Kerwin Baptist Church Daily Broadcast

Welcome to the Kerwin Baptist Church broadcast today. Our desire is for the Word of God to be spread throughout the world so that all may know Christ. Join us now for a portion of one of our services here at Kerwin Baptist Church located in Kernersville, North Carolina. The disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews.

Let me bring you up to speed. Jesus had died and he had been buried. They did not know at this time that he had been risen from the dead, but he had died and had been buried. And here they were meeting together in privacy. They were scared for fear of the Jews.

Obviously this was a very tumultuous time. Notice the end of verse 19, came Jesus and stood in the midst and saith unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Now, I don't see Jesus as the kind of person to come in and say, hey y'all, hey look at this, look at this. Why did Jesus show them that?

Why do you think he showed them? Because the Bible says in the book of Luke, we're going to show this in a minute, that literally they did not believe he had been risen from the dead. And so he had to show them his side and his hands to prove the shocked faces that I'm Jesus. I rose from the dead.

I did what I said I was going to do. Look at verse 20, and when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad. So they weren't glad when he first walked in.

They were scared half to death. Notice what it says, then the disciples were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Now they had already seen a man, but they realized he was the Lord.

Look at verse 21. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you, as my father hath sent me, even so send I you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them, excuse me, and sayeth unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost.

Now this is a very special time. This is obviously when we have begun, when Jesus rose from the dead, defeated death, hell, and the grave. This is the moment where obviously they received the Holy Ghost. And this was given to them by God the Father through Jesus the Son to minister to them as Jesus would be ascending back into heaven.

Now I'm not going to beat a dead horse here, but I've told you over and over again that Jesus literally told them that it is expedient or that it is better for you that I go to heaven and I leave you the comforter. This is here where they received the Holy Ghost. Now from that moment on when a person puts their faith and trust in Jesus Christ and becomes what we call saved, the Holy Spirit indwells their life. And it all started here. This is a very, very special moment.

Alright? That's important. Notice if you would, in verse 22, and when he had said this, he breathed on them and sayeth unto them, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. But, look at verse 24.

I don't know, I got a cow in my throat or something. Look at verse 24. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with him when Jesus came. Now they're all meeting together. Jesus had been crucified. This is obviously a very serious time and they had watched the Savior and who they had traveled with and ate with and ministered with. They'd watched him be crucified. But we find here as they're all gathered together, this special, and by the way, we know this to be obviously the day that we celebrate as a Sunday. Here they are gathered together to worship and here Jesus has been hung on the cross and crucified and he walks back in and Thomas is not with them.

He's not there. Now look at verse 25. 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. So Jesus shows up, gives them the Holy Ghost, breathes obviously the breath of God into their life and the Holy Ghost obviously enters them and that's how this is a very special moment obviously in history and we celebrate this.

I'm not going to go into all that this morning. This is a very special time and so Thomas was not there. So later they go to Thomas and they tell him, We've seen Jesus. They explain all that happens and he says, I'm not going to believe until I can literally touch the nail print hands and I can literally put my hand in the side of his spear pierced side, I will not believe.

And from that moment on he has been called, doubting Thomas. Notice if you would, verse 26, And after eight days again, this is obviously eight days. Now here they are meeting on a Sunday and obviously we all know the difference in Sabbath and Sabbath is a Saturday and obviously remember the Sabbath to keep it holy and all these things.

But when Jesus rose from the dead, he rose from the dead on the first day of the week, Sunday, that's why we celebrate, that's why we have church on Sunday. Okay, so everybody understands that and so here they are, they met again on the eighth day, the eighth day obviously, and so here they are, they're meeting together again and Thomas is finally with them. Look at verse 26, And Thomas with them then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst. So the doors were shut and all of a sudden he was there. This is the same thing that happened before, the doors were shut.

He went right through the door. By the way, doors don't stop him. By the way, color of your skin doesn't stop him. By the way, the things in your past doesn't stop him. The size of your problem doesn't stop him. As bad as things are between you and your wife, that doesn't stop God.

He can overcome that too. Notice this, I love this. Don't you just love God's word? I love it and I love the way he puts it here obviously. 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.

