would have holes all the way through them with the nails, and then his side, where the Spirit had got them. And the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So he proved who he was, and by showing them the scars only he would have those nail pierced hands, that spear sunk inside, proved his identity. And he says in verse 21 Peace be with you. Says again, then he adds something, As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, and he said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. Now, if you know your Bibles, there's a question here that we should think about and ponder, why would Jesus breathe on the disciples to give them the Holy Spirit when they would receive it just a few weeks later in Acts chapter two at Pentecost? Well, this is kind of what we would call a temporary filling before Pentecost, just like King David was filled with the Spirit, just like different prophets were filled with the Spirit from time to time in the Old Testament, time that he gives this temporary filling to these disciples for a specific reason, to give them what he says in verse 23 to go tell them this verse 23 if you forgive the sin. Of any, they are forgiven. Them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld, as the disciples were charged to go and make more disciples. He says, As the Father sent me, I'm sending you. They went about proclaiming the good news of Christ, proclaiming the resurrection of Jesus, proclaiming the gospel. They would tell people who believed in their message that their sins were forgiven. You believe in Jesus, Your sins are forgiven. You're made right with God. That's the simple message. But Jesus then gives them the power of the Spirit to speak through them and the words to say and this charge by Jesus was meant to help them in their doubt, their doubt of am I doing what I'm supposed to be doing? Are we doing it the right way? He was filling them with courage. Jesus wants us as well to trust him so that we don't doubt how he works in our lives. Look at James one six. He wants us to place our faith in Him when we're fearful. James says, let him ask in faith with no doubting. The one who doubts is like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind. We've all been on those boats where it starts kind of tossing around. That's what doubt does. It makes our faith unstable, makes our lives unstable, because we're worried about this. We're we're doubting this. And Jesus doesn't want these disciples to doubt so he says, Go and do what I'm telling you to do. Matthew 21 says this, Jesus answered them truly. I say to you, if you have faith and do not doubt, you will not only do what has been done to the fig tree, but even if you say, this mountain be taken up and thrown into the sea, it will happen that God will work through your life in seemingly impossible ways if you have faith in Him. Proverbs three, trust in the Lord with all your heart and do not lean on your own understanding. We lot of times we doubt because we're trying to understand it with our own mind, not the mind of God in all your ways. Verse six, acknowledge him, and he not you, but he will make straight your paths. Fear without faith can lead us to doubt. So he says, place your faith in me and leave no doubt. Amen, Faith without fear creates doubt. Secondly, fear without faith. Keep saying it wrong all morning. It's like a tongue twister. Fear without faith creates unbelief. Fear without faith creates unbelief. Now Thomas, one of the 12 disciples, nickname was the twin was not with them when Jesus came. So other disciples told him, we've seen Jesus, we've seen the Lord. But he says, Unless I see his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into that mark, which is kind of weird thing to say you're going to do, and place my hand into his side. I will never believe the Greek word actually is the word thrust. It's to just really just place it in there. That seems aggressive. That's what he's saying he wants to do. Unless I see it, I won't believe I want to see that tangible evidence. I want to feel it, see it. That's pretty stubborn, isn't it? What would lead Thomas? He is the nickname of doubting Thomas. I call him stubborn Thomas. What would lead him to say something like this. Well, why would he say I need to see this? Well, several possible things. I think these things are the same reasons why all people are afraid to believe in the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Maybe there's someone that in your life that's not a believer that you've been trying to witness to or maybe it's you. Maybe you're not sure. Maybe these are some of your fears. The first one is this, I believe a common fear that keeps people from belief is the fear of being deceived. No one wants to be deceived. No one wants to be fooled. He might have been cautious. He might have been skeptical, fearing his disciples, maybe we're trying to deceive him. We don't know but, but no one wants to be taken advantage of and in fear, sometimes we're skeptical because we don't believe what we're hearing, because we don't want to be wrong. We don't want to be silly. It's why sometimes when you get a funny looking email, you think, is this? Spam? Is this a virus? I don't know, right? And all the training you've had, sometimes you still think I might click on it by accident, you know, because there's such good scammers out there now, and you feel silly after you do it. Oh, gosh, I should have known, you know, that was, that was a someone trying to hack into my account, or something like that. We have a fear of being deceived. And Thomas says, I gotta see it. I'm not gonna be made a fool of Secondly, we have a fear of cultural and what you could call religious beliefs. I'm not talking about like Christian beliefs. I'm talking about things that you've heard, you've grown up with, that have been instilled in you as true religious but might not be and some of these cultural beliefs we hold on to, these religious beliefs, may keep us from embracing the true gospel, the true truth, morals, character of God. We see in the Bible some good things are actually unbiblical and can keep us through faith. You know, as a Jew, Thomas could have been brought up to believe that there would be a physical, bodily resurrection at the end of time. So it'd be hard for him to accept how