Blessed Are the Believers

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered on the 1st Sunday after Easter, the 16th of April, 2023, at Pilgrim Reformed Church.  Our YouTube streaming channel is: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams.]

Today is the first Sunday after Easter, seven days since Jesus bodily rose from the grave.  On that Resurrection Sunday, the Lord appeared - in the flesh - to some of the women who had followed Him from Galilee.  Then, while they were hiding together behind locked doors, Jesus suddenly appeared among His disciples, telling them not to fear, wishing them peace.

One of the twelve, Judas Iscariot, the son of perdition, had already perished, so he was not present.  But one other of Jesus’ chosen followers was also absent that day.  We don’t know where he was or what he was doing that Sunday, just that he was not among the group, not in the room, when the now risen Jesus appeared.  When he rejoined his friends, they told him about what had happened, that they had seen Jesus with their own eyes, alive and living again!  But he was skeptical.  And who wouldn’t be?  Jesus was dead and buried, and that was that.  Nobody survives a crucifixion; it may take a while, but everyone dies within a day or two on the cross.  Right?!?

Let’s fast-forward to eight days after the resurrection.  The disciples are still hiding, still afraid to go out.  And now all eleven surviving members of the original twelve are together in the same room, behind locked doors again, when an honored guest appeared.

Please listen and follow along to how the Apostle John describes the second appearance of Jesus to His disciples, in the 20th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 24 through 31, and I’ll be reading from the New King James Version of our Holy Bible this morning…

24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.”

So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”

26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.”

28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.

--John 20:24-31 (NKJV)

Let us pray…  Father God, thank You giving us faith!  Among all the many blessing You pour over us, faith is up there near the top of the list.  By our faith, we are able to believe in Jesus as Your Christ without having seen Him or any evidence with our own eyes.  Thank You, Father, for so great a gift.  Father, please forgive us when we have our little moments of doubt.  It’s not so much that we doubt Jesus, but that we worry that maybe we’re not worthy of His sacrifice, that maybe You don’t love us any more or that You might turn your back on us.  Please help us remember Your promises.  Remind us that we will always be Yours.  And Father, please protect us from Satan and from those who are so willing to carry out his evil works.  Please keep us strong in our faith, of one mind and one purpose in our love, worship, and service, and healthy and safe through these trying times.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand the message You have for us this day.  Remind us of how blessed we are.  Help us share Your blessings, both the tangible and the intangible, with others in our daily walk.  This we pray in the glorious name of Christ Jesus, our risen Lord.   Amen.

Pastor Frederick Edward Marsh was a great man of God, avid student of the Word of God, and a prolific author.  Listen to a few of the blessings we receive from God that he listed.  You have these in your bulletin with the scriptural references you can read.

An acceptance that can never be questioned. (Ephesians 1:6).

An inheritance that can never be lost (1 Peter 1:3-5).

A deliverance that can never be excelled (2 Corinthians 1:10).

A grace that can never be limited (2 Corinthians 12:9).

A hope that can never be disappointed. (Hebrews 6:18, 19).

A bounty that can never be withdrawn. (1 Corinthians 3:21-23).

A joy that need never be diminished (John 15:11).

A nearness to God that can never be reversed (Ephesians 2:13).

A peace that can never be disturbed (John 14:27).

A righteousness that can never be tarnished (2 Corinthians 5:21).

A salvation that can never be canceled (Hebrews 5:9).

Grace, hope, righteousness, salvation.  And there’s seven more blessings in this short list.  I know we could easily come up with many, many more, but maybe not all with scriptural references.

God is good!  All the time!  And we are so undeserving of His goodness.

So here’s all the disciples huddled together behind closed doors because they’re afraid to be seen in public, afraid of being arrested.  If someone like Jesus - as popular and well-known as He was – if He could be arrested, tried, and put to death, what chance did they have?!?

As we read the Gospel accounts of the days and weeks following Jesus’ crucifixion and resurrection, the remaining eleven of the original twelve disciples personally chosen by Jesus are usually mentioned.  But there were many more of His followers still in Jerusalem during this time.  Remember Palm Sunday, when a huge throng of followers entered the city?  These were folks who had followed Jesus from Galilee, and who had joined the following along the way.  These were believers, followers, disciples.  And they were all afraid.  Many sought refuge together.  Some estimates put the number at 120 disciples all together in that upper room where they shared our Lord’s Supper.  But right now we’re only focused on the eleven, the men who had been with Jesus the longest, who had witnessed the most, all the good and all the bad.

So we’re back to last Sunday, the first day of the week, the day when Jesus rose from the grave.  Ten of the eleven – and very likely many more – were holed up in the room where they shared the Passover meal with Jesus just three nights ago.  The doors are shut, barred, closed tight, when Jesus suddenly appears right there among them!

Shocked?  I can only imagine so.  Thrilled?  You bet.  They rejoiced at His sight, and began to remember and understand all that He’d told them.

But Thomas wasn’t with them that Sunday, and he had a little trouble believing the wild tales they told him, about Jesus just popping in out of thin air, alive and seemingly well again.  “Hogwash”, he said (in Aramaic, of course).  “I won’t believe any of it unless I can see His hands with my own eyes, and put my finger in the nail holes, and see where they stuck Him with the spear and put my hand in the wound.  Give me tangible proof, and then I’ll believe.”  I wonder if Jesus thought to Himself, “We’ll just see about that.”

