In the Resurrection series we have been counting off the days to
Pentecost, fifty days after Passover and the beginning of the Feast of
Weeks. Luke records in the Acts of the Apostles that on Pentecost,
the Holy Spirit came upon all the disciples at Jerusalem and filled
them. We usually teach that unless we experience this kind of filling
by the Holy Spirit, then we aren’t much good spiritually or effective
in ministry.

That’s why I find what happens in the first chapter of Acts so
compelling. Waiting for Pentecost to arrive and the Holy Spirit to
come, Luke reports, “They all joined together constantly in prayer,
along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his
brothers” (Acts 1:14). The next verse says there were even more
disciples than these—120 of them, in fact—during this ten day period.
I like how the New American Standard renders this verse more
literally: “These all with one mind were continually devoting
themselves to prayer . . .”

Question: How many times have you had such a powerful experience in
communal prayer? Praying among and along with other believers, you
had such a sense of one-mindedness, a single powerful focus that
united you, and you kept doing it, without you even being aware of the
hours slipping past. Isn’t that the kind of prayer experience you
dream about, strive for, and plead with God for every time you get
together as a community, as a family, for worship?

So how can it be that the Holy Spirit has come definitively at that
first Pentecost after the resurrection, but we do not experience this
continual, ongoing prayer and especially this unity of mind and
spirit? And how is it that those first disciples were able to
experience it even before the Holy Spirit baptized them in flame?

The gospel of John says that on the very first day of the
resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples and “He breathed on them
saying, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (John 20:22). And after Pentecost,
Luke reveals that the church continued to be filled with the Holy
Spirit after other prayer experiences: “After they prayed, the place
where they were meeting was shaken. And they were all filled with the
Holy Spirit and spoke the word of God boldly” (Acts 4:31).

I don’t pretend to know how it all works. But it seems clear that the
Holy Spirit doesn’t limit Himself to that ancient Pentecost day when
it comes to filling us humans. And it seems clear that prayer is part
of the experience. He is compelling us to gather together and pray,
because there is something He wants to do among us, in us, through us.
Not you and me separately, but together.

We are trained by our macroculture to think and act as individuals.
Interestingly, the word idiot in Greek means self, independent of
others. It would be idiotic to try and pursue a strong prayer
connection with God alone. That’s just stating the obvious!

Take a listen to this Sabbath’s session of the Resurrection series. I
hope you receive a blessing. And I encourage you to consider
attending Renew Time to Pray! Tuesday nights. This is one hour of
worship-based prayer, totally different than what you might have
experienced in past prayer meetings. You can find directions right
here on our website. If you’re not able to do that, submit a prayer
request online and participate that way, for starters. We’ll be
praying!

Blessings,
Pastor Adam

I’ve always found Matthew 28:17 interesting: “When they saw Jesus,
they worshiped Him, but some doubted.” Jesus is alive from the dead,
and He has already appeared to the disciples several times while they
were still in Jerusalem. Luke says, “He gave them many convincing
proofs that He was alive” (Acts 1:3). But now that they are back in
Galilee, out of the immediate danger that Jerusalem held for them,
some of the disciples are wrestling with doubt again.

In preparing for this 4th installment of the Resurrection series, I
contemplated what doubts the disciples were entertaining. Perhaps
they were doubting the way forward, or whether things would ever
change on this old planet. Jesus was alive and the tomb was empty,
but the chief priests still ran Jerusalem and the Romans still
dominated the world. What was really that different? This is
amplified by the disciples’ question during that last conversation
before Jesus ascended back to heaven: “Lord, are you at this time
going to restore the kingdom to Israel?” Jesus flatly tells them, “It
is not for you to know the times or dates the Father has set . . .”
(Acts 1:6-7).

When confronted with our doubt, Jesus focuses us on His presence and
power. Rather than giving an explanation, Jesus says, “All authority
has been given to Me . . . I am with you always, even to the end of
the age” (Matthew 28:18, 20).

Looking into this word for doubt a little closer, I found that it only
appears one other time in the Bible, in Matthew 14:31. It is the
story of Jesus walking to His disciples while they are out on the lake
in the middle of the night, a huge storm threatening to sink the boat.
First thinking that they were seeing some apparition of doom, the
disciples cried out in fear. When Jesus called to them and said,
“Courage! It is I,” Peter incomprehensibly says, “If it’s really You,
tell me to come to You on the water.” Jesus beckons Peter; the other
disciples watch in astonishment as he steps over the edge of the
rocking boat.

The Bible says it plainly, “Then Peter got down out of the boat,
walked on the water and came toward Jesus. But when he saw the wind,
he was afraid and, beginning to sink, cried out, “Lord save me!”

One of my favorite words in the Bible is “immediately.” Jesus wasted
no time in grabbing Peter’s hand and lifting him back up again. Then
Jesus uses our word for doubt: “You of little faith, why did you
doubt?”

The disciples didn’t understand why things weren’t changing in the
world the way they thought would happen. I definitely don’t
understand some of the developments in my life and the world around
me. There is plenty of opportunity for doubt as we worship the Jesus
who can walk on water and step out of the tomb. But in the midst of
it all, what are we going to do?

