And Now, May the words of my mouth and the meditation of my heart be alway acceptable in Thy sight, O Lord, my strength and my Redeemer.

In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.  Amen.

What a precious day the LORD, out God has given us today in His awesome Creation of His spoken word, “Let there be,” when He created all things out of nothing, than, something!

Did you notice last night the high winds and the lightning and thunder, the glorious display of God’s might?  Wasn’t that God speaking from Heaven?  He is angry with this nation, and the world, and the slaughter of the innocent!  Blessed be the souls of those conceived, but never born!  You abortionists are abortions, demonic, blood thirsty, of the ‘blood culture’ of Satan, never being able to appease your thirst!  You go into a frenzy, just the the terrorists, when confronted  Are you not one yourself?  O curse you and hate to you because you are an enemy of the True and Living God, who hates what you are doing and will judge you for it!

Nevertheless, and back to my subject, what a glorious day as we remember and celebrate the first Sunday after Easter when our Lord Jesus arose from the dead.

As we look back on those titanic events that changed the world forever, we can fully realize that almost 2,000 years have passed since His crucifixion, death and burial, His mighty resurrection, and His glorious ascension from the Mount of Olives up to Heaven to be with His Father.

And just as He called the twelve disciples to Himself, so He is calling people to Him in this Age of Grace.

And so our hearts our hearts swell with the joy and love and thankfulness for what gas done for us; we know our future destiny is eternal life in Him, for He is the Light of Eternity that leads the Way.

Therefore there is no need to doubt, none whatsoever!

We know the story about the twelve disciples of Christ, but today we will take a closer look as one of the twelve, called, “Doubting Thomas.”

What About, Thomas?

Well, we know from the Gospels that he was a Galilean, possibly a fishermen, and he was a twin, hence the Greek name, “Didymus.  He was the seventh disciple chosen by Jesus.

He had a quick temper-and said what was on his mind.  He was impulsive.  Perhaps, too, he was of a ‘twin-mindedness,’ bordering on unbelief and faith?

It seems he was always on the lookout and gathering information and clues in which to make up his mind…to frame his beliefs!

Just as he was a doubting pessimist, he was also a realist in seeing the dangers Jesus was about to face.

All the disciples doubted at one time or another as to who Jesus claimed he was, or even the resurrection itself!

And many who followed Jesus in the beginning, turned back and followed Him no more! Their doubt turned to unbelief!

Jesus asked those who were left, the twelve, if they also wanted to go away?

And, “Peter said, ‘Lord, to whom shall we go?  You have the words of eternal life.'”

And then came Peter’s great confession for the whole group as to who they believed Jesus was:

“We have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Son of the Living God.”

And so, this is the background Thomas was part of.

In the Gospel According to John, we find three notable events involving Thomas, the so-called “Doubter.”

The first event deals with the death of Lazarus.

In chapter 11, news came that Jesus’ friend, Lazarus, had died.

And despite the threats on His life by the Jews of Judea and Jerusalem, and the warnings of His disciples not to return there,  Jesus goes anyway to Lazarus to the village of Bethany, about two miles from Jerusalem!

It is there Jesus will raise Lazarus from the dead, telling them that Lazarus “sleeps,” but he is really dead…the first hint to His disciples that at death, believers “sleep” in Christ.

Notice the order of events not to be missed by the disciples: first, death-Lazarus “sleeps” in Christ; second, the resurrection to life of his dead body in the tomb. third, a new life in Christ Jesus.

And it seems here that Thomas seems to have faith about some kind of assurance of a future life with Christ after death!

For, in verse 16, we read:

“Then Thomas, who is called the Twin, said to his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go that we may die with Him.'”

Thomas was ready to die with Jesus, and in Jesus, without fear!

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