The Healing Word

Guest (Male): The Healing Word ministry on One Place is brought to you by the generous donations of people like you. At any time during today's message, feel free to send a prayer request or make a donation using the links provided. Now, I pray you will be blessed as Pastor Jack Morris delivers a message from the Word of God that will encourage and strengthen your faith in Him.

Pastor Jack Morris: Friends, let's come forward and look at Jesus this morning. Let's give Jesus a pause. Someone said, "I do my praying when I'm driving the car." That's wonderful, but isn't it wonderful sometimes to just absolutely do nothing but look at Jesus? Welcome to The Healing Word, a ministry dedicated to offering strength and encouragement through God's word for anyone facing life's challenges.

As believers, we want to serve God and walk in His will, though the path isn't always easy. Today's message is here to meet you at your point of need, bringing hope and renewing your faith. From doubt to faith. Problems come to everybody. No one is exempt from problems in this life. How do you react when a problem comes to you?

Think with me. I want to ask you a question. You're not going to tell me; you're going to tell yourself. You're getting in touch now with yourself and your own response to problems. How do you respond? How do you react when a problem comes? Let me tell you about three broad ways that people respond to problems. One of these ways you respond to problems.

Some people become very quiet, withdrawn, and absent. When a problem comes, you don't hear from them, you don't see them. You begin to look around and ask people, "Where is so-and-so?" That's how some people respond to problems. Now, think about it. Is that how you respond when a problem comes? You just get very silent, quiet, and you just want to stay home. You don't want to mix.

Other people, when a problem comes, they get angry and reckless. They really do. They get all upset, they get reckless with their life, with their words. They just don't care; they let it all go. They just don't have control. They just lose it for a while. And others, when a problem comes, they get moody, they begin to pity themselves, and they become very tearful. How about you? How do you react when problems come?

Thomas reacted the first way. He was very quiet, he was withdrawn, and he was absent. Thomas was one of the twelve apostles. He loved Jesus; there's no doubt about it. No one would have reacted the way he did if he did not love the Lord in the manner in which he loved the Lord. He was convinced that Jesus was the Christ, the Son of the living God.

There was no doubt in his mind because he had been there and he had seen Jesus when Jesus walked on the water. He had been there when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead. He watched as Jesus raised Jairus's daughter from the dead. He saw these miracles firsthand. If you're going to tell me a miracle, I really want to hear about miracles, but tell me what you saw and what you experienced.

Don't tell me what somebody else did or what somebody else saw, but tell me what you saw because the Lord wants to do miracles in your life for you personally. Thomas saw miracles happen. He saw Jesus unleash the mighty power of God. He was convinced, but hold on; the bottom is about to drop out. Thomas crashed; his faith crashed.

Sometimes we feel up and encouraged, so happy in Jesus. We feel like we could run through a troop and jump over a mountain for Him. Sometimes we're so low and discouraged, we wonder where He is, and we're down. We all have those up and down times, but we don't go by our feelings. We go by Jesus and the word of God and what the word of God says about Him.

Thomas really spiritually crashed. All twelve crashed. All of them, when Jesus was crucified, forsook Him and fled. Thomas was one of them that also forsook Him and fled. Let's not blame him too much. We call him doubting Thomas, but how many times do we slip into doubts and we begin to doubt? Look at Thomas for just a moment.

Thomas's last look at Jesus was ghastly. He saw Jesus bloody, ugly, a torn piece of humanity. This man that walked on water, that raised the dead, that broke the loaves and the fishes and fed the thousands. It was a terrible sight that he saw. He never saw anything like it before. Thomas literally crawled away like a wounded animal.

He was broken. His faith was gone. His face was on the floor. He was down. I wish every person who has ever had a down experience was here today. Some of you are, and I admire you for being here because you're in the will of God, and God wants to move you from doubt to faith. Can you say amen? Praise the Lord.

None of us have ever reached the depths of delusion that Thomas reached. His adversity and his discouragement, it was so low. Have you been sick, or do you know somebody who is ill? Have you lost a position? Have you lost status? Have you had a disappointment? Have you prayed and nothing happened?