Jesus, then, is already risen from the dead. He was just going along with the theology that he was taught, but can't apply it to Jesus. And so he's thinking, I don't understand how he can be resurrected when we're all resurrected later. This is a a, in fact, wrong theology of his. And so we all have default beliefs by which we were raised, that when we read the Bible, we start thinking sometimes, well, my grandmother told me opposite Well, that's not what my dad told me. And we read through it, and we see things and we and we look at the Bible and we see things that that kind of contradict our own upbringing. They might seem Christian, but they're not. You ever heard the phrase, God helps those who help themselves? Well, you know, it's not in the Bible. It's not in second barnacles chapter five, and it doesn't it's wrong because it advocates a self reliant approach that that God only helps those who work hard. Well, God will bless your hard work, but he gives us grace no matter what we do. So that's so we have to get through that sometimes, or what about this? Cleanliness is next to godliness. I love that one. I like it. I agree. I love cleanliness. I don't like to clean, but I like to be clean, and I like clean places. But cleanliness is great, but it's not the same as godliness, two separate things. What about this one? Money is the root of all evil? Well, it's close, but not right? This, the Bible says that the love of money is the root of all evil. It's money itself is not evil. It's the love of it. And so that's not the by biblical teaching, or this one you've probably even said it today, this too shall pass. It sounds very old testament, or very Jesus like biblical but it's not in the Bible either. Now, what it tells us is, there's there's hope and in that and you can endure through a difficult time. But it's not the same thing as scripture. There's similar themes in the Bible, but it's not the same thing. Or how about this one? God won't give you more than you can handle. Usually, people will say that, and I know what they're they're getting at, and there's there, and there's kind of this idea in the scripture. But the truth is, Yes, God will give you more than you can handle. He won't give you more than he can handle working through you see, he wants us to get to a place where we can't do it. We have to rely on him in the fact, the goal of his his goal in our lives, is for us to be dependent on him. That's what he's trying to get us to accomplish that we know we can't handle it. That's why every morning when I wake up, I say, I can't handle this anymore. Lord, He wants us to rely on him. So we all have these things we've heard, we've been brought up to believe are true. So I kind of give Thomas a break when he says this kind of thing, like, I don't see that doesn't fit what I've been taught my entire life, it's risky. I'm not going to believe it, because also, number three, it leads to the fear of repercussions. What is going to happen if I place my faith in this truth? I might lose my life. And we know that Thomas and all the disciples eventually did lose their lives for following Jesus Christ. The fear of repercussions. This is why sometimes we don't speak clearly about our faith in public, in the public square or in the school, because we're worried about what people will say. But fear without faith can create an unbelief. US. Third, the good news is that fear with faith, fear with faith, creates opportunities. Fear with faith creates opportunities. Verse 26 says this, eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. And although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them. This is like a repeat just happened, right? They said, Peace be with you. Hey. How are you? I'm here. And Thomas said. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here. See my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Now, an interesting thing we see here about Jesus is, even though Thomas wanted things his way, even though he gave these preconditions to this is what it's going to take for me to believe. Which many people do I have to believe. I have to see proof of God's existence, or something like that. I'm like, Look at the mountains. I have to see proof of of God's I have to hear this. Even though he had these, these preconditions, Jesus still stoops to his level. Even though he didn't have to, he could have said, I'm here. I'm not showing you my hands. That's what I've done to my kids. My kids wanted some proof. I'd be like, I'm not giving you that. Just do what I say. I'm standing right here, right? But he kneels, so to speak, to his level, and gives him grace. He knew what the stumbling block was to Thomas, and even though Jesus didn't have to do it, he could have said, hey, it's up to you. You believe or not. He says, Look, Thomas. I know where you struggle. Look at my hands. Put your finger through there. Look at my side. Touch it. God's love for us is so great that he does things he doesn't even have to do to help our faith. He didn't have to do that, but he gave it to him to help us believe. And look what happened. Verse 28 Thomas answered to my Lord and my God, this is his profession of faith that Jesus is his God, he is his Lord, He is his master. And even though Jesus yielded somewhat to Thomas's demands out of an abundance of grace, Jesus then mentions that, however, the blessing Thomas receives from his faith is actually less than others blessings. What he says verse 29 Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Every person in here who is a Christian. You've never seen Jesus. You've never seen him face to face. He's in heaven. He's been in heaven. He comes back one day, but you've never seen him. Yeah, you believed. What a blessing it is to believe in someone you've never seen that will come back one day. He says that there's a greater blessing for those who face their fear and believe in the unseen. What a blessing. He says, Look at Joshua. One nine. Have I not commanded you? God says to Joshua, Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened. Do not be dismayed. For the Lord, your God is with you wherever you go. See fear, courage is acting in the face of fear, believing that God is with you wherever you go. Now, Joshua was about to enter into a military campaign and take over the promised land. I think he would