It's like it makes it very clear. Doors were shut, he's standing in the midst, peace be unto you. Exact same thing he did when he showed up in the previous time, look at verse 28. And Thomas answered and said, so he was there.

So what went on? Pray to your look at verse 27, Then saith he to Thomas. Of all the people in that room, he deals specifically with Thomas this time. Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands and reach hither thy hand and thrust into my side. It's literally Jesus repeated back to Thomas the very same thing Thomas had said when Jesus wasn't there.

Whoa. Jesus is omnipotent, omniscient, omnipresent. He knows it all. Look at verse 27, And be not faithless, but believing. Verse 28, Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God. What's interesting here, what Thomas said he needed to believe, he didn't need to believe. He said well he was there, yeah but Thomas says I've got to touch it.

I've got to touch the nail prints with my hand and I've got to touch his spear pierced side with my hand or I will not believe. And yet he didn't have to touch anything, just seeing Jesus he said, My Lord and my God. Look at verse 29, Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. And I like to add a word here, I don't ever add to scripture but for our understanding it's like this but is what he says. Believing but blessed are they that have not seen and yet have believed.

Now that word but is not in there but what I'm saying is this. Jesus is saying hey you believe me because you have seen but the point Jesus is trying to make here is blessed are they that believe on him that they haven't seen. Who's that?

Us. Let's pray, Lord we love you and as we give a little background Lord I pray you bless this message that it would help our people in Jesus name, Amen. Several of our Lord's disciples are well known. You can normally find books about Peter. You can find books about John. You can find books about Judas. You can even sometimes find books about Matthew.

Most of the time that you deal with some of these it will be in commentaries or something like that but a specific book about certain individuals. There are disciples that are much better known but you rarely will find a book specifically about Thomas. Thomas is just not, there's not a lot said. In fact books could be and have been written about all these other men but the rest about Thomas we know very little about. And I want to look at the Bible today and I want us to just try to dig a little bit and find out a little bit about what we don't know about Thomas.

We know next to nothing about this man's early life and we don't even know much about his call to follow Jesus. We know Matthew and we know all these things and we've been told the details but we're not told a lot of details about Thomas. Now in John chapter 21 you don't need to turn there but we find during another period of time of unrest between Peter and different things Thomas is one of the disciples that went fishing with Peter in John chapter 21. So it might have been that Thomas was a fisherman before he became a disciple but we don't know.

Now we know the specific occupation of other disciples but we don't know what Thomas did before he began to follow Jesus. The name Thomas is Aramaic for the word twin. Now he's also called another name in the Bible and that's Didymus. Didymus is the Greek term or the Greek name for twin. So Thomas is Aramaic for twin.

Didymus is Greek for twin. So what we believe here is that Thomas was a twin. Thomas we don't know if he had a twin brother or he had a twin sister but he's always called twin. Now there are those that believe that maybe Thomas and Matthew were twins because they're always mentioned together but we don't know that. And so we believe Thomas had a twin but we don't know about the other twin. We don't know if the other twin was still alive. Something might have happened.

We just don't know. So we don't know much about him and we know that he was probably a twin but that's about all we know. Now Thomas only appears, now you say this is a Sunday morning preacher why are you giving me a history lesson?

Just hold on. Thomas only appears in 12 verses in the entire gospels. Just 12 verses. Matthew, Mark, Luke. Thomas is only mentioned three times in those books. Now each time he's mentioned his name simply appears when listed with the other disciples. So there's just not a whole lot of mention. There's not a lot of record about him. He's mentioned in Acts chapter 1 verse 3 for this reason because he was present in the upper room at Pentecost.

But that's about all we know. Now eight of the verses that mention Thomas are right here in the book of John. He's mentioned in John 11 verse 16. He's mentioned in John chapter 14 verse 5. We're going to look at those in just a minute. In both these verses the words of Thomas are quoted by John.

And we're going to look at all this in just a minute. Now in John chapter 21 he is listed literally as one of the seven disciples that went fishing with Peter. And the other five verses of Thomas we're going to read today.

So you say preacher what are you saying all this for? For nearly 2,000 years Thomas has received bad press. He's been given the name doubting Thomas.

