Welcome to Day 2351 of Wisdom-Trek. Thank you for joining me.

This is Guthrie Chamberlain, Your Guide to Wisdom

He Is Risen - Blessed Are You Who Have Not Seen, and Yet Believe – Daily Wisdom

Putnam Church Message – 03/31/2024 He Is Risen – Resurrection Sunday: Blessed Are Those Who Believe Without Seeing Me – John 20:19-31   Today, we finish our five-week Lenten series this Resurrection Sunday. Today, our message is “Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Our Scripture passage for today is John 20:19-31 on pages 1686-1687 of your Pew Bibles. ¹⁹ On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” ²⁰ After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. ²¹ Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” ²² And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. ²³ If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.” ²⁴ Now Thomas (also known as Didymus^[a]), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. ²⁵ 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.” ²⁶ 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!” ²⁷ 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.” ²⁸ Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!” ²⁹ Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” ³⁰ Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. ³¹ But these are written that you may believe^[b] that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. There is no more important question than, “Did Jesus rise from the dead?" Because if Jesus did rise from the dead, then he has conquered sin and death. But if he did not rise from the dead, his claims are entirely false. There's nothing to them and no hope to be found in them. Either Christ is the hope of the world, or he is the great hoax of history, and the difference lies in his resurrection. And that's why the story about Thomas in John's Gospel is so important. It truthfully allows us to ask the question, “What's the evidence? Did he rise from the dead, or did he not?" This question reminds me of the funny old Wendy’s commercials from 40 years ago where three older ladies are inspecting a hamburger with a giant bun and a small piece of beef, and one of the ladies keeps repeating, “Where’s the Beef?” So today, we want to answer the question: “Where is the evidence of the Resurrection?” (Where’s the beef? The proof?) As for Thomas, he only wanted hard, physical evidence. He knew the soldiers had pierced and wounded Jesus' body. He wanted to probe those wounds with his fingers to see if they were actually real. Thomas wanted to see a living person with a dead man's wounds. Only if he got evidence like that would Thomas commit his life to Jesus. So, my question for you today is: What proof would satisfy you? We Live in a Skeptical Age We live in a skeptical age, and rightfully so. We live in the age of twisted and tainted newscasts from all corners of media. Some people have boldly proclaimed it as fake news. While most news is probably not fake, most newscasts are slanted to a particular mindset or worldview. The objective is to instill enough fear in us so that we keep coming back for more. (Sticky eyeballs) Some people make spectacular claims on the internet fringe — like “The Earth is Flat” or “I saw Big Foot" — and we take such reports with a grain of salt. Some people today even doubt more established reports, such as the human-based lunar landings in the 1960s and 70s. In 2006, a poll of college students revealed that 27% doubted whether people had ever set foot on the moon. We're skeptical, and we expect there will be hoaxes. We also realize that science can explain many things. For instance, it has been said that 60% of people losing their eyesight will start seeing things that are not there - like animals and geometric shapes. Some report seeing little people four inches high. It’s an actual medical condition called Charles Bonnet Syndrome. So, if you are losing your eyesight and see little people four inches high, you can shout out, “Leprechauns are for real!" or realize that you might have Charles Bonnet Syndrome. Because of our skeptical age, when people consider the story of the resurrection of Jesus, many say, “The Apostles must have imagined it!" Or “It's an exaggeration.” In the 20^th century, psychologist Sigmund Freud said that Jesus must have gone into a coma and appeared dead, but then he regained consciousness. He was not resurrected, but He was resuscitated instead. So, when we read the Gospel accounts of the resurrection, what clues suggest that the accounts are genuine and not delusional? (Bulletin Insert) The first clue is the actual evidence of death. Jesus lost a lot of blood from having his body scourged and his hands and feet pierced. Moreover, when a spear was thrust deep into his side, blood flowed out copiously. If he were still alive, he would have bled out in minutes. The