The Lutheran Hour
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"The Key to Diminishing Doubts"
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Text: John 20:19-31
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The grace, mercy, and the peace of God the Father is yours by grace, through faith in Christ Jesus the Savior of the world. Amen.
Dear friends, rejoice in the message of Easter: Christ is risen! He is risen, indeed! Alleluia!
A woman sits in an examination room at a clinic. She has just finished a consultation with her doctor. She clutches her car keys knowing that she can leave, but she feels like a prisoner – a prisoner in a cell, locked in by the news she has just heard. The news: cancer!
She is uncertain what the next months will bring. She is uncertain about how to tell her family, and she is frightened as she looks at all the uncertainty that lies ahead of her. If only someone could come into that room and make everything right!
Can you relate to this?
All of us deal with times such as these. It may not be the news of a serious illness, but we probably have all struggled with similar questions and worries at some point in our lives. Trouble with our children, parents, finances, co-workers – you name it. These things can make us feel as if we are locked-up in a “prison cell.” Well, not an actual prison cell, but a prison of doubt, fear, guilt, and just general uncertainty. These things are a result of sin in the world and they affect all of us to varying degrees.
Sin! When we sin, we do not honor, love, and trust in God. Sin causes us to seek other solutions rather than seek God. Sin is really the basis of all of our doubts, worries, and times of high anxiety. Sin! It is most certainly at the core of unbelief.
In the beginning, God created, and the crown of His creation was Adam and Eve – human beings. If you read the account of creation, you see that God created all things with His Word, but in the case of Adam and Eve, He formed them with His own hand. They were special, set apart from the rest of creation. Then, He did something else that was very special: after He formed them, He breathed into them the breath of life.
At creation, God made all things to be perfect. But, unfortunately, perfection would not last long. God created humankind to be free, free to live in a relationship with Him; but Adam and Eve used that freedom to enslave themselves in sin. They rebelled against God, and since that time, sin was in control. The Bible tells us that through one man sin entered the world, therefore all sin. It also tells us that we are slaves to sin!
In short, sin comes and it imprisons us. It holds us hostage to fear, doubt, and uncertainty. But perhaps most harmful of all, sin can keep people from faith; sin can keep people imprisoned and enslaved in unbelief. My friends, sin is a cruel taskmaster that can lead its slave only to one destination: death.
Where can we find freedom and peace? As we are in a “prison cell” of uncertainty and anxiety, where can we find hope? Where is the key that opens the door to life?
The 20th chapter of the Holy Gospel according to Saint John helps us answer those questions. In this chapter, John gives us a picture of a type of prison cell that held the disciples of Jesus. On that evening, “the first day of the week,” as John puts it, Jesus’ disciples were sitting in a room with the doors locked. They were prisoners to fear, uncertainty, and guilt. There was even one who would come onto the scene later who was a prisoner to disbelief.
These disciples had good cause to feel imprisoned. It was only a couple of days before this that their teacher, Jesus, suffered unimaginable torture and death. It was a torture and death that most of these disciples could only “imagine,” because out of fear for their own safety, they ran away. They deserted and they abandoned their friend and teacher. One of the disciples, Simon Peter, was even living with the guilt of denying three times that he even knew Jesus. Then came the news – the news that someone saw Jesus and He was alive! Sure, some have claimed to have seen the living Jesus that very morning, but could it be true, could news like that really be trusted?
For these disciples this locked room was, in effect, a prison cell. It was a prison cell of uncertainty, guilt, and fear. If only someone could come into that room and make everything right! If only someone could have the ability to help them overcome and give them victory over the guilt, shame, and uncertainty that surrounded them!
Someone did. Someone did enter. Into this prison cell of sin came Jesus. The sin and locked doors of this room would not hinder the living Christ. Jesus entered the room and greeted His friends with the greeting, “Peace be with you.” How strange a greeting is this! After all, most of them selfishly sinned against Him – they deserted Him, leaving Him for dead at the hands of the Romans.
And again He said, “Peace be with you,” and He continued, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.” And then, reminiscent of that life-giving breath He breathed into Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, the Son of God breathed on His disciples with the life-giving breath of the Holy Spirit in the forgiveness of sins.
In the midst of their guilt, fear, and shame, locked up in the uncertainty of the time, Jesus comes to His disciples and brings peace and freedom. He forgives their sins! Not only that, He restores them as His disciples and just as if nothing happened, He commissions them to go out and share the Good News of forgiveness with others.
It would have been quite a site to see; however, one of the twelve apostles was not there to see what took place. A disciple by the name of Thomas, called Twin, was absent. Yes, this is the one you may have heard referred to by the more familiar term, “Doubting Thomas.”
