From Doubt to Devotion, Easter through the eyes of Thomas
Sunday, April 20, 2025
Reverend Larry Deering
John 20:19-29
On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, "Peace be with you!"
After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.
Again Jesus said, "Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you."
And with that he breathed on them and said, "Receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven."
Now Thomas (also known as Didymus [Thomas] (Aramaic) and [Didymus] (Greek) both mean [twin].), one of the Twelve, 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."
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!"
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."
Thomas said to him, "My Lord and my God!"
Then Jesus told him, "Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed."
Genesis 17:17
Abraham fell facedown; he laughed and said to himself, "Will a son be born to a man a hundred years old? Will Sarah bear a child at the age of ninety?"
Psalms 13:1
(For the director of music. A psalm of David.)How long, Lord? Will you forget me forever? How long will you hide your face from me?
Matthew 11:2-3
When John, who was in prison, heard about the deeds of the Messiah, he sent his disciples
to ask him, "Are you the one who is to come, or should we expect someone else?"
Hebrews 11:1
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
1 Peter 1:8
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,
Acts 4:5-12
The next day the rulers, the elders and the teachers of the law met in Jerusalem.
Annas the high priest was there, and so were Caiaphas, John, Alexander and others of the high priest's family.
They had Peter and John brought before them and began to question them: "By what power or what name did you do this?"
Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them: "Rulers and elders of the people!
If we are being called to account today for an act of kindness shown to a man who was lame and are being asked how he was healed,
then know this, you and all the people of Israel: It is by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified but whom God raised from the dead, that this man stands before you healed.
Jesus is "'the stone you builders rejected, which has become the cornerstone.'
Salvation is found in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven given to mankind by which we must be saved."