I was talking to somebody just yesterday who is here right now. She said it right. She said sometimes you pray and pray and pray, but God can be very silent. Do you ever feel that way? We all have, haven't we? Sometimes it's very, very silent. I wonder if that's how Jesus felt when He cried out, "My God, my God, why have You forsaken Me?"

Jesus went through that so He could know how you feel when you go through that. He's understanding, He cares, He's non-judgmental, He's here with you all the time. Now we're going to look at this man Thomas, and we're going to track the demise of his faith. We're going to look at the temporary victory of doubt, and then we're going to look at his faith restored.

From doubt to faith. I pray today that you will identify as I go with this message, go through these scriptures, that you will identify and you will look at Thomas and you will say, "That's me. I'm moving. My faith may have crashed, but I'm moving today from doubt to faith. I'm not going to allow doubt to rule my life anymore. I'm going to get back to where I was in Christ, even back closer than before."

From doubt to faith. Point A: Jesus appeared to the apostles. He appeared to them. After you've done that, I want you to take your Bible, lift it up, and go to John chapter 20, verse 19. Read this verse with me in unison. Hold your Bible up. If you ever want to get back to faith, you're going to have to get back to the Word.

You ignore the Word, you will allow doubt the power to rule over you because you will be spiritually anemic and weak. It is the Word that makes you strong. Ignore the Word and you're going to live in defeat. Turn to the Word and believe the Word and read the Word. This is going to be iron in your soul, and you will become strong to the overcoming of every problem and every difficulty.

Look at verse 19. Hold your Bible up and read it together in unison: "On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, 'Peace be with you!'" Go back and look at verse 19. On the evening of the first day of the week, that was Sunday.

You know why we worship on Sunday? That's the day Jesus arose from the dead. We serve a living, resurrected, dynamic Savior who appears on Sunday and He appears every day of the week. But when the disciples were together—watch the change now, here comes Christianity and Christians' day of gathering together—on the first day of the week, this was the day Jesus arose.

He had risen early that morning. This was the day. Now this is evening. When the disciples were together—underscore that word "together" in your mind—God loves togetherness. He doesn't love absenteeism no more than the principal loves absenteeism. Absenteeism doesn't work. You don't learn anything when you're absent.

God wants God's people, His own people, to be together. God loves togetherness. Say it out loud: God loves togetherness. That was the high priestly prayer that Jesus prayed in John 17: "Lord, make them one even as we are one." There's a lot of things that are going to happen that will keep you away from God's Word, keep you away from prayer, keep you away from church.

Look at Thomas, what happens when you're kept away. You miss Jesus. When you're kept away from the Word, kept away from prayer, kept away from the house of God, kept away from togetherness, you miss Jesus. They were together, the doors were locked for fear of the Jews. The scent of death was on these men.

Their Master had been crucified. Any moment the Jews could burst through the door and arrest these men and have them executed. There was fear, great fear. There's always fear when Jesus is absent because you fear that nothing's going to turn out alright. You have a fear that you don't have the power to make it.

You fear that you're not going to be able to overcome, break through, and pass beyond. Fear will paralyze you, imprison you, hold you down, and defeat you. Here these men were, filled with fear because they thought Jesus was dead. Now look what happened. Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you."

He knew they needed peace. He knew that His absence meant fear, but His presence meant peace. He's the peace of God. Peace is part of His nature. Peace is a piece of Him. He's the only one authorized and empowered to give peace. You can't find it by not praying, by ignoring the Word, by staying home from church, by not obeying God's Word.

You can't find peace somewhere else. You can only find peace, true peace, wonderful peace, strong keeping peace as you receive it from Him who is authorized to give it: the Prince of Peace, Jesus Himself. Now look what happened. Again, verse 20: "After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed."

Look at that: from fear to being overjoyed. That's how Jesus brings us along. From fear to being overjoyed. I pray that some of you will leave happy today. Some of you came in sad, some of you came in defeated. Some of you came in with an argument with your spouse or with your children.

But I know this: if you will allow Jesus to come and appear, you will leave with overjoy today. God will put your spiritual life into overdrive. He'll make it happen for you. Jesus does it, and Jesus is alive to do it again and again and again because He's the same yesterday, today, and forever. Say yesterday, today, and forever.

