Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from John 20:24-29.
Lindsey Blair and Bobby Gilles recap and discuss Pastor Jonah Sage's sermon from John 20:24-29.
Bobby: Welcome to the Midweek Checkup. My name is Bobby Gilles, and I’m joined by Lindsey Blair. This past Sunday Pastor Jonah preached from John twenty, verses twenty-four through twenty-nine. He said that Jesus is not found in the right places; he’s found in the honest ones.
Jonah said that Thomas gets a bum rap when we call him Doubting Thomas. We should call him Honest Thomas. He just wanted the same proof that the other disciples got. We can hide behind pious sentiments, but if we’re honest, we all want Jesus to show himself to us.
Lindsey, what did you think?
Lindsey: The pressure is off; that pressure we often feel to always have the “right answers”, the pressure to “be okay” when we really aren’t okay…Jonah said that Jesus came to the people and the places where there was no pretense and no pretending, so we can be honest about where we are, and know that Jesus will show up.
Now, for anyone who missed the sermon or needs help remembering, let’s do a quick recap.
Bobby: Jonah began by saying that trust and honesty are the heartbeat of relationships. Jesus has a relational invitation: trust me. After the resurrection of Jesus, he appeared in a locked room where the disciples were hiding. He showed them his wounds as if to say, “It’s me. It’s really me.”
He breathed on them, filling them with the Holy Spirit, forgiving their sins.
Lindsey: But Thomas wasn’t there, and he could not believe it really happened when the disciples told him. You can feel the exasperation in Thomas’ voice. Ten of them are lying? Really? Plus Mary Magdalene? Thomas says what we don’t expect from a disciple of Jesus, but he says what we would all be thinking: unless I see him myself and feel the wounds on his body, I will not believe.
Bobby: Eight days later the disciples are still hiding in a locked room, and this time Thomas is with them. Again Jesus appears. He affirms Thomas and invites him to check out the wounds in his hands and side. Maybe you feel like your whole life has been like the eight days Thomas was waiting. A lot of us say what we think we’re supposed to say. We talk a good game about believing in Jesus, and we pray prayers that are theologically correct. But we’re not honest. Maybe that’s why God can still seem like a stranger after decades of praying.
Lindsey: Pastor Jonah urged us to make space for honesty. Come to God with our honest doubts and groaning. Second, expect Jesus to show up where he is not supposed to. Expect him to enter locked rooms. Think about where he shows up in the Gospels: behind locked doors, touching lepers, praising prostitutes, dining with drunks, and teaching tax collectors.
When God came near, he didn’t come where we thought he was supposed to come. He came to the honest ones.
Bobby: Jesus shows up for us every week in something real and something honest. In bread and wine. Simple, unexpected elements. There, we can see the holes in his hands, feel the hole in his side, see his body and blood. Jesus is not found in the right places, he’s found in the honest ones.
Lindsey: This Sunday we’ll press further into the restored relationship that Jesus brought to Peter, and what it means for us. And in Bible Fellowship we’ll talk about Acts Nine together, where a beloved disciple named Tabitha dies, and Peter is summoned quickly.
Join us, and bring a friend.