He's been portrayed as a man that was literally filled with doubt and filled with fear that he was a scared individual that he was always kind of guarding himself and didn't want to get into any kind of dangerous situation. But the Bible literally reveals another side of Thomas. You see Thomas' problem wasn't that he was a doubter. Thomas' problem was that he was a pessimist. Thomas was the kind of individual that always saw the glass half empty. He seemed to look at the negative side of everything. And as we look in the Bible we'll see that he possessed some admirable qualities.

But he was always the individual that kind of looked at the negative first. And from that he's been called doubting Thomas. And I'm going to be honest with you in these verses in John there's a far different thing that I see. I want you to notice number one this morning we want to look at three things in this passage.

Number one we want to see when Thomas disappeared. Now if you look at verse 24 the Bible says this. But Thomas one of the twelve called Didymus was not with them when Jesus came. Now the disciples were there in verse 19 because they just watched Jesus being crucified.

And obviously they felt oh my goodness you know all these things that we were going to do. And they thought Jesus was going to set up his kingdom on earth. But what they didn't realize he was setting up his kingdom in heaven. And here they watch him die and so now they're meeting together for fear of safety.

Thinking that other people are going to be trying to kill him and find him. And here they are meeting together very dejected very down because Jesus had been crucified. And they didn't really know what to think. So that's why they were here in verse 19. And then obviously we find in verse 24 that Thomas was not with them. Now why was Thomas not with them? Why did he disappear? Why did he seem to not be with them and not follow them and not stay together with the group. At what is probably the most important time that he ever could have done that. I want you to notice first I want you to see how Thomas ministered. Now we got to look a little bit of his life.

Now you don't need to turn there for sake of time this morning. But in John chapter 11 verse 16 we find that Jesus is going to raise Lazarus from the dead. And Thomas knew that Jesus' enemies were after him at this period of time. And we find in John chapter 11 verse 16 that Thomas was willing to go with Jesus. And literally to die with him if necessary in John chapter 11.

Now I don't know about you that doesn't sound much like a doubting Thomas. Here's a man willing to lay down his life for Jesus. In John chapter 14 we find that Jesus told his disciples that he was going away. And he also tells the disciples that they know where he's going and they know how to get there themselves. But Thomas responded by saying something very unique. He literally said Jesus I need more information.

Jesus this whole time he'd been ministering to them. And Thomas said but Lord I need more information. And often times you and I will look at that and we'll say well here he is doubting again. And dear friend look at me he wasn't doubting.

He was inquisitive. This is important for you to know how to get to heaven. This is important for you to know who Jesus the son of God is. And Thomas simply said hey you got to tell me everything about that.

Make it clear to me. Can I tell you something this morning? Do you know it's very clear for you and us to make it clear to people how they get to heaven. So what we see from Thomas as we look at these two places we see that here's a man that was not fearful at all. Here's a man that was very determined to know how to get to heaven. That was very determined to serve his savior. Here's a man that loves the Lord more than he loves his own life.

So why is he called that? Well we see how he ministered while he was here on earth. Let's look at secondly at why he mourned. Why was Thomas not there this day? Now listen to me. What had just happened? Jesus had just died on the cross. Thomas' world was literally shattered.

Now look at me. Out of the whole group Thomas was the one that was always skeptical. He's the one that was always thinking. He's the one that always wanted more information.

Thomas didn't just believe something because you said it. He wanted to know why. He wanted to know who. And he wanted to know where.

And he wanted to know what. And Thomas literally had put his faith and his trust. And he watched Jesus die. And you think to yourself well man if he's the King of Kings and the Lord of Lords. Then he just dies. He doesn't respond. He doesn't fight back. He doesn't bring a million angels to take care of this. He just takes it and lays there and is crucified and he dies. Why was Thomas not there that morning? Listen to me.

I want you to get this. Thomas literally had gone from doubting to pouting. Thomas was not with the group when they met to worship.

Thomas was avoiding it. He was hurt. He was dejected. He felt maybe all my belief had been wrong. And maybe everything that I had thought wasn't true. And maybe all my faith was misplaced. And Thomas was literally pouting while the rest were worshiping.

Now hold on. So we see how Thomas ministered. Now we see why he mourned. But third what did Thomas miss?

