Let me meet you on the mountain, Lord,
Just once.
You wouldn't have to burn a whole bush.
Just a few smoking branches
And I would surely be ...your Moses.

Let me meet you on the water, Lord,
Just once.
It wouldn't have to be on the Thames.
Just on a puddle after the autumn rains
And I would surely be...your Peter.

Let me meet you on the road, Lord,
Just once.
You wouldn't have to blind me on the M25.
Just a few bright lights on the way to church
And I would surely be...your Paul.

Let me meet you, Lord,
Just once.
Anywhere. Anytime.
Just meeting you in the Word is so hard sometimes
Must I always be...your Thomas?
Adapted from Norman Shirk, April 10, 1981, KQ (Dallas Seminary)

Honest words from an honest student. And I’m sure that most, if not all of us can identify with his doubts and his longing to reach out and encounter Jesus.

We all doubt. I think we wouldn’t be human if we didn’t. Sometimes we might doubt God’s love for us or we might have doubts regarding our salvation. Sometimes some of us even doubt the existence of God.

Thankfully, in our reading we’ve an excellent example of a follower of Jesus who had his doubts. And we’re not talking about small doubts that could be easily brushed aside. These were to with the Resurrection itself – the very existence of Jesus Christ and the bedrock of our faith.

And so we come to Thomas, or rather “doubting Thomas” as he has gone down in history, which is actually rather unfair. For all his doubt Thomas was actually a rather brave and bold disciple whose doubt, far from destroying his relationship with Christ, actually led him to encounter Christ in a profound way.

Tonight I want to look at his encounter with Jesus and his doubts and draw out some simple but important lessons that’ll hopefully help us with our doubts and struggles. And remind us again of the grace of our Lord towards those who doubt.
What caused his doubt? A bad attitude? Sin? Was it that he didn’t love Jesus as much as the others? No. If we look back and see the kind of disciple Thomas was as Jesus carried out His ministry we see that he was very loyal indeed.

So what caused his doubt? Well today we’d say Thomas stopped coming to church! For whatever reason he wasn’t present with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them. That would have been unusual, for they needed one another at this point. Following Jesus arrest and execution they feared for their lives and would have still been grieving. Some even suggest that Thomas was so upset he chose to be alone.

Whatever the reason he wasn’t with the others in fellowship. As a result he missed out. When Christ appeared He appeared to the disciples when they were gathered together. The Lord didn’t then go and give Thomas a personal appearance in his house! Thomas was out of fellowship and as a result He missed out on what Jesus was doing and the doubts crept in.

For me this is such a good reminder of the importance of us remaining in fellowship and having regular contact with other believers. As much as I struggle with ‘church’ at times (for we are all imperfect) I recognise that my spiritual health and vitality depends on me being with other believers and enjoying the presence of the Lord together.

There is no room in the Christian faith for the ‘Lone Ranger Christian’, who thinks that time alone with Jesus is enough. We need each other. Let’s not neglect coming together. Let’s not miss out on the presence of our Lord.

What was Thomas’ response to the disciples experience? Have you ever been in a meeting where everyone seems to be having some amazing experience of the Lord, yet you seem to be the only one who just doesn’t get it! I have and often find myself having doubts and asking questions: “Is there something wrong with me? Am I really saved? Does God not love me?”

I wonder if Thomas felt like that? You can imagine the disciples jumping up and down, full of joy as they tell him about their experience of Jesus. And there’s Thomas knowing that he’s missed out, probably feeling upset and confused.

But notice what he doesn’t do? He doesn’t go with the crowd. He doesn’t just go along with the others and believe in something just because everyone else does. Thomas was someone who wanted the facts! He was not prepared to base his life and beliefs on the experiences of others.

And so his response is to be honest about his doubts and honest about what he wants to see happen in order for his doubts to vanish. “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.” (25b).

Notice the emphasis on him wanting his own personal experience of Christ – “I, my” etc. Again each of us must have our own encounter of Christ. We cannot live off the faith and experience of our parents or grandparents or bothers or sisters, or others in the church. You and I must experience Christ ourselves.

It's vital that we know why we believe what we believe. We can’t know everything, but if we want to survive the constant attacks on our faith from the world and the media then we need to know the facts. We can’t rely on other great Christians to tell us what we believe and why. We need to know for ourselves.