soldiers who executed Jesus knew how to recognize death. Their jobs as executioners depended on it. Yet, they found no signs of life in Jesus. People in a coma always breathe and always have a pulse. But for Jesus, it was not like this. The second clue is the despair of the apostles. They were despondent and confused. They did not know what to do as they hid behind locked doors and feared for their lives. When we are in deep grief, we get confused. Grieving and fearful people are hardly able to plot elaborate hoaxes like a resurrection. And certainly, the apostles had absolutely no motive to do so. The third clue is the apostles' reaction when they saw the risen Jesus. They reacted with fear and doubt. They were alone behind locked doors when, suddenly, Jesus appeared before them. What was this? A ghost? An illusion? Luke tells us that Jesus asked for a piece of broiled fish and ate it in front of them (Luke 24:41-43). The Apostles knew that ghosts don’t eat fish. But that piece of fish convinced them he was alive, even while their heads were still spinning. But Thomas wasn't there when Jesus appeared to the others. He witnessed none of the first-hand evidence for himself. For him, only hard physical evidence would do so. The same still holds true for so many people today. Two Kinds of Evidence – (Bulletin Insert) There are two kinds of evidence in the world. The first is physical evidence, or what we call scientific evidence. It comes when we personally probe, observe, test, measure, and then draw conclusions. The second is what we call testimonial evidence. This is evidence based on the testimony of others — others who have done the observing for us. Most people think that scientific evidence is superior to testimonial evidence, but we forget that most of what we accept as accurate is based on testimony. When you step on an airplane, you haven’t done all the science that went into making that plane fly - all the math and the testing in wind tunnels. Most of us don't know anything about aeronautical engineering. We simply trust the testimony of others that the plane will fly. (Explain the four forces of flight - Object Lesson) Think of it - most of what we know comes from the testimony of others. We accept that the earth is round, that it travels around the sun, and that the sun is a nuclear furnace hurtling through space, but how do we really know? It’s because others tell us. How do any of us know that World War I happened? Well, reliable people have told us so. Although there are holocaust deniers around today, we know that there was an actual Jewish holocaust because there are those who experienced it and wrote down what they witnessed, and we accept what they say.   Thomas Gets His Evidence Thomas did not want testimonial evidence. He wanted only physical evidence. But then Jesus, in his mercy to Thomas, allowed him to have it. A week after Jesus first appeared to the Apostles, Jesus appeared again, but this time with Thomas present as well. Jesus said to him in verse 27:  “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!” He was telling Thomas, “Go ahead and be the scientist. Do your experiments on me. Observe. Measure. Examine the hard, physical evidence."   Eighty years later, in his Letter to the church in Smyrna, Ignatius of Antioch wrote about that day when Jesus appeared to Thomas and the Apostles. Ignatius personally knew the Apostle John, who was there that day with Jesus and Thomas. And Ignatius tells us - with information that likely came from the Apostle John himself, that Thomas actually did touch Jesus’ wounds. Thomas actually did probe. And investigate. And look closely. Not only him, but Ignatius also says that the other Apostles did. They all took a good, close look at the evidence. Some people say there is no scientific evidence for the resurrection of Christ. That's not true. That day, the Apostles were the scientists. They were the investigators. They did the probing. They drew the conclusions. They announced their results to the world. And then they staked their reputations and lives on the physical evidence they found. Thomas, the hard-core skeptic, saw the evidence and announced his results. Turning to Jesus he said, “My Lord and my God!" In reply, Jesus answered: “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” In these words, Jesus is speaking to us who wish we could have the same physical evidence that Thomas was given. Jesus knows how hard it is for us to believe without seeing. But we still have the testimonial evidence of the Apostles. Jesus blesses us if we base our faith on that testimonial evidence, even if we still yearn to be able to see the physical evidence with our own eyes. What proof do you want before you accept the resurrection of Jesus? If only hard-core scientific evidence will satisfy you, then, sorry, you’re two thousand years too late for