We need to see what he missed. Because he was not there that day. He was pouting. He was hurt. Because he didn't understand. And he felt that all this effort and then Jesus just died anyway. And he wasn't with the Twelve. He wasn't up there where he should have been. He wasn't worshiping. He was pouting. He missed it.

Now notice this. What did Thomas miss? Now verses 19 through 23 tell us something very interesting. Verse 19 we find this. That Thomas, because he wasn't there, he missed the presence of the Lord. Jesus showed up. The Bible says he came and stood in the midst. So he missed the presence of the Lord, verse 19. He missed the power of the Lord.

Because when Jesus showed up, guess what he did? He spoke. That means that he had the power to be raised from the dead. He was alive and well. And he spoke with his voice. Which means this wasn't a ghost.

This wasn't just an image. It was really Jesus. So he missed his presence.

He missed his power. And then in verse 19 what did Jesus say? He said, peace be unto you. He missed his peace. All the disciples were in turmoil. But when Jesus showed up, he brought peace. By the way, Jesus brings peace to your life too. But Thomas didn't get that peace for another eight days.

You know why? He wasn't there. He missed it. Verse 20 says this. He missed the praises of the Lord.

Look at verse 20 if you will. And when he said he showed unto them his hands and his side, then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. They began to praise him there in their midst.

And Thomas missed out on that. Here's the Savior that he loved. And he could have been there when he showed up for the first time. And he could have been given the peace that only God can give. And he could have joined them in praising God. But he wasn't there.

He missed it. I want you to notice in verse 21 he missed the promotions of the Lord. Look at verse 21. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you as my Father has sent me.

Even so send I you. Jesus looks at him and he says, now you know that I am the Savior. I am king of kings. I have defeated death.

Now I send you. And Thomas wasn't there. I want you to notice in verse 22 and 23 he missed the provisions of the Lord. Look at verse 22. And when he said this he breathed on them and said unto them receive ye the Holy Ghost. What a time. This will never be repeated in history. The first time that Jesus breathed the Holy Ghost into individuals.

Look at me. And Thomas missed it. Now you say preacher, what is the point you're trying to make?

Thomas missed a lot that morning when he missed that assembly. What does the Bible say? Forsake not the assembling of yourselves together.

Are you getting where I'm going this morning? This is proof regardless of the excuses that you and I give. We are not to miss out on God's house.

Dear friend, do you know that you will miss things when you miss God's house that you will not ever repeat again? You say let me prove it. Let me prove it.

The disciples came to him and they told him everything that happened in that service. And Thomas said well I didn't see it. I'm not gonna believe it. Dear friend, look at me. I want you to understand. Thomas missed out on a whole bunch of things.

Look at me. Not because he missed a month or two months or three months. Because he missed one service. He was pouting so he missed what Jesus had for him. How many times are we pouting and we miss church? How many times because maybe our faith has been shaken or maybe somebody has let us down or maybe the difficult circumstances like Thomas because he just watched Jesus die and it was a hard time for him. Dear folks, it was a hard time for all the disciples. But they still met together and worshiped.

Dear friends, I'm here to tell you Thomas wasn't necessarily a doubter and he wasn't a bad man. But because he had let circumstances get to him and he was pouting, he missed on something that will never be repeated. It's not that God's not gonna use him. It's not that he can go back to church. It's not that he can still serve God.

It's not that he won't have great things. But I'm here to tell you, that assembly, that day, there are things that happened there that will never happen again. In that way, it was a special time. It was a sacred time and Thomas missed it. Could I ask you something, dear friend?

How much have you missed out on? So many times for us we can miss a church service and we just don't think a thing about it. Dear friend, you have no idea what you might have missed that God would have or could have done in our lives. You say, preacher, this is not something for you to preach on a Sunday morning. You're supposed to make everybody happy. I am trying. You'll never be happier than when you just settle something in your life, I'm gonna be at church. By the way, Thomas is one of the inner circle of disciples. If he could miss it, so can we. If he can get kind of enamored, if he can get bared down with things that, you know what, I just don't feel like it.

And look what he missed. It doesn't matter how people tell you about it and it doesn't matter how you hear about it. I don't know if you're like me. There are times when I've missed certain meetings or certain church services or whatever the case might be and that seems to be the one where everything happens. I was talking to somebody this past week and I said, man, a couple Sundays ago, we had seven people, seven adults saved and we were on the list to baptize four of them.