Jesus focuses us on mission. He says, “Go. To all people. Baptize
them and teach them.” He says, “Courage! It is I.” He promises, “I
will be with you always.”

As we go get involved in other people’s lives, we “come toward Jesus”
just as Peter did on the water. As we see the storms break and the
winds howl in other people’s lives, as we experience the risk and the
costs of investing our lives in other people, we will want to throw
our hands up in the air and sink into doubt. But when we remember
that Jesus has all authority, over the wind and the waves, over death,
and over the mission that He gives us, I pray that we all together
rise up and keep on worshiping Him.

Courage!
Pastor Adam

Doing a first-person narrative for a sermon takes some courage for me.
I am interpreting the Bible with artistic license, and I don’t know
how much of it can be called art. While the details are interpretive
and debatable as to their biblical accuracy, it is the theme and the
principles for life that are true to the Word of God. In preparing
the monologue of Thomas from the gospel of John, I used the little
details of the story to bring my own interpretation alive. These
little details, I believe, are in the Bible for a reason. Reading the
Bible for its details offer wonderful insights and, most importantly,
a starting point for a great conversation with God. So here are some
of the details from John 20 that made this presentation on Thomas so
enjoyable for me:

John 20:26 says that one week passes until Thomas has his own
encounter with the risen Jesus. For one week Thomas refuses to give
an inch. The thing is, Thomas doesn’t decide to just leave the
disciples. He sticks with them, and obviously their story does not
change. None of them wavers in their experience of seeing Jesus alive
from the dead. All along Thomas says, “So if He’s alive, then where
is He?” The disciples have stopped trying to answer this question.
With every passing day Thomas seems more resolute in his refusal to
accept the others’ witness. Thomas won’t be sucker-punched a third
time! Let’s just let reality take its course here, he thinks.
They’ll see.

Amazing what Thomas can’t see. He can’t see Lazarus coming out of the
tomb. He can’t see Martha and Mary flying to Lazarus and receiving
back their brother. All he can see is the brother that he never got
back (my artistic license of interpretation). All he can see is Jesus
being led down the hillside by men with torches and swords. All he
can see is an empty tomb and a bunch of disciples who want something
so bad they unwittingly invented a way to escape their pain. Well
there is no escape! Thomas says to himself. That’s exactly what
happens when you don’t pick yourself up and fight. You start seeing
crazy things and think the dead can come back to life. Lazarus might
be alive, but my brother isn’t. Neither is Jesus, else where would He
be?

For eight days, John literally records. This makes the day Thomas
sees Jesus to be either a Monday or Tuesday. Why eight? The only
significance this number has is when a newborn male child would be
circumcised. The Bible makes strong links to circumcision of the
flesh as a precursor and metaphor for the circumcision of the heart,
by the Spirit of God. It is not clear whether John has that
specifically in mind, because circumcision doesn’t appear as a theme
in his gospel or epistles.

At the same time, John does record that Jesus breathed the Spirit on
His disciples in that first meeting on resurrection day. Thomas was
not there with them to receive this. So eight days later, John says,
Thomas was with them and Jesus appears for the second time. Like a
newborn in need of circumcision, Thomas is in need of a new life. His
wound must be healed, his doubt dealt with. This appearance of Jesus
would circumcise Thomas’ heart and transform the pain into a
life-giving wound filled with hope. Just as Thomas wanted to place
his finger in Jesus’ wounds, so Jesus would put His finger into
Thomas’ wounded heart and perform a life-saving surgery.

“My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaims when Jesus appears. John
doesn’t say whether Thomas actually put his finger in Jesus’ wounds or
not, though Jesus invites him to do so. All we read is Thomas’
confession. But what we can imagine is that with the words, “Stop
doubting and believe,” Jesus is inserting his finger into Thomas’
wound and circumcising his heart.

“Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” The only
way to believe with certainty is to begin with doubting, the maxim
used to read. But it turns out that the only way to believe with
certainty is to begin with trusting. This is an enormous risk. But
blessed are those who take that risk. This is not written to condemn
those of us who are Thomas. It is written so that us Thomas-minded
people can be encouraged to drop the guard and let the finger of Jesus
touch us in our own wounds.

While Jesus says to Thomas in the singular, “Because you have seen me,
you have believed?” it is important to remember that all the disciples
there have been in the same position as Thomas. They have all seen
the physical evidence as well, and they all started with the same
empty tomb. They had an advantage over Thomas in seeing Jesus first,
almost immediately. Isn’t that an advantage that all of us today
would enjoy? Yet Jesus says that we today have a greater advantage
over any of those disciples. We have the advantage of not seeing and
yet believing. How does that work?

Think about how much more effective Thomas will be in witnessing to
people who are skeptical and defensive. He knows the way around this
interior landscape. The majority of us today are in this category.
We know what it is to come to faith and find new life through trusting
instead of doubting. We know what it has cost us, what we had to let
go of, and how we have been blessed by actually doing it. We know how
to witness for Jesus in a world that has its fists up and demands the
evidence. Put all the evidence—the stuff of arguments and debate—on
the shelf for a moment! Talk about what happened when the finger of
Jesus touched your wound and circumcised your heart. That’s what
makes sense. That’s worth believing.

I hope you enjoy listening. See you at the Conversation . . .

Pastor Adam