This transcript was generated by whisper.ai.

(upbeat music) Welcome to our look through John chapter 20 in Daily Drive Time
Devotions. We're looking at verses 24 to 27 today, beginning the story of a man
named Thomas. As we launch into this story, let me talk to you about three of
the most discouraging and confusing words that are ever heard.

They are the three words, just have faith. That may not sound confusing or
discouraging to you at first, but let me tell you how this works. Your career is
shattered, or you go through a personal or financial disaster, or you're in a
time of deep depression in your life, or a marriage has failed, or you're facing
challenges that you just do not know how to handle.

And somehow you know that the Bible should make a difference, that faith should
make a difference. And you go to someone and you ask, how does it make a
difference? And they say to you those three words, just have faith.

It's like telling someone who's broken their arm, just don't hurt. What you want
to know is not just have faith. You know you need to have faith.

You want something more. You want to know, how? How can I have faith in the
midst of this circumstance?

Well, this guy by the name of Thomas went through this just have faith
experience. You see, he wasn't there with the rest of the disciples when Jesus
first appeared to them. And when he came into the room and he saw their
excitement that something had happened, and he said, I haven't seen it, so I
don't know that I can believe it.

They said to him, just have faith. And so Thomas comes to a place in his life
where he's able to admit that he does not have faith, but that's not the end of
his story. He comes to a place where he's able to have faith.

Now this story of Thomas, it's such a powerful experience of somebody who
doesn't have faith that the whole story is known for what he wasn't. He's called
a doubting Thomas. Now as a guy with the name Thomas, that's my name, I take
that very personally, that doubting is attached to the word Thomas.

Remember, that's not where Thomas ended. He started with doubt, that's where we
all start, but that's not where he ended. He ended with faith.

So let's walk through his story and see how. How can you have faith when you're
struggling with faith? How can you have faith when you're struggling with
doubts?

This story of Thomas teaches us one of the most important lessons about faith
that you can learn anywhere. The truth that honest doubt can grow into genuine
faith if you handle it right, if you deal with it right. Faith wasn't
resurrected in the life of Thomas until a week later when Jesus came and said,
here's how.

Let's walk through what happened to him. How can I experience a resurrection of
faith in my life? Here's the first thing that has to happen.

First, you have to remove your doubt. Second thing that has to happen as we walk
through this story of Thomas is you have to redirect your will. And then the
third thing that has to happen, we're going to see, is you have to renew your
confession.

And then because of that, you see the blessing of Jesus come into your life. It
starts with removing your doubt, John 20, verses 24 and 25. Now Thomas, called
Didymus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them,
unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it. Thomas had some honest
doubts, but these doubts and the expression of them led him to faith.

Tennyson once said there was more faith than honest doubt than half the creeds.
Thomas expressed his doubts. There were two specific reasons, causes for
Thomas's doubt.

He had requirements for belief and he had a withdrawal from fellowship. First,
he had requirements for belief. He said, unless I see this and this and this, I
will not believe it.

Unless I can get everything just right in my life, I won't believe in God.
Unless all the Christians I meet are perfect, those are some requirements of
belief that we have sometimes that I won't believe in Jesus. Unless God runs the
world the way I think it ought to be run, I'm not going to believe.

We still have these requirements for belief in the world today. And Thomas's
requirements show us that he would fit right into modern America. He was a
natural faith pessimist.

William Barclay has said to Thomas, the cross was only what he expected. And he
was able to live in that place, that zone in his life of disappointment. After
Jesus's death, he was probably saying to the others, I told you so.

Like us, his mind was trained to doubt. We're trained to be natural pessimists.
We're bombarded by commercial claims and we begin to doubt what we hear.

We're taught the scientific method and we begin to doubt what we can't see and
prove. Well, everything that's important cannot be seen and proved, love, for
instance. Thomas lived with doubt because he put unrealistic expectations upon
faith.

I have to see it, I have to touch it. Faith is informed trust. Our heart is
informed.

But if you've got some unrealistic expectations, God has to do this before I
believe. He has to jump through my hoops. God doesn't do that.