We got one this morning baptizing in different things and they're like, seven adults saved on Sunday. Wow, everything happens when I'm gone. And I wanted to say, you said it, not me. It's happened to me before.

I'll just, for some reason, I missed something. I'm supposed to go and that seems to be when the Holy Spirit showed up and all these good things happen and everybody comes to me and they say, oh, man, you should have been there that day. And I'm gonna be honest with you, we spiritually say, oh, I know I really, part of me wants to say, I don't wanna hear about it.

Makes me grumpy. It's like, oh, all those times I go, nothing. Then the one I don't, God shows up.

Dear friend, can I tell ya, whether you hear about it or whether you see it, it's always that way. God always has something for us when we meet together. If our heart is right, He always has something for us. And I wanna encourage you, one of the best decisions you'll make in your life is to realize it is important for me to be there when we worship God and I'm gonna be there. Let me mention some things that, you know, sometimes our lives are busy and, man, our kids are in sports and different things and we've got this, we've got that going and, you know, it's very easy for us to get involved and busy with so many things that oftentimes God doesn't get first place in our schedule or our life, but can I tell you that nowadays it seems God's not even getting fifth or sixth or seventh place in our schedule?

And it might be sometimes because we're busy or sometimes because we're just mad about something or we're mad at someone or sometimes we don't like the preacher, we don't like the deacons or we don't like some decision that's been made or people have all kinds of excuses and we all, me too, we all have all kinds of excuses and we offer why we miss church, but dear friend, I'm gonna be honest with you, you're gonna be hard pressed if Jesus is standing right in front of you and you're looking at him face to face, you would be hard pressed for that excuse to really hold a lot of water. Look at verse 25. The other disciples come and they tell him what went on and he literally says this, you know, except I see the hands and the print of his nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and thrust my hand into his side. So he said unless I see it and then I touch it also, notice what he says, I will not believe. That little verb, by the way, in verse 25, the disciples therefore said unto him, that is an active voice verb in Greek and it means this, that they didn't just tell him what happened, they kept telling him.

We saw Jesus, this is what he did and they kept telling and telling and telling and finally he uses a double negative at the end of this verse. He literally is saying this, I positively, absolutely will not believe unless I can see it and touch it. So we see here when Thomas doubted. He literally goes so far to say I will not believe.

Now, this is my point this morning, we're almost done but listen to me. Why we are so hard on Thomas here is beside me and I'm guilty of the same thing because just because you hear things, I use the same phrase. You know like old doubting Thomas, whatever the case might be. Do you know that Thomas here did not demand any more proof than the other disciples needed?

Let me read you this account, hold on. In Luke chapter 24, listen to this. Now upon the first day of the week very early in the morning, they came unto the sepulcher, bringing the spices which they had prepared and certain other first day of the week, Sunday and they found the stone rolled away from the sepulcher and they entered in and found not the body of the Lord Jesus and it came to pass as they were much perplexed thereabout. Behold, two men stood by them in shining garments and as they were afraid and bowed down their faces to the earth, they said to them, why seek ye the living among the dead? These are angels. Why seek ye the living among the dead? Here's these and I'm not gonna tell you all the people that were that had prepared the body of Jesus, they come back and it's gone and then they meet these two angels.

Listen to this, this is what the angel said. He is not here, but is risen. Remember how He spake unto you and He was yet in Galilee, saying the Son of Man must be lived into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and the third day rise again and they remembered His words and returned from the sepulcher, listen to this, and told all these things unto the 11. The very ones that were up there, they came back and told them that the body of Jesus wasn't there. They came and told them, the angels told us that He's alive, listen to this.

It was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and other women that were with them which told these things unto the disciples and their words seemed to them as idle tales and they believed them not. Thank you for listening today. We hope you received a blessing from our broadcast. The Kirtland Baptist Church is located at 4520 Old Hollow Road in Kernersville, North Carolina. You may also contact us by phone at 336-993-5192. Or via the web at kirtlandbaptistchurch.com. Enjoy our services live and all our media on our website and church app. Thank you for listening to the Kerwin broadcast today. God bless you.