Friends, turn with me in your Bibles to John's Gospel. The Gospel according to John and chapter 20. John chapter 20. John, the author of this Gospel, he writes to us the reason why this Gospel was given. It says there in verse 31 of chapter 20, but these are written, so John wrote this gospel that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ the Son of God and that believing ye might have life through his name every one of the gospels they have an intention there's a reason for it and here John's aim has been under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit to bring truth to us so that we might believe in the Lord Jesus Christ now if you are a Bible reader, if you regularly read your Bible, if you attend a church like this regularly, I'm sure you know some of the followers of the Lord Jesus Christ better than others. Books could be written and have been written about Peter, about John himself, about Judas even. Books have been written, but I have not yet seen a book on Thomas. Have you? Very little has been said about him and about some of the others. There are other disciples who you only see just one reference to them. But as we look at this, friends, this passage before us, verses 19 to 29, I want you to look at the life of this man, Thomas, and the things that we learn from this disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I want us to think about this subject, human skepticism and Christ. Human skepticism and Christ. We know next to nothing. of this man's early life or of his call to follow the Lord Jesus Christ. We know of Matthew, for example, the Lord said to him, his name was Levi, and he says, come and follow me. Peter the same, John the same, and others. But we don't know when was he called? How was he called? What was the circumstances of his life? From the fact that he went fishing, in the next chapter you find him fishing with Peter, who himself was a fisherman, we would presume that he was also a fisherman. And then you think about another point, the very name Thomas. Thomas is an Aramaic name, it means twin. And then also, Another name is given to him. His Greek name is Didymus. Didymus also means twin. So from that, apparently, Thomas had either a twin brother or twin sister. But again, we don't know anything about that person. We don't know who his twin was. He only appears in 12 verses in the Gospel record. In Matthew, Mark and Luke, Thomas is only mentioned three times. Each time he's mentioned his name is amongst the rest of the disciples when the list is given. He's also mentioned in the book of Acts in Acts chapter 1 and verse 3 he was still there as a disciple present in the upper room on the day of Pentecost. He was a praying man, he was with the rest praying and seeking the Lord. Eight of the verses that mention Thomas are here in the Gospel of John. And in John chapter 11 verse 6, for example, in John 14 and verse 5, we'll look at those later on. And then you have it in chapter 21 as well, the next chapter, and verse 2. But then you have the largest section about Thomas here in chapter 20 of John. And that's what we want to think about. Nearly, for nearly 2,000 years, Thomas has received a lot of bad press, I would say. People call him the doubting Thomas. He doubted. And I'm sure you've heard of that. Well, I want to make an attempt to correct some of the record about Thomas. as we want to think about this matter of skepticism, humanist skepticism and the Lord Jesus Christ. And I think that the Bible reveals another side of Thomas. His primary problem, Thomas' primary problem wasn't his doubting, but Thomas was a pessimist. He was a pessimist. Are you a pessimist? Or maybe you say, I'm not a pessimist, I'm a realist. Maybe that's you. Maybe you are one who, when a cup is given, and I say, what is this? This is a half a glass of water. You would say, rather than saying it's a glass of water, it's a half a glass. Maybe that's what you see. Maybe someone shows you a clean piece of paper and then you say, well, this is, this paper has a dot in the middle of it and you forget that actually the rest of it is quite clean. And maybe that's the kind of a person you are. Well, that's the kind of person Thomas was. He seemed to look for the negative side of situation first. For him, the sky was always cloudy. He could have been very British. But he would see these things and that's what you find in the record here. He has this attitude. He looks at the dark side of things. But as you look at this passage about Thomas, I want you to see that he possessed some admirable qualities. Among many things that we would glean is that he was loyal to the Lord. He was loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ. He loved the Lord Jesus Christ. He possessed this inquiring spirit. He wanted to know. Do you want to know? That's not a bad thing. He was skeptical, we could say, yes, but his skepticism wasn't like the world's skepticism about the things of God. But his skepticism was the right kind of skepticism. He was inquiring. What is skepticism? Well, skepticism means The dictionary defines it like this, a doubting or questioning attitude or a state of mind, uncertainty. You could say a skeptic is someone who is uncertain. Now, it's not always a bad thing. It doesn't have to be a bad thing. It doesn't have to be a negative