Believing Without Seeing

 

[The following is a manuscript of my message delivered at Pilgrim Reformed Church on Sunday morning, the 12th of April, 2026 - the first Sunday after Easter.  If all went well, a recording of the service may be available on our YouTube streaming channel: 

https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch1992/streams for the older services or https://www.youtube.com/@pilgrimreformedchurch3115/streams for later services.]

I sometimes like to ask the question: What if we’re wrong?  Life after death has always been a rather contentious topic of discussion.  Many people believe in some form of life after death, although not necessarily bodily life, including Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and adherents of the Asian belief systems, even atheists.  In Jesus’ day, the Sadducees did not believe in resurrection, but most Jews did.

We believe in eternal life because of our faith and the promise of Jesus.  But we know there are many people who do not believe.  They don’t believe in God or Jesus and they don’t believe there is anything after death – just nothingness.

What if they're right and we're wrong?  What if there is no God, no Jesus, no life after this one?  Won't we feel foolish when we die and find out we were wrong all along?  Well, if they're right, we won't feel anything, because there will be nothing.  We will have lived a reasonably happy and useful life, though, living for and serving Jesus, while non-believers tend to be more miserable, more unhappy, less content with life.  But family, if we're right and they're wrong, things won't go very well for them.

Speaking of life after death…  Last Sunday, we celebrated the Easter story at our Sunrise Service, and then examined the resurrection of Jesus from a slightly different angle than usual during our morning worship service, gaining a little more insight into what it means to us, the impact it has on all of mankind.  Today I’d like to return to that first Easter so long ago, and look at what happened when Jesus started showing Himself, in His body, alive and well, after His resurrection from the dead.

Please listen and follow along to what the Apostle John  recorded of the events later that day, in the 20th chapter of his Gospel account, verses 19 through 31, and I’ll be reading from the fairly new Easy English Bible this morning…

19 On the evening of that same day, the first day of the week, the disciples were meeting together. They had locked the doors of the room because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Then Jesus came and He stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be with you." 20 After He had said this, He showed them His hands and His side. The disciples were very, very happy when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said again, "Peace be with you. As the Father has sent Me, in the same way I am now sending you." 22 When He had said this, He breathed on them. He said, "Receive God's Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive a person's sins, God will forgive them too. If you do not forgive them, God will not forgive them."

24 One of the 12 disciples was called Thomas. (He was also called ‘the Twin’.) He was not with the other disciples when Jesus came to them. 25 So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord." But Thomas said to them, "I will never believe that He is alive again unless I myself see Him. I want to see the marks of the nails in His hands. I want to touch where the nails were with my finger. I want to put my hand into His side where the spear went in. If I cannot do that, I will not believe."

26 Eight days after that, the disciples were in the house again. This time Thomas was with them. They had locked the door. But Jesus came and He stood among them. He said to them, "Peace be with you." 27 Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger in here. Look at My hands. Put your hand here, in My side. Do not refuse to believe what is true. Now, believe." 28 Thomas answered Him, "My Lord, and my God!" 29 Jesus said to him, "You believe because you have seen Me. Other people have not seen Me, but they do believe in Me. God is really happy with those people."

30 Jesus did many other miracles while the disciples were with Him. I have not written about all of them in this book. 31 But I have written about these things, so that you will be able to believe the truth. You will believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God. Because you believe in Him, you will have life with God.

--John 20:19-31 (EASY)

Just a quick note: In the last part of verse 29, the New King James Version of our bible has Jesus saying “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”  God indeed blesses us when He is really happy with us.

Let us pray…  Heavenly Father, Your Son Jesus came to earth to carry out Your plan to reconcile mankind back to You.  To accomplish this, He allowed Himself to be beaten, tortured, and crucified, for only His blood could atone for our sin, making us clean in Your sight.  Thank You, Father God, for having mercy on us.  Thank You for giving us the faith to believe in Jesus and for adopting us as Your children when we do.  Father, sometimes we forget just how much we are impacted by the death and resurrection of Jesus.  We admit that we might not give much thought to how Your great plan worked out, and all for our benefit.  Please forgive us, Father, when we don’t spend enough time in study and contemplation over Your word.  Please help us be more righteous and obedient in our daily walk.

Speak to us now, Father, that we might hear Your voice through Your Spirit within us and better understand our message today.  This we humbly pray in the precious name of Your Son, Christ Jesus our Lord.   Amen.

The little Bits & Pieces magazine, back in 1992, reported that an American scientist once visited the offices of the great Nobel-prize-winning physicist, Niels Bohr, in Copenhagen.  He was amazed to find that over Bohr's desk was a horseshoe, securely mailed to the wall, with the open end up in the usual manner (so it would catch the good luck and not let it spill out).  The American said with a nervous laugh, "Surely you don't believe that horseshoe will bring you good luck, do you, Professor Bohr?  After all, as a scientist..."  Bohr chuckled, "I believe no such thing, my good friend.  Not at all.  I am scarcely likely to believe in such foolish nonsense.  However, I am told that a horseshoe will bring you good luck whether you believe in it or not." 

