I've Seen Enough | Pastor Levi Lusko | Easter People, pt. 4

My Lord and my God. What Thomas was doing was bending his knee before his King. He was saying, I don't need to check to see if you're real. I can very well see that you're real. And hopefully, you can see me submitted to your reign and your salvation. That's declaration. The demonstration came later. The demonstration would happen in the change in Thomas. He declared Jesus as King. But for the rest of his life, he would demonstrate that he was under the rule of Jesus as King. [00:37:01] (38 seconds)

The first words that he speaks to the skeptic are peace. The first words to the person who was offensive in his disbelief was peace. Jesus speaks hope to the skeptic still. Peace to you. I'm not mad at you. I love you. I saw this coming. Bro, peace to you. Peace, Thomas. He had an encounter with Jesus. Why? Because he prioritized being there. He showed up. He took the opportunity to be there even in his fear, even in his anger, even in all of it. He still was willing to open up the scripture and ask God to talk to him. And I think the same can happen to us. When we don't understand, it's the perfect time for us to have an encounter with God. [00:32:10] (45 seconds)

Thomas' story tells us that we're not limited by where we started, that we can experience great breakthrough even after our biggest failure. Thomas' story tells us that even and especially when we feel abandoned by God, He is with us, present even when he feels far. As I think about Thomas, I can't help but think about the moment, the moment when he heard Jesus say, you want to touch my nail prints? And Thomas realized, oh, you were with me last week. When I said that, I couldn't see you. But now I'm realizing you were with me when you fell far away. [00:42:45] (48 seconds)

The disciples gathered like a bunch of coals to stay hot, like a bunch of wolves in a pack, like a bunch of sheep and a flock, like a Fresh Life small group on a Zoom call. They gathered together, but the Bible says Thomas was not with them, absent from his crew, absent from the people who were there to rally him and encourage him and pray for him and build him up and hold him accountable. Thomas was absent. Yes, he caved and gave into unbelief, but I believe he had an easier time doing so because of his absence. [00:22:37] (33 seconds)

He said, you have believed now because you have seen me, which tells me this. When Thomas finally received what he thought he would need to believe, he realized he didn't need it after all. Seeing him was enough. In fact, it had been enough just to hear and see his friend's reaction to the Resurrection. That would have been enough. He had enough to believe all along. He just was creating objections based on preference of how God should work. [00:34:07]

In fact, the Greeks suggest that they didn't give up on him. They kept inviting him to join for church online. They kept telling him about their faith. They kept little things, little things, little things. In fact, the Greek is so loaded with a continual use that the JB Phillips translation actually gives us a better translation of this verse, verse 25. The other disciples kept on telling him, we have seen the Lord. Who in your life have you only told once and they didn't respond, you give up on them? [00:29:19]

What does it say about the graciousness of his friends that even when he adamantly disbelieved, they still wanted him to be along? They still included him. Can we create a church that's a safe space for people who aren't on a dip in their journey? Can we be unshockable, unoffendable, and constantly loving to where you can belong here even before you believe, even when you don't believe. [00:30:22]

Come on, Thomas. You're coming to church, right? You're going be with us in the house. I saved you a seat. I'm making your favorite flavor of coffee. How loving. How kind. Some of us are kind but not persistent. We love people, but we're not telling them that we've seen the Lord. Others of us are being persistent but not kind. It takes that truth and love for us to really touch people like we're meant to. [00:30:56]

Jesus and Thomas' world views were in collision. He thought Jesus was late. Jesus was right on time. So he was in his rage and in his need to control outcome, choosing to name the circumstances that God would need to fill, the boxes that God would need to check. But God has never submitted himself to any of our approvals. He's never negotiated terms and conditions on anything. He is God who rules the universe, and he has sovereignly chosen to allow what he's chosen to allow. And in the midst of it all, he has a plan to reconcile all things to himself. And that includes you, and that includes me. And he's chosen to go to the cross with our sins, to pay the bill for every wrong thing we've done. He rose from the dead, overcoming the grave. And he rules as King forever. [00:34:39]

And I speak over your situation. You feel abandoned by God. He is present even when he feels far. So don't wait for this all to end, this crisis, this craziness, to trust him and believe him. Declare in faith that he is present now, near when he feels far. And you will find coursing through your veins the blessings that come to those who believe when they don't see. We don't see how he's going to work in this situation, but we don't need to. We've seen enough. We've seen the nail prints in his followers, what they saw in their eyes that so changed them. And we can, by faith, declare our allegiance to Jesus, our Lord and our God, no matter how he chooses to work in this situation, no matter how long this lasts, no matter what the repercussions are to the economy. We know how this thing ends. It's Jesus on the throne of the universe to put him on the throne of your heart today in the midst of what you're afraid of. [00:43:32]

And so the absence led to unbelief, which is why we have to be present for each other, yes, in small groups and all that, but especially on the first day of the week. This gathering where Jesus showed up was on Sunday. And ever since Christ rose from the dead, his people have taken Sunday as a chance to celebrate the newness of creation that happened when Christ rose from the dead. That's church. Why the first day of the week? Because the old creation week had ended. [00:26:21]