That's Jesus. And that's how Jesus blesses and works in our lives. Twenty-one, He said again, "Peace be with you." Peace, that's what He wants to give. That's the starting line. That's foundational, that's basic. You can't do anything without peace. There's no victory without peace. But look now, let's drop down to verse 24.

Before you do, on line B, write down "absent." Line A: Jesus appears to the apostles. Line B: Thomas was absent. Remember how I said a moment ago that this is how some people respond to discouragement, to defeat, to problems—that they withdraw, they get quiet, they become absent. This is what happened to Thomas.

But now look at verse 24. Hold your Bible up, read verse 24 with me: "Now Thomas (called Didymus), one of the twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came." That is one of the saddest scriptures in the Bible. That's sad. He wasn't where he was supposed to be with the people that loved him, the people he loved, the people he traveled with, the people he did missionary work with.

He wasn't with the right crowd. Matter of fact, he wasn't with anybody but himself. His world had crashed, had closed in on him, the bottom fell out. It was all over as far as Thomas was concerned. Jesus was there, but Thomas wasn't there. Look at verse 25. So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord."

Has anybody ever gone away and come back and said, "Wow, you missed it last week; we really had a service"? And you say, "I don't want to hear it." We saw the Lord. Thomas said, "The last time I saw Him, He was broken, He was bruised, He was bloody, He was a torn piece of humanity, and He was dead. Don't tell me you saw the Lord."

God doesn't answer prayer anymore. Miracles don't happen anymore. Don't tell me about that. Ever hear anybody talk that way? This is how Thomas was talking. This is how people talk when they're not in touch with Jesus. They get discouraged, even angry at God. Even Christians sometimes become angry at the Lord because the Lord didn't do it their way, didn't do it when they thought He ought to do it, and didn't do it in the way they thought He ought to do it.

So they get really upset. We really have a plan for God, don't we? We really do; we have it all planned out. And we know that if He just did it that way, it would all work out. Why He didn't do it that way, I don't understand. We sort of get ticked a little bit. Very few people will ever say, "Yeah, I'm angry with God," but I've known lots of people who get angry with God.

What do you do when you get angry with God? More than likely, you don't feel like going to church, you don't feel like praying, you don't feel like reading the Word, and you sure don't feel like giving your money. You're not going to give Him something; He didn't give you anything, did He? No, but He gave you His life.

He gave you the gift of eternal life. He gave you salvation. I was listening to this choir singing "Grace, Marvelous Grace" while they were practicing back there. I went in one of the rooms, turned out the light, and just sat there. They didn't know I was listening. I really wasn't listening to them; I was listening to what they were singing, what they were saying.

Grace, marvelous grace, the marvelous loving-kindness of God came to me, a sinner. I was moved by the Holy Spirit by a rehearsal. What can't He do now with the real thing? Marvelous grace, God has given that to us and has so wonderfully and abundantly blessed us. Now look what happens with Thomas.

Point C: Thomas is present. He was not there when He appeared, he was absent, and now watch what happens when Jesus appears to him, comes back to the disciples, the apostles, and he's present. Now hold up your Bible, read verse 26, John chapter 20, verse 26. Hold it up, read it together: "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!'"

Notice, a week later. It's Sunday again. Isn't it something how Jesus appears on Sunday? This is Sunday, isn't it? I'm expecting Him. Where is He? Have you looked around for Him? Well, He's here. He's here, and some of you are going to see Him. This is what He did the second time He appeared to those men on the second Sunday, the first day of the week.

He came back, Thomas was there, and this time He appears and listen to what He says: Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you." I have a feeling—let me tell you how what I'm feeling—I have a feeling He looked right in Thomas's eye, made eye contact. Brother Dovey, I'm looking at you.

He made eye contact. If anybody needed peace, it was Thomas. It was Thomas. He needed a personal blessing of peace, not just a general bestowing but an individual, personal peace. And I have a feeling Jesus made good eye contact with him, looked him straight in the eye and said, "Peace be to you."

Look at verse 27. Then He, that's Jesus, said to Thomas—that's why I'm thinking that He must have been looking straight at him when He said peace—then Jesus said to Thomas, "Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe."

Now watch what happens. Notice what He says. Jesus meets Thomas—this is important what I'm going to say now. Jesus met Thomas where Thomas was. He didn't say, "Now you straighten up."