thing. So as a skeptic, yes, Thomas was doubtful and questioning things and not merely taking what he was told by other people. But the issue is his skepticism also included teachability. He was teachable. He wanted to know. He asked questions. It's a good thing to ask questions. It's a good thing to ask questions about sermons, about the Bible, about all of these things. And children, you ask questions and you ask your parents, why do we do this? Why do we believe? What is the gospel? These are good things to ask. And that's the attitude of Thomas. It wasn't a bad thing that he was saying these things. But he wasn't satisfied with just being told things. He wanted to know the reality. That's what he wanted. Is that what you want? The reality of things? Is that the kind of skeptic you are? Or you're like some people who just wouldn't listen at all. They ask questions while you have it in the open air. They say, oh, there is no God. And then they just walk away. And they don't want to know. So this morning, I want to look at this passage. And I want to ask you to think about it. Does it fit you? Is there anything in here that fits you? First of all, from verse 24 we see that a skeptical outlook on life misses out in life. A skeptical outlook on life misses out many things in life. If a person has that kind of a spirit, a negative attitude, you're going to miss out many things. Now look at the context here. It says in verse 24, But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. Now what's the context? Where was this place? Why were the disciples where they were? Well, verse 19 tells us. It tells us what they were doing. Verse 19 says, Then the same day and evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled, That's the context. We don't know where Thomas was that day, but he wasn't there with them when these things took place. But when we look at this, when we look at this passage, at what we do know about him, it gives us the answers. There are two examples given in the Bible that show us the heart of Thomas, that where could he have been? In chapter 11 of John and verse 16, in chapter 11 and verse 16, you have these words of Thomas recorded for us here. Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, unto his fellow disciples, let us also go that we may die with him, he says. Again, look at the context here. I'll just explain it to you why he said these words. Well, the Lord Jesus Christ is going to raise Lazarus. And Thomas knows that the Lord Jesus' enemies are after him. They're after him and the Lord Jesus might die. The death, they might kill him. So he knows that. The news is in the air that his life is on the line. Jesus' life is on the line. And so what he's saying here is, I am willing to go and die with him. If it's necessary, I will die for the Lord Jesus and I will die with the Lord Jesus. And so Thomas challenged the rest to go along with Jesus. He says, I'm going to go. And if I die, I die. You come with me too. That's what he said. And then in chapter 14, a passage that we very much love in chapter 14 and verse 5, Again, Thomas saith unto him, Lord, we know not whither thou goest, and how can we know the way? And then, of course, the Lord Jesus Christ comes and says, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No man cometh unto the Father but by me, he says. The context there, again, the Lord Jesus had told the disciples that he's going to go away. And he also tells the disciples that they know where he is going and they know how to get there themselves. And Thomas responds by saying that he needs more information. I need to know more about this. That's not enough for me. I would like to know more. And so the answer the Lord Jesus Christ gave has been the greatest encouragement to God's people. We are thankful that Thomas asked these questions. And so we should welcome questions. What if Thomas never asked this kind of a question? We would not have verse 6 as an answer. So thank God that he's inquiring. And thank God that he wants to know more information. And so the Lord Jesus Christ says to him, I am the only way. Christianity is an exclusive religion, the Lord Jesus Christ is saying. You want to go to heaven? It's not through anyone else but through Jesus Christ. It's not through the Pope, it's not through Mary, it's not through Buddha, it's not through Zoroaster, it's not through anybody else but only through the Lord Jesus Christ. And so that comes to us through that question. And these two passages show us a man who is not fearful at all. He's not fearful to ask questions. You know, some of the problems with us is that we read into things. I do it myself. We read into what somebody has said. Both men and women are the same. We read into, we have a bit of information and we spin a whole thing out of it. And we get into all kinds of trouble because of it. And but if we only ask questions, if only we said, well, what do you mean by that? Why do you say this? Can you explain this to me? Most of our problems would vanish away, but we don't do that. We just think we know what people mean by what they say or by what they don't say. And yet Thomas wasn't like this. I need to know. I must be clear about this matter. So that is a very brave thing. That is a very brave thing to ask questions. And he is loyal to the Lord Jesus Christ to