Thomas faced doubt because of these unrealistic expectations. But more than
anything, he faced doubt because he'd withdrawn from fellowship. He wasn't
there.

Now we don't know why Thomas wasn't there. Maybe he'd gone out to get Starbucks
for the rest of the disciples, I don't know. He just wasn't there.

And so when he came back into the room and he saw their excitement, he wouldn't
believe it because he hadn't seen it. And because of that, he faced a week of
doubt rather than a week of joy because he wasn't there. And so he didn't
experience it.

When you remove yourself from the fellowship of other believers, it's like a
freezing frost to your faith. Faith grows best in the company of others who are
striving to have faith. And to try to have faith all alone, you're always going to
be filled with doubts.

It's inevitable to be filled with doubts. We need other people around us who are
growing in the same faith in Jesus Christ. And yet, what is often the first
thing that you and I do when we feel doubts?

We pull away. We pull away from other Christians, maybe because we're ashamed to
admit that we're having struggles. We don't want to say it to anybody else.

That's the worst thing that you can do. Thomas needed to have his faith
restored. And because he got back with the disciples and because he's going to have
an experience with the resurrected Christ, it is going to be restored.

Listen to what happens in John 20 verses 26 and 27. 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 he said, "Peace be with you. " Exactly what had happened a week earlier.
Verse 27, "And 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. " Two
statements in what happened in Thomas's life teach us a powerful truth about
faith.

Thomas said, "I will not believe. " Jesus said, "Stop doubting and believe. "
When Thomas said, "I will not believe," it was actually a double negative.

I absolutely, positively will not believe. Thomas is an honest man, an honest
pessimist. And he recognizes the reasons he won't believe.

I haven't seen it for myself. He doesn't think that faith is not a good idea,
maybe even for others, but I'm not going to believe. I'm choosing not to believe.

At least he's honest about that. Sometimes you'll hear people ask, is faith a
head decision or a heart decision? Is it an intellectual decision or an
emotional decision?

And the answer is, it's neither. Faith, faith is a decision of the will. Now
your emotions might inform your will, your intellect can inform your will, but
in the end, it's all about what you decide.

It's not the heart, it's not the head, it's the will. You cannot think faith
into existence. You can't feel faith into being.

You can only decide upon a reality of a faith that's true, the faith that Jesus
Christ is offering. Now our head and our heart, they're still important. They
inform our will, they express our will, but faith is in the beginning a matter
of decision of the will.

And I know so many people who are waiting for their mind to educate them into a
commitment to Jesus Christ or a deeper commitment to Jesus Christ, or for their
emotions to carry them into a commitment to Jesus Christ or a deeper commitment
to Jesus Christ. And if you're at that point in your life, I just want to say
this story of Thomas teaches us that faith is a matter of the will. Jesus said
to him, "Stop doubting and believe.

"Stop waiting and decide. " The literal meaning of Jesus's words there is this,
stop becoming faithless and become a believer. He says, you're going in a
direction of becoming more and more faithless.

I want you to make the decision to become a believer. At any one point in any of
our lives, you are growing in one of two directions, either in the direction of
faith or in the direction of doubt. You can't stand still.

You're growing and heading in one of two directions, the direction of faith or
the direction of doubt. How about you right now? What decision do you need to
make?

What decision do you need to make that will head your life in the direction of
faith and trust in Jesus Christ? It might be just admitting your doubts. In
prayer today, I encourage you to say, Lord, I have doubts.

I have doubts. And instead of being afraid of them or controlled by them, I
choose to face them, bring them into the light right now. Jesus, I want to live
a life of faith and not doubt.

And so I bring these doubts into the light so that I can hear your answers. If
there are places where I have unrealistic expectations, I'm asking you to jump
through hoops of my own making. Help me to see that.

If there are places where there are answers that my heart needs, you see that.
Give those answers to my heart. Jesus, you know me like no one else.

So I pray you'd meet the need of my life. Help me to doubt my doubts and to
believe my beliefs and to follow you. In your name, amen.

Well, make sure you join us tomorrow as we look together at the conclusion of
Thomas's journey towards faith.