They responded to him being absent where he should have been present and unbelieving where he should have been believing by being kind and doing so persistently. They were kind to him, and they persistently tried to reach out to him. What does that mean? Okay. Thomas hears from the disciples, we have seen the Lord. That was their message to him. We have seen the Lord. That's the message we have to tell the world, too. We have seen the Lord. [00:28:08]

Thomas' journey in this text starts with these two things, absence and unbelief. Absence and unbelief. And I believe they were symbiotic. That is to say, they fueled one another, and that the greater his absence, the greater his unbelief became. What do I mean? I mean, the text tells us clearly that the 10 gathered on Sunday, and Thomas was not present. This is verse 24. Thomas was not with them. Thomas was not with them. [00:22:02]

And as he was run through, according to legend, the last thing he said before he died, spear in his heart, was my Lord and my God, repeating what he said that day, still very much convinced, even at the hour of his death, of the Lordship of Jesus that he was still King, no longer controlled by doubt, now given peace like a river, joy irrepressible. He was powerful in triumph, and he met his end with glory. He met his end with praise on his lips. Why? [00:41:17]

God made the world on the first day. On the sixth day, he made man. On the seventh day, he created rest. But we sinned and we squandered the opportunity to live in a perfect world full of relationship with God. So we were in need of a restoration of all things, which is what the cross has done as God began a new creation week. That's why it was no mistake that when the disciples were in the upper room and Jesus showed up, he breathed on them, mimicking what happened at creation when God made man. What was he saying on the first day of the week? He was saying, that old system is gone. That old thing is done away with. It's been fulfilled completely. Not because of Jesus, there's a new creation. You are a new creation. Old has gone. New has come. You can relate to me on the basis of my son, Jesus. [00:26:49]

And I want to pick our way through the journey and show you that there is hope for the skeptic. There's hope for the person who watching this webcast feels doubt in your heart that this situation, this COVID-nineteen situation, is going to be Okay, that everything of what you believe about God and the goodness of this world is all kind of being questioned. And will God provide? And is there hope for my kids? All yes, you want to believe that your children and your children's children, you're like, that's going to be hard with the economy as it is and what they're saying and what this could be and the da da da da da And all of a sudden, we're just in this tizzy of doubt. [00:21:22]

This is not the time for lone wolf behavior. This is not the time to be off on our own. This is not the time to feel abandoned and therefore be reclusive, that this time of social isolation should not become a time of relational separation, that we need each other now more than ever. Someone check that. Come on, now more than ever. Why? Because this is not the time. That's what Hebrews 10 says. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, [00:23:10]

I think, though, that it was for those two exact reasons that he was constantly honest. And when others were scared, he somehow rallied and showed bravery that he here on this moment succumbed to doubt. Because it's possible at times for us to have done so much for God and tried so hard to do what God wants us to do. And then God zigs when we feel like he should zag. The mountain stays still when we spoke in faith that it should move. The sun set when we prophetically listening to the spirit, or so we thought said, sun, stand still. And in those moments when we've been so honest and we've tried so hard to be brave that we feel abandoned by God. And then the big crisis comes, and we cave and doubt. [00:19:34]

that we need each other. In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning. Man, I'm so encouraged just thinking that dawn is coming, and this is not the time to pull away. Thomas felt abandoned and did the exact opposite of what he should have done. Because he should have taken his pain and his feelings of, I feel abandoned, [00:23:43]

And now his pride's been wounded. Now I miss showing up, and I feel bad that I didn't show up. And I could have seen him, but I'm like just throwing down, like just destroying everything, like almost like self destructive mode because I'm hurt, and I'm sad, and I'm wounded, and I didn't get to be a part of this experience. So now it's easy for me to color everything as gray. [00:26:01]

I spent the whole week yelling at my kids and feeling frustrated and worrying and compulsively refreshing my Charles Schwab account to see my 401Ks absolutely assaulted. And I'm going, what? I've trusted in this world. You know what? I'm not good enough to go to God in prayer. Why should I spend time with him anyway? He's not going to want to hear from me, thinking that we only bring to God our best when we were forgetting is that the best thing we ever had to offer God was our emptiness, that he might fill with his glory, fill with his power, fill with his peace, that he might send us out into the world [00:24:32]

and his feelings of, why is God doing this and what happened, and brought all that chaos and confusion into the gathering, which is meant to be a place of questions, which is meant to be a place of doubt, which is meant to be a place of skepticism. But the problem is we've wrongly thought the churches were put together, people come to polish our halos. And I can't log on to the church online broadcast because it would be disingenuous, [00:24:08]

once a week to a grocery store, but to be loving and kind in all of our interactions. So this is not the time to pull away. And I believe it was his absence from the gathering that actually fueled even more doubt in his life, and it snowballed out of control from there. Why? Well, you know how that feeling goes when you first hear about a party. [00:25:05]