But to say that Thomas simply “doubted” would really be quite an understatement. In this account, the Apostle John actually uses language that tells us that Thomas was without faith. It is really much more appropriate to call him “Unbelieving Thomas.” Thomas was imprisoned. He was imprisoned in unbelief, unwilling to believe unless he could see it himself. He needed to put his fingers in the nail marks in Jesus’ hands and his hand in Jesus’ side. Only then, Thomas said, would he believe. If only someone could come into that room and make everything right!
Eight days later, someone would. Still living in fear, the disciples were again in the room with the doors locked, and again Jesus, the resurrected and victorious Savior, entered the room and greeted His friends with the words, “Peace be with you.” Jesus then invited Thomas to make full investigation of His wounds and bid Thomas to stop disbelieving, but believe! Through the Word of Christ, Thomas received the new life of the Spirit, new life that is made evident when he referred to Jesus as, “my Lord and my God.” Jesus then said to Thomas, “You believe because you have seen Me. Blessed are they who do not see, yet believe.”
Remember our questions? Where can one find freedom and peace? As we are in a “prison cell” of uncertainty and anxiety, even unbelief, where is hope found? Where is the key that opens the door to life? If only someone could have the ability to help us overcome the illness of sin and give us victory over that disease and all the problems that come with it!
In this Gospel reading from John, we see the key – the key that is necessary to diminish the doubt that comes with sin! It is found in Jesus.
It all seems so easy for Jesus in this reading: the entering the room, the giving of peace, the restoring things to the way He intended it to be, but it wasn’t that easy. It took suffering. It took things like Jesus suffering insults for our abandonment, Him suffering nails in the hands and feet for our doubt, and Him suffering a cruel death for all of our unfaithfulness. It wasn’t easy, but He did it, and He did it for the purpose of paying the price for our sins. Here is the better news: He did it to pay the price for your sins.
But you say to yourself, “Pastor, you don’t know what I’ve done; you don’t know my sin, my doubt, my fear, and even perhaps my unbelief!” My friend, there is someone who has the ability to help you overcome all of that. He gives you victory over your doubts, fears, even the most awful sin that you could ever commit. And He did it for you; and He did it with His own bare, nail-scarred hands and He did it because of His great love for you.
For those of you who are listening today who have been “locked in a prison cell” of sin, hear the Word of God, the Word that turns the key to your freedom: If you confess your sin, God is faithful and just to forgive all of your sins and purify you from all unrighteousness. Fellow sinner, your sins are forgiven in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
God’s love for us was demonstrated in this: While we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. As you hear this Word of God, life and forgiveness is being breathed into you by the power of the Holy Spirit. That Spirit of God is filling you with the news that comes with forgiveness and not only does this forgiveness diminish sin – it destroys it! As far as the east is from the west, so far has God separated your sin from you. You are free!
But beware, Satan will try to continue to keep you locked away in sin, he will attempt to keep you under his control; but be assured of this, Satan is defeated! He is finished! He was finished on the cross – the place where Jesus proclaimed “It is finished.” On that cross Jesus gave you the key of forgiveness.
But it is not just His death that is key. It is indeed key, as in Him, our sins were put to death on the cross; but we also benefit from His resurrection that unlocks us and frees us to live a new life.
On this day – the week following the celebration of Easter Sunday – we celebrate that resurrection again, as we do each Sunday. Sin attempts to keep us under its control – so we continue to remember what God has done for us in Christ. But not only do we celebrate that death and resurrection every week, we celebrate it every day. We know that we still live in a world of fear, worry, and doubt. We know that this world is still filled with the presence of sin, and we still fall into that sin. But we remember, we remember the One who came into the room to give us victory – Jesus. We remember His death, His resurrection – a death and resurrection that by His grace, we share through faith, through believing and trusting in Him.
We will still struggle with the worries and uncertainty of the world. But as we live a new life in Christ, what is that to us? What is the worst thing that this world thinks it can throw at us? Death! But what is death to us who have the victory in Christ? The Apostle Paul tells us in his letter to the church in Corinth, “O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting?’ The sting of death is sin, and the power of sin is the law. But thanks be to God, who gives us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ.”
The mission of Lutheran Hour Ministries is: Bringing Christ to the Nations-and the Nations to the Church. This ministry, of which it is an honor for me to be a guest today, heeds the word of Christ when He says, “As the Father has sent Me, even so I am sending you.”
Sent by Christ, His Church boldly proclaims His Word in the midst of sin and the world’s problems and pressures. It proclaims that Word with the sure and certain hope that through this Word of God, those who are dying in this dying world would, by the Spirit of God, hear His word and have the new life of the Spirit breathed into them.To give life – that is the very purpose of these Words of God written by the Apostle John all those years ago: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.”
Blessed are you who have not seen, but still believe. Blessed are you, because even though you have not seen, by the power of God’s Spirit you believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. You have life in His name! Blessed are you indeed! In the name of Jesus. Amen.
LUTHERAN HOUR MAILBOX (Questions & Answers) for March 30, 2008
Title: Questions About HeavenANNOUNCER: Now, Pastor Ken Klaus responds to questions about heaven. I’m Mark Eischer, and this is a follow-up to one of your recent daily devotions.