I don't remember where I heard it or who spoke the words, or maybe I’m the one who said it, but somewhere along the line someone said, "It doesn't matter if you believe in God or not.  He believes in you."  That's a great - and true - statement.  God believes in and cares about all of His creation.  He believes in us whether we believe in Him or not.  But when it comes to Jesus, belief in Him definitely matters.  It makes all the difference between eternal life in paradise and everlasting torment.

In the Apostle John’s account of the Easter story, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb alone that morning.  Seeing the stone rolled away, she ran back to the upper room to get Peter and John, telling them that someone had taken the body of their Lord.  Peter and John raced to the tomb and, going inside, found it to be empty.  The two went back but Mary stayed at the tomb alone, weeping, and that’s when Jesus appeared to her.

Note that John makes no mention of an angel at the tomb or of any instructions to the disciples to meet Jesus later along the Galilee shore.  He just reported that Mary returned and told the disciples what had just happened.  But at this point, Mary was the only one who had seen the risen Jesus, according to John.

Now, Jesus still wanted to show Himself to the others.  He did that in a remarkable way: by suddenly appearing right there amongst them while they hid behind closed and locked doors.  He breathed God’s Holy Spirit into them and let them know that from now on, if they forgave anyone’s sins, God would forgive them too, but if they do not forgive someone, God will also not forgive them.  In my opinion, that’s a pretty heavy responsibility.

But unfortunately, Thomas was not among them that evening, so he did not see Jesus, now alive again.  He stubbornly refused to believe what the others told him about Jesus until he saw the Lord Himself.  So Jesus came back, eight days later, in the same way as before, just popping in even though they had locked the doors.  Thomas was there this time, so Jesus invited him to closely examine and touch the wounds from the nails and the spear.  And Thomas believed.

Jesus kind of rebuked Thomas by saying, “You believe because You have seen Me.  Others will believe even though they haven’t seen Me.  That will make God very happy and He will bless them.”  Of course, this statement could have applied to all those present that day, for they all saw Him.  But they were eyewitnesses, and because of their reports, others believed, and believe to this day.

The author of the Letter to the Hebrews gave us the definitive statement on faith, noting that it is what comprises our hope, it is the indication of the things we cannot see.  In the first three verses of chapter 11 of his letter to the Jewish converts, the author says…

11 This is what it means to trust God: We will be sure about the things that we hope for. We will be sure in our minds about things that we cannot even see. 2 It was because of their faith that God said good things about the people of long ago. 3 Because of faith, we understand about how God made the universe. He spoke His word to make it happen. In that way, God made all the things that we can see. He made them from things that nobody could see.

--Hebrews 11:1-3 (EASY)

We believe because of the faith God gave us.  By our belief, we put our trust in Him.  We believe in Jesus even though we’ve never seen Him in the flesh, with our own eyes.  And we believe in life after death because of His resurrection, and the promise that He was simply the first to be raised from the dead, that many more will follow.

Let’s keep exercising our faith.  Let’s keep believing, even without seeing.  Our faith gives us all the proof we need.

In the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord, who set the example for us to follow.  Amen.

Let us pray…  Almighty God, thank You for having mercy on us poor sinners.  Even though we are disobedient, rebellious children, You forgive us and forget we sinned.  Thank You , Father, for loving us this much.  Thank You for caring enough about all of Your creation that You want us all to be reconciled back to You, as we were in the very beginning before we sinned.  Father, we know that too often we take Your love and mercy for granted.  Sometimes we think that just being good or doing good things is enough to earn our way into heaven.  We forget it is a gift freely given by You if we follow Your Son.  Please forgive us these times, Father.  And forgive us when we hesitate to help expand Your kingdom across the face of the earth.  Please help us do a better job of sharing our Lord Jesus with others so that they too may be saved by Your mercy and Jesus’ sacrifice.  

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 word, and seeking Your help to do so…

Lord Jesus, You gave Your all for us, and You loved us to the end.  After You were dead and buried, our Father God raised You from the grave.  You walked among us and were witnessed by over 500 people.  And we were promised that You were only the first of many to be raised back to life, that Your followers would share in Your victory over death.  But Lord, sometimes we still wonder, sometimes we still worry, sometimes we fear death when in our heart of hearts we know that death to this life is only the beginning of the next life with You in heaven.  Please forgive us our doubts and insecurities, Lord.  Please strengthen us to carry out the mission You gave us.  Help us reach out to the non-believing world, sharing the Gospel message, showing Your love through our love.  Help us, guide us in our attempts to bring the lost to You.

Holy Spirit, please shield our minds and our hearts from Satan’s lies and the world’s empty promises.  Guide us around all the devil’s traps and snares.  Help us see though his temptations.  Help us keep our focus on the things of heaven and the needs of others rather than on anything this world might offer.  All this we pray in the blessed name of Christ Jesus our Lord.  Amen.