What was the disciples response to Thomas’ doubt? What I find encouraging is that there is no record of any of the disciples judging Thomas or criticising him for having such doubts. And what is more Thomas remained in fellowship with them.

“A week later his disciples were in the house again and Thomas was with them.” (26a). That’s a great verse! Thomas, the doubter, the man with his questions and concerns, is with the other disciples.

If church can’t accommodate those of us with our questions and doubts – then Heaven help us all! The best place for us to be when we have our doubts is in church, in the presence of other believers and in the presence of the Lord.

It's such a shame that some feel unable to bring their doubts and questions to church for fear of being judged. But Thomas felt able to be with the other disciples and they were happy for him to be with them.

When you wrestle with your doubts, don’t allow the Devil to convince you that church is the last place you should be. In the presence of Christ and other believers is the only place you should be.

And when we come across those who doubt, let’s show them grace and mercy. “Be merciful to those who doubt…”(Jude22) Let’s love them. Let’s not give folk a time frame that tells them that by such and such a date all their doubts should have gone. Let’s be gracious and act like Jesus – let’s make room for them and their doubts and help them draw closer to God.

Did Thomas’ doubt prevent an encounter with Jesus? Absolutely not! Jesus still comes and meets with them. There is no judgement on Thomas, Jesus doesn’t make fun of him or ask him to leave while He and the others have a good meeting!

What is more – Jesus knew Thomas’ doubts and allowed him to do the very thing that Thomas had asked – to reach out and touch for himself the wounds.

As someone who has a wobbly moment now and again I find it encouraging that our doubts don’t necessarily mean our experience of Christ will be forever marred. Christ is so much bigger than our doubts and He can handle our wobbly moments.

Christ wants us to come into His presence as we are doubts and all. The last thing the Lord wants is for us to hide away from Him and allow our doubts to become huge mountains of disbelief that we will never be able to climb.

And contrary to what the classical painters portrayed, there is no evidence from the text that Thomas ever touched Christ’s wounds. He thought his doubts would end when he physically touched Jesus, but as we see he only needed to be in the presence of Jesus for the doubts to subside. Being in His presence was enough.

Finally, What does Thomas’ doubt ultimately give birth to? It's such a shame that he’s gone down in history as ‘Doubting Thomas’ for his response to seeing Jesus is a statement of striking faith and belief: “My Lord and my God.” (28).

No one else had dared say anything like this before. And yet it now comes from a man who has wrestled with his doubts. A man who once doubted Jesus very existence, but now recognises Jesus as He really is – as both his Lord and his God.

If we persevere enough through our seasons of doubts, if we wrestle with the truth and seek with all our heart the answers to our questions, like Thomas we will find that our faith ultimately becomes much stronger. With Christ’s redeeming help even our doubts can be used to draw us closer to God and used to make our faith just that little bit stronger.

And of course another great virtue of Thomas is that when he was sure he went all the way, he did not hold anything back. His statement “My Lord and my God” is such a strong statement of faith that expresses in one simple sentence what many Christians in the early church spent a good few years coming to grips with.

Namely, that this Jesus of Nazareth was not just a prophet, not just the Messiah. He was the Lord of their lives and the God of the universe.

I believe that our doubts can be used by the Lord to increase our faith, not decrease it, so that in time we too, like Thomas will be in a position where we can be brave and take a stand for the truth. That we too, will go all the way, hold nothing back as we come to experience the wonderful truth that Jesus Christ, is both Lord and God.

CONCLUSION: Our son Joel is 5yrs old and is at that stage of asking 100’s of questions – “why, what, how?” He reminds me that to be human is to question things – from our earliest days we question all that is around us.

You see, contrary to what either science or religious dogma will tell us, this world is still full of mystery –there is much we just do not know or understand. Even now as Christians – those of us with the mind of Christ – we only know in part, we see through a glass darkly, we see but a poor reflection in the mirror. And so we have our questions, we have our doubts.

But let’s take comfort from Thomas whose encounter with Christ shows that doubt does not have to lead to dead faith and a rejection of the Truth. If anything, with God’s help our doubts can draw us closer to Him.

For Christ is bigger than our doubts, bigger than our questions. We may doubt Him; He never doubts us. We may lose sight of Him; He never loses sight of us.

“Though you have not seen Him, you love Him; and even though you do not see Him now, you believe in Him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the goal of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”(1Pt1:8-9)