KLAUS: Which, I’m happy to say, goes out to more than 18,000 people every day.
ANNOUNCER: And to receive those free email devotions, go to: www.lhm.org and sign up.
KLAUS: Thanks for the plug, Mark.
ANNOUNCER: Well, here’s our question: “Will we know each other in heaven the way we knew each other here on earth?” Our listener writes that part of her grieving over her father’s death is the thought of never seeing him again and missing that relationship they shared.
KLAUS: Although we’ve covered part of this topic before, let’s try to do a recap. Many people, somewhere along the way, have picked up the belief that when we die, we go to heaven and are met by Saint Peter at the Pearly Gates.
There, if he determines that we’re good enough to make the grade, he will grant us entry and issue our standard angel equipment: a cloud, a harp, a pair of wings, and a halo. He then makes us all look alike and erases our memories so we won’t remember anybody from here on earth.
ANNOUNCER: I assume this belief isn’t quite right?
KLAUS: No, Mark, that belief is almost entirely wrong. In fact, so much of what I just said is so not right, I need to make sure we can respond to it all here.
ANNOUNCER: Where to begin?
KLAUS: First: nowhere in the Bible does it say that Saint Peter is guarding heaven’s gate. When Jesus entrusted the keys of the kingdom to the apostles and His church, He was talking about forgiving and retaining sins here on earth. That’s called the Office of the Keys. Faith, forgiveness, and salvation are matters that are settled here on earth. That means there won’t be any opportunity for negotiation at the Pearly Gates.
ANNOUNCER: Well, that’s one myth.
KLAUS: Second: no one gets into heaven on the basis of whether they are “good enough.” No one is, not even the best of us. Entrance to heaven is based solely, completely, 100 percent on the fact that Jesus is perfectly good and whether you trusted in Him as your Lord, your Savior, your heaven-sent substitute. Did you believe He lived for you, He fulfilled the law for you, He resisted temptation for you, He died the death you deserved, and then rose from the dead?
ANNOUNCER: So, in other words, it’s His goodness that counts, and not ours. Through faith in Him, we receive the credit for what He’s done.
KLAUS: Right. Next: in heaven we don’t become angels. Yes, your soul goes to heaven when you die, but you don’t become an angel. Angels are created, men were made; angels are spiritual beings – they never had a body, but we do. In the resurrection, angels will still be angels, but believers will have their souls and their glorified bodies put back together again.
ANNOUNCER: So that means no halos, no wings, no cloud, no harp?
KLAUS: Well, if you want a harp, maybe God will give you one.
ANNOUNCER: Because, apparently, there will be music in heaven.
KLAUS: Yes, but remember as the song says, “In heaven, there is no beer.” (Don’t take that seriously.) As far as the rest, the Bible certainly doesn’t say you’re going to get those things.
ANNOUNCER: Where do these ideas come from?
KLAUS: Seriously, I think they come from Bugs Bunny cartoons.
ANNOUNCER: What about recognizing each other in heaven?
KLAUS: Mark, nowhere in Scripture do I see any indication that heaven takes away our individual personalities. On the Mount of Transfiguration, the disciples recognized Moses and Elijah. Those Old Testament prophets hadn’t become matching interchangeable bookends. Moses was Moses, and Elijah remained Elijah.
Mark, the one thing I’m sure of is this: In the resurrection, believers receive a glorified body. That means each of us will be the persons we were – but better. No longer will the ravages and consequences of sin take their toll on us as they do now.
ANNOUNCER: So that means no more aging?
KLAUS: I’m certain there will be no more evil consequences of aging. I think Job sums it up when he says, “For I know that my Redeemer lives, and at the last He will stand upon the earth. And after my skin has thus been destroyed, yet in my flesh I shall see God, whom I shall see for myself, and my eyes shall behold, and not another” (Job 19:25-27). Job believed he, himself, was going to see Christ after Judgment Day.
ANNOUNCER: How would you sum this up for us?
KLAUS: Well, I’d say to our listener: Look forward to being in heaven with your father and rejoice that together you will sing the praises of the Savior who alone is the reason and the focus of all we do there.
ANNOUNCER: This has been a presentation of Lutheran Hour Ministries.
Music selections for this program:
“A Mighty Fortress” arranged by John Leavitt. Concordia Publishing House/SESAC
“I Know That My Redeemer Lives” From My Redeemer Lives by Don Wharton (© 1996 Third Firkin Music Company)
“Oh, That I Had a Thousand Voices (Trio)” by David Cherwien (© 1997 Summa Productions)
“He’s Risen, He’s Risen” arr. by Timothy Moke and Georg Masanz. From Magnificent Christian Hymns, vol. 2 by Timothy Moke and Georg Masanz (© 2005 T. Moke Recordings)