It’s now eight days after the resurrection of their Lord.  Eight days after the risen Jesus was visibly seen by at least eleven people, counting Mary Magdalene.  Eight days later and the disciples were still sheltering in place, as we call it today.

And Poof! – Jesus came to them again, right in their midst with the doors still shut tight.  He went straight to Thomas and said, “Look here at My hands and My side.  Put your fingers in My wounds.  Look and see, touch and feel, and know, without a doubt, that I live again.”  So now Thomas understood, for he was given the tangible proof he required.  Now he knew he was in the presence of God.

Jesus would have preferred that Thomas and the rest could have believed He was truly the Christ without needing actual proof of it, but He knew they just weren’t up to it yet.  They were still babies in their faith, needing to be shown more, needing verification of what they’d been told before.  “Do not be unbelieving, but believing”, Jesus said, to Thomas in particular, to the rest gathered there that day, and also to us, 2000 years later.

Thomas, and the rest, believed because they saw the living proof with their very own eyes standing right there before them.  But then Jesus added something that may have been intended to rebuke His disciples a little, but that we can take great encouragement from today.  “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

This is us.  We have not seen Jesus physically standing in front of us in the flesh.  We’ve not felt His wounds, heard His voice with our ears, felt His touch on our hands, and yet we believe.  We are blessed.

In what we today call the Beatitudes, Jesus is talking to believers about being blessed for their belief.  Please listen to how the Apostle Matthew saved the words Jesus spoke as He began what we know as His Sermon on the Mount.  This comes from chapter 5 of Matthew’s Gospel account, verses 1 through 12…

1 And seeing the multitudes, He went up on a mountain, and when He was seated His disciples came to Him. 2 Then He opened His mouth and taught them, saying:

3 “Blessed are the poor in spirit,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

4 Blessed are those who mourn,

For they shall be comforted.

5 Blessed are the meek,

For they shall inherit the earth.

6 Blessed are those who hunger and thirst for righteousness,

For they shall be filled.

7 Blessed are the merciful,

For they shall obtain mercy.

8 Blessed are the pure in heart,

For they shall see God.

9 Blessed are the peacemakers,

For they shall be called sons of God.

10 Blessed are those who are persecuted for righteousness’ sake,

For theirs is the kingdom of heaven.

11 Blessed are you when they revile and persecute you, and say all kinds of evil against you falsely for My sake. 12 Rejoice and be exceedingly glad, for great is your reward in heaven, for so they persecuted the prophets who were before you.”

--Matthew 5:1-12 (NKJV)

We are blessed.  As believers, we should be meek and humble, merciful in our dealing with others, pure in our hearts.  We should hunger and thirst for the soul-saving sustenance that righteousness brings.  And we should strive for peace and harmony, with our brothers and sisters in Christ and with all we encounter in our walk through this life.  If it so happens that we become hated and persecuted because of our belief, then we can take comfort and assurance in the promise of our heavenly reward.

This is how we are blessed, here in the loving arms of our Father God.  And all because we have accepted His Son as our Lord.

Family, I’d like to issue a little challenge to you.  Take that little insert in your bulletin home with you and look up all the scripture references the good Pastor Marsh gave us.  Read and understand what each blessing means to you personally, and to us, the body of believers, the body of Christ.

And then – and here’s the fun part – grab up a pencil or pen and some paper and write down all the ways that you are blessed as an individual, all the ways that God has blessed you personally in your life.  Make a second list of all the blessings we as the body of believers receive from God.  You should see a lot of the same points in both lists.  For you believe, even if you haven’t seen.

But here’s the thing… Jesus said that our eyes are blessed so we can see, our ears are blessed so we can hear.  We see and hear through our heart’s eyes and ears, through our faith.  Our hearts are open to the truth because we believe.  And we are blessed.

In the glorious name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for the gift of faith.  Thank You for choosing us to believe.  Thank You for sending Your Son to offer us salvation.  Thank You, Father God, for all the goodness You pour over us.  Thank You most of all for loving us enough to give us all the rest.  Forgive us, please Father, when we displease You.  Forgive us when we do the things we know we shouldn’t do.  Forgive us when we don’t do the things we know we should do.  Please, loving Father, help us be more righteous in Your sight.  Help us put all our trust in You.  Help us share all our blessings with others.  And help us remain strong, faithful, and true to You in all things, no matter what the world throws at us or holds out before us.

Please hear us now, Father, as we pause for just a moment to speak to You through Your Spirit within us, promising to be more obedient to Your commands, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, because of God’s lovingkindness, we have been given the faith to believe in You as the Christ and accept You as our Lord and Master.  And because of our belief and Your sacrifice, we have been washed clean of our sin and will spend eternity with You and God in heaven.  Thank You, Jesus, for standing at our side.  Lord, please help us realize how much we have to be thankful for.  Remind us of all the many blessings we receive, that You secured for us by Your self-sacrifice.  Help us to see just how blessed we are, as a people and as individuals.  And Jesus, please heal the hurts that separate and divide us one from another.  Help us remain trusting and obedient no matter what we go through.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this life might offer.  This we pray in Your blessed name, Christ Jesus our Lord and our Savior.  Amen.