What’s So Different About Jesus? Part 3: Consider Jesus’s Resurrection

Background Passage: John 6:22-71; 9:1-41; 20:1-31
Today’s Focal Passage: John 20:27-29

27 Then He said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and observe My hands. Reach out your hand and put it into My side. Don't be an unbeliever, but a believer." 28 Thomas responded to Him, "My Lord and my God!" 29 Jesus said, "Because you have seen Me, you have believed. Those who believe without seeing are blessed."

When my daughters were infants, my wife and I would go in to check on them just one last time, before we went to sleep. I always wanted to see (and hear) them breathing, just to make sure they still were! I remember nights when our youngest would finally be sleeping, after a great deal of effort. Thirty minutes or an hour later, I would creep into her room and watch her sleep. I wanted to make sure she was still breathing. There were nights when I couldn’t tell just by looking, so I would lean down to listen. If that didn’t work, I would touch her to feel her breathe. Sometimes, I accidentally woke her up. My wife would be so frustrated after having spent so much time getting her down in the first place. But there are so many fears and anxieties to being a young parent. Sometimes we just have to be sure.

I can’t imagine all the fears and anxieties in the minds of Christ’s disciples following the crucifixion. They had to be putting two and two together regarding the prophecies He gave them before His death. Matthew 16:21 reads, “From then on Jesus began to point out to His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem and suffer many things from the elders, chief priests, and scribes, be killed, and be raised the third day.”

The disciples had seen Christ raise the dead before, even the days-old dead. Remember Lazarus? But could Jesus raise Himself? Seeing their Lord again, there were certainly still questions. Thomas gets a bad rep for needing proof. But if I’m being completely honest, I would have probably done the same.

Jesus said that people who believed without seeing would be blessed. In saying this, He basically blessed all of us today! He knew that there were be generations of believers who would have to believe in His resurrection without seeing.
o When did you come to know Christ?
o How have you dealt with your own doubts about the resurrection?
o How have you been blessed from believing without necessarily seeing?