be frightened even the most, greatest warrior, which he was, one a soldier, top soldier. That's why he was leading them out there probably had some fear, and he says, I'm with you. Similarly, even though we're not doing what he did, it's still something that God tells us we have the Holy Spirit with us. I am with you wherever you go. Look at Isaiah 4110, Fear not for I am with you. Be not dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you. I will help you, and I will uphold you with my righteous right hand. When the Bible talks about God's righteous right hand, it is this, this arm of strength that never fails, because I will always be with you. So when we have faith, despite our fears, we have these opportunities. Opportunities that await us. What are these opportunities? Real quickly? Number one, spiritual growth. We can't grow spiritually without placing our faith in spite of our fears. If we're entangled in fears, it's hard to spiritually grow. It's hard to spiritual. Lord has told us to do certain things, you know, if he's told us to make disciples, and if you, if you get a phone call to to, hey, listen, I want there's a church out here. There's people that need you. I want you to go out here and and share and and preach, or whatever it is you're doing, but you gotta get on a plane and fly. You say, Well, I'm scared of planes. Well, you can't grow spiritually in a certain way because you can't put your faith in Jesus to get you there. That's just one, one illustration, overcoming fear and choosing to have faith can lead us to personal growth and development. Now, we all have fears, but we're all here today. You know why we're here today? Because God has been faithful to His word. None of our worst fears have come true and taken us out because we're here. We're listening to him the spiritual growth. When we grow spiritually, we get more confidence to do what God's called us to do. Secondly, new relationships. New relationships. Many of you that have been coming to church for a while, especially first Baptist, if it wasn't for coming here, there are many friendships, relationships, you would not have some of y'all related. So that didn't count all of y'all related, but there's still relationships you wouldn't have, people you would never meet, people you would never pray with, do ministry with, learn the Bible with, worship with and faith can strengthen these relationships. We share similar beliefs and values. It's a wonderful it's a wonderful thing to think that we're considered and unless you're someone who's looking for Jesus, for to sit in a worship center and all agree that Jesus Christ is Lord Amen. It's a wonderful thing. We all have that in common. And look around and all these faces you see here today, you'll see them in eternity, in the new heavens, New Earth. It's a wonderful thing to know that, and you wouldn't have these relationships if it wasn't for Jesus. You wouldn't have them if someone hadn't shared the gospel with you as a child, as an adult, wherever it was, someone reading a Bible story to you, whatever it was, if you hadn't had the gospel shared to you, you wouldn't have those relationships. Faith in the face of fear, gives us that opportunities third peace. God is a God of peace, and he gives us peace. God does not give us anxiousness. He doesn't give us stomach ulcers. He doesn't give us high blood pressure. He doesn't give us things that weigh us down, backaches, oh, the world gives us that our worries give us that our health gives us that. But God gives us peace. He's the God of peace. And when we consistently choose faith in the face of fear, God brings that calmness into our lives, because he's a God of peace. And finally, fourth, when we have faith in the face of fear, we find our purpose. And our purpose is not just one purpose. It changes throughout our life. When you're 15, God has a certain purpose for your life and your faith. When you're 30, it's different. When you're 45 it might be different. And on and on and on. 60 and 80 and 90, many years ago. At our church, I had a man who was 99 years old. He almost lived to be 100 but he didn't quite when he was 98 he came and spoke to me, and he said, Pastor, I gotta ask you something. Why am I still here? Why Does God still have me here? All my friends are gone. I'm the oldest person everywhere I go. Why am I here? And I said, You're here because God's not done with you. You still have a purpose. You bless me by being here every week. You bless others. We have a different purpose, no matter when we are and. Whenever we place our faith in that we see what our purpose is for our life, what our purpose is for the kingdom and the church. Find our purpose. Facing our fears creates amazing opportunities in our lives. And sometimes, you know that fear we have, we just need to go home and cut the legs off the bed. We just need to go home and do it. You know, just make something happen sometimes, and just put your faith in Jesus. Faith over your fears creates opportunities, Heavenly Father. We thank you so much what you've done for us in Jesus and as we close our time together today, as we continue to get into this such busy Christmas time, we have things we want to do for people. We have things that we are going to do for people, and we have things we're going to buy for people, and we have expectations from family members and spouses and children and and parents of how we should be during this time, and we can find ourselves all worked up and in knots. And you just tell us, just trust me. Place your faith in me. I pray, Lord, as we continue through this Christmas season that we don't lose track of what it's about. I'm thankful for every person that's here today, even if they were out late last night or whatever they were doing at a parade or at a game or something or or just tired, knew that it was important for their spiritual lives to be here today, to worship you in spirit and truth, and that you've blessed them for that Lord. We thank You. We thank you for Jesus, who through by his death, by his burial and by His resurrection, Lord purchased eternal life and forgiveness of sins for those who would believe. Lord, you say, Blessed are those who haven't seen yet believe. We thank you for that truth and we thank you for that promise. We ask these things in Jesus name, amen. Amen.