the point of death. He loves his Lord more than his own life. He would rather die than have to live in this world without the Lord Jesus Christ. So when the Lord Jesus Christ died on the cross, here was this man who had all his hope and all his trust in the Lord Jesus. Thomas's world was shattered. Surely he thought the worst. He no doubt became despondent. He was depressed. He was discouraged. You would have been too. I would have been too. He was not with the other disciples by choice. That's what I'm trying to get to. He wasn't there by choice. He was not there because he was broken or he was not there because he wasn't. He was broken hearted. He was not there because everything he had hoped for, everything he had longed for. In the Lord Jesus Christ, he died and he was buried. And then the issue was that his body had vanished. And so he was maybe going around, walking about, just wondering, what's happened? What's happened? Wouldn't you be the same? Sometimes it is when we are so discouraged, we don't want to see anybody. We don't want to see anyone. We don't want to talk to anybody. We just want to be by ourselves. I'm sure you're like that. I am like that at times. And so we could imagine where he could have been. Thomas was somewhere else sulking and upset on that first day of the week, on that resurrection day. That was the first resurrection day and Thomas missed it. So whatever his reasons were for missing that gathering of the people, that Lord's Day morning, Thomas missed much because he was not there. My friends, you miss much when you are not amongst the Lord's people. You miss much. Notice what He missed that day. In verse 19, he missed the Lord Jesus' presence. The very one that he had hoped in was there and Thomas missed it. Missed the Lord that day. He missed the great power of the Lord Jesus Christ as he appeared amongst the disciples, those fearful disciples. He missed his power. And when the Lord Jesus Christ sent his peace and he says, my peace be upon you, peace be unto you. He missed that too, the peace and the lovely presence of the Savior. He missed this commission of the Lord Jesus as well, that He sent them out. And He said to them in verse 21, Peace be unto you, as my Father had sent me, even so send I you. He missed that. He could have been encouraged by that. The Lord is sending us out again. And nothing has changed. It's all even better now. And then in verses 22 and 23, he missed the fact that the Lord Jesus Christ sent a wonderful presence of the Holy Spirit and he gave them the Holy Spirit in that wonderful way. So he missed a lot when he missed that assembly meeting. And so regardless of his excuse for not being there, he missed some things that he could, it could never be duplicated. It could never be duplicated. Others told him about it and he couldn't believe it. In verse 25, and other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. So do you see, he found it hard to believe. He learned the hard way that there are some things that you have to just be there to see it. There's a lesson here about missing the gathering of the Lord's people. I speak to myself. The Lord says that where two or three are gathered together in his name, there he is in their midst. So this is it. a negative outlook on life, misses out in life. He was concerned about what had happened to the Lord Jesus and he had maybe forgotten for a season what the Lord had said he would do. And so he missed out. But praise God, that's not all. But let's move on now to verse 25 and look at the skeptic's thoughts. Again, look at the context. Thomas wasn't there when the Lord Jesus Christ appeared and the other disciples were there. And they tell him all that they had seen when the Lord Jesus Christ had appeared to them. And this is what they said. It says that, and other disciples therefore said unto him, we have seen the Lord. Now, if you were to look at the original, you would see that that word said, if you remember your English grammar, it is in the active voice. Now, it is important. Grammar is important. By active voice, it means they didn't just say it once. But they carried on saying it. They kept saying, they pressed it onto him. But we have seen the Lord. Thomas would say, oh no, I don't believe that. And then they would say, but we have, we have seen the Lord. That's what it is. And so we miss that when we forget our grammar. So they kept on telling him about seeing Jesus Christ and they were trying to convince him that the Lord was really risen from the dead. And so they were trying to encourage him, but he wouldn't have it. Sometimes Christians can be like that. They can be so discouraged that whatever people say won't make any impact. Be like the disciples, carry on encouraging and carry on saying to one another about the things of God. And he goes so far as to say, I will not believe, he says. I will not believe. And that's a powerful statement. It's a powerful statement for you to say, I won't believe it. I won't believe it. You see, it is a double negative, we would say, again, in grammar. It's a double negative. Thomas is saying, I positively will not believe. Have you ever said things like that? Now before we come down too hard on Thomas, we need to think about the other disciples too. When they first heard the news that the Lord Jesus Christ was alive, they