that. But you might as well stop believing anything that anyone ever tells you, because most of it is testimonial evidence. But you still might want to listen to Thomas the Doubter, or should we call him Thomas the Scientist, because after he investigated Christ's wounds, he drew his conclusion by saying, “My Lord and My God!" This is the most substantial confession of faith in Christ we find anywhere in the Bible. So convinced was Thomas by what he saw that he brought the message about Christ to places now known as Iraq, Iran, and India. He is traditionally buried near the city of Madras in the south of India, where he was martyred because of his testimony. In our skeptical age, people like to ask, “What scientific evidence is there for believing in God!” To that, we have to say, “There is none." And that might start you thinking, “Why should I believe in something without scientific evidence?" But should you ever feel the lure of atheism or a more popular term today is deconstruction, know that it involves a more significant step of faith than believing in God. After all, there is no scientific evidence that disproves God either. No experiment can disprove the existence of God. And neither is there any testimonial evidence that can disprove God. No one can testify to the non-existence of something. It's like testifying that Kenya does not exist because you’ve never personally seen a person from Kenya. So, if you are ever attracted to atheism or deconstructionism, know that you will be taking a more significant step of faith that lacks both scientific evidence and testimonial evidence. In contrast, although we may lack the physical evidence today for Christ's resurrection, the testimonial evidence is enormous. The Apostles were reliable men with nothing to gain by believing in the resurrection. They did not expect Jesus to rise from the dead. They initially doubted it. In the end, many of them ended up being killed for it. Neither can we say that the resurrection was an elaborate hoax. Consider again the first lunar landings. Over 400,000 people worked on the Apollo space program, but none of them ever said, “It was a hoax. We were all just kidding!” Similarly, Paul writes that he knew over 500 people who saw the risen Christ, most of whom were still alive in Paul’s day. Yet none of them ever wrote a book that said, “We were just kidding.” If Christ's resurrection was just a hoax or a conspiracy, why did hundreds of people keep silent about it? Can so many people keep a secret for such a long time? Carl Sagan Carl Sagan was a scientist well-known for his books and television programs that explained science to the masses, but he was also a modern Doubting Thomas. Along the way, Carl Sagan and Frier John Catoir, a Catholic priest, began a correspondence. Carl Sagan wrote in one Letter: “There’s not a shred of evidence in the entire universe for the existence of the supernatural.” To which Frier John replied, “You're right. You can't prove the existence of God in a test tube. But there are more ways of knowing truth than just science. Just look at the universe - its intricacy, beauty, complexity, and exactness- does it not suggest the existence of a Creator?” Then Frier John wrote this to Carl Sagen: You believe that there's life in outer space, even though there's not a shred of evidence for it. But you say, it seems logical because the universe is so big, and there has to be life elsewhere. And you even got the government to spend millions of dollars to search for signals from out there. But you don't do the same with God. It seems just as logical that a Creator is behind the universe. Why don't you send up a signal to the Creator? Why don't you experiment with prayer? Just pray, "Dear God, if there is a God, save my soul if I have one," the prayer of the agnostic. Sagan wrote back, “Sorry, it's not scientific.” I mention this story about Carl Sagan simply because it is a perfect example of how hard it is for us to believe in the resurrection of Christ in our modern, scientific age. Perhaps you sometimes struggle to believe God's promises through Jesus Christ. If you sometimes feel like a modern Doubting Thomas, know that Christ understands your struggle as you lack the scientific evidence. Still, he wants us to believe, and he blesses us when we believe based on testimonial evidence. We may lack scientific evidence, but we still have sufficient testimonial evidence to support our belief. May God instill in all of our hearts this Easter Sunday, this Resurrection Sunday, genuine hope in the resurrection of Christ. And may God strengthen the gift of faith in all of us, especially when we doubt. Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Next week, we begin a new series. We will systematically explore the letters of 1^st and 2^nd Peter. Invest some time reading 1^st Peter 1:1-12 for next week’s message.