didn't believe either. They didn't believe it. And it's recorded in various parts in Luke's gospel, in Mark's gospel, that they were amazed and they would not believe. The whole group was so overcome with grief and disappointment that they could not bring themselves to believe. And the only reason that these 10 disciples believed was because they had seen the Lord Jesus Christ. He had come to them. That's why. And Thomas was only asking for the same proof that they had already received. That's what it was. So here was Thomas' problem. He was a negative person. Are you a negative person? Are you a person without any hope? The Bible says those who do not trust in the Lord, they have no hope. So there's no surprise by that. He had hoped against hope that Jesus Christ was the Messiah and the Savior. Now, his last memory of the Lord Jesus is what? The Lord Jesus dying on the cross. That's all he could remember. That's all I can remember. And so when you say to me that he has risen from the dead, we've never seen anything like this. So he had this human skepticism. His world had fallen around him. and he can't bring himself to believe anymore. So he rejects the words of his friends and spends the whole week in self-imposed sort of loneliness, self-isolation and discouragement. Friends, maybe there are people in this room who can identify with Thomas. You have a hard time believing what you cannot see with your eyes. And for that reasons and other things, you have put off trusting in Christ. His claims are amazing. What the Bible say about Jesus Christ, the Son of God, who is God manifest in the flesh, that's an amazing thing and it is hard to grasp as well. It's not easy to explain it either, but we are called to believe these words. Still let me encourage you as those disciples kept saying, but he is risen, he is risen. I encourage you too. He is risen as well. He's alive. So you ought to delay no longer. I encourage you, believe on him. Look to the Lord Jesus and believe this testimony of God's word. It's not my testimony. It's not someone else's testimony. It's Christ's testimony and those who saw him. And as we trust in Him, the Lord saves and brings conviction of sin. He shows that He's our only hope. Others have lived lives shaken by one disappointment after another. You're maybe disillusioned. You're maybe thinking the claims of the Lord Jesus are too hard to be true. But the thing that makes them so good and a wonderful gospel, which is the good news, is the fact that they are true. The Lord Jesus Christ promised that He would die the death upon the cross for us. And He did that. And He promised that He would rise again from the dead. And He did that. So He is trustworthy. He also has said that those who believe on me have eternal life. And those who trust in Him, they receive salvation for their soul. They receive forgiveness of sins. He is able to make us a child of God. free from that spiritual death and condemnation, from the bondage of sin. So if you sense the horribleness, the awfulness of your sin, then you ought to turn away from that and turn to Jesus Christ. You can't make yourself a Christian, you can't change your own heart, but the Lord Jesus Christ has said, He will give of His Spirit to us. If you let ourselves, if you boys and girls, you let yourself and children are the future generation. If you immerse yourself in what you see and what you hear in this world, this secular world. We are not living in a Christian country. We are living in a very secular country. The country that the information that we receive day in day out, it's not glorifying to God. It's not glorifying God. And it's given to us by unbelievers. So much of the information you receive day by day is written by, given by unbelievers, by skeptics who don't want to know. And so if you immerse yourself in that, no wonder then we become double negatives. No wonder then we don't believe. No wonder then we go on hopelessly, carelessly in this world. So what should we do? If you allow as well, some of you maybe you allow disappointments fester away in your heart. Make you bitter. Maybe people have offended you. Maybe you have seen hypocrisy amongst Christians. And you've been so hurt. And that hurt has solidified. And what that can easily do is to move you away. Fill you with doubts and fears. What should we do? We turn to the Lord Jesus Christ. We keep close to Him. We cast all of our cares upon Him, the scripture says, all of your concerns on the Lord Jesus. For He careth for you, the scripture says. So if you gather these things up in your heart and mind, whatever the world tells you, the offenses that come, then you'll be a very negative person and your approach to things would be very negative and critical. But here is this man who is confronted by the Lord Jesus. Now finally, the third thing is this. The skeptic's transformation. The skeptic's transformation in verses 26 through to 29. Again, let me remind you of the context here. Perhaps the disciples begged and pleaded with Thomas to point where he, to that point that where he decided to to meet with them the next Lord's Day. Maybe they say, come again, come again. Don't go away, come back. Maybe the Lord Jesus will visit us. And while they are there, the Lord Jesus again appears in their midst. And this time, he focuses his attention on Thomas. And he repeats to Thomas what Thomas had said to the disciples. And he says, do this then. I invite you to come and put your finger in the prints of the nails in my hands. You then come and put your hand and thrust it in my side. You do that. The Lord Jesus is telling him to let go of his doubts and trust in him who he knows to be true. Friends, there is a difference between doubt and unbelief. Doubt is a problem of the intellect. The person wants to believe, maybe, but he has questions. He has things that need to be answered. Unbelief is a problem of the heart. It's a problem of the heart. Unbelief is a sin. Unbelief will not believe no matter what it sees. And there are people like that. You present them with the claims of the Lord Jesus Christ, with the proofs of his resurrection. You point them to many, many facts and you reason with them, but they have shut their eyes. They will not believe. And spiritually, that's how we all are. Thomas was plagued by doubt, not unbelief. When his questions were answered, he did not need to touch the risen Jesus. He didn't do the very things he had said he would do because he saw the proof. And seeing him was enough. So Thomas, and it says one of the greatest confessions in the Bible, Thomas then as he sees our Lord Jesus Christ, he says, my Lord and my God, So he says Jesus Christ is God. It's an amazing thing. So those people who were around the Lord Jesus, the disciples of the Lord Jesus, saw him as God. All of his negativity, all of his skepticism, all of his doubts are now settled. Thomas receives what the other disciples had been enjoying for a whole week. So it's not that he didn't receive them after all. He did receive them, but he missed out for a whole week of having peace and joy. in knowing that the Lord was there. He got all of those things back that these disciples had received and apparently Thomas never doubted again. After Pentecost the Bible never mentions him again but history tells us if you read Foxe's Book of Martyrs he gathers up the evidence and shows how this Thomas He went throughout the Middle East. And he went even through Persia, the Iran of today. And then he went into India. And he established churches all the way through. And in both Iran and in India, there are still buildings that they date back. At least they say that they go back to the time when Thomas visited. And as he was preaching the gospel, these Hindus came, and they hated what they were hearing, and threw a javelin at him, and thrust him, and he died. But he carried on to the point of death. He was preaching the gospel of the Lord Jesus. He still loved the Lord Jesus Christ to the end. Oh friends, oh that those who doubt could do what Thomas did. Oh that you would get past those things that are at the moment blocking your way. And you're wondering, maybe there are those who are just not believing. There are those who have questions and you are in your thoughts and in your feelings, you've become bitter and hard about the things of God. Maybe there are those who have heard these things before, but now they come to you afresh if you come to Him this day. Be not faithless, as the Lord Jesus said. Be not faithless, but believing. Then you would find that Jesus Christ, He fills the heart and life with peace and joy and praise and blessing. He takes us as we are, but He transforms us. He doesn't keep us the same as we are, as He transformed Thomas. No matter who you are then, no matter what your background has been, no matter what you have done, we, you and I, we need the Lord Jesus Christ and he can save us and he will save us and keep us as we come to him. This is what the Lord said. So we come to the Lord and he will not cast us out. So in conclusion, in verse 29, The Lord Jesus tells Thomas something we need to hear today. He tells Thomas that Thomas had believed of what he had seen with his eyes. The Lord then Jesus says something that is amazing, very important. He says that those who believe without seeing are even more blessed than Thomas. So we who see Christ by faith, trust in him by faith without having seen him, we don't know what Jesus Christ looked like. He didn't have blue eyes and blonde hair and white robes as the pictures depict for us. No, no. But by faith, how do we see Jesus? By faith we see his finished work. By faith we see who he is, the all gracious and loving God. And we trust in him. That's the good news. So friends, here we are then. What are you going to be? What kind of a character will you have? What kind of a person will you be? Are you going to be someone who says, I will not believe. I'm not going to believe. Or maybe you have questions and you have concerns and maybe you say, I want to ask Estelle. I want to go on asking. I want to study the scriptures. Well, that's a good thing. Come and speak to us. We'll be able to help you. We can give you some literature. We can point you to the Lord Jesus Christ again. Or maybe you are a Christian. but it's been a long time. Maybe you're a Christian and you have harbored things in your heart and right now these things are speaking to you. Maybe you're like Thomas who's been disappointed and there are disciples who keep speaking to you and you've been putting things off. Well, may the Lord bless you as he did with Thomas too. May the Lord then speak to us now.