April 12, 2026 | A Living Hope

This is the holy gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ according to John.

Glory to you, Lord Christ.

On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, Peace be with you.

What he had said, when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.

Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.

Now Thomas, one of the twelve called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.

Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.

Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands, and put your hand and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe.

Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God.

Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

The gospel of the Lord.

Praise to you, Lord Christ.

Let's pray together.

Father, we thank you for the miracle of Jesus' resurrection and for his presence here this morning.

You are alive, Jesus, and among us now.

Give us the grace to hear your voice.

Holy Spirit, take the words of God and plant them deep in our heart that we might know you and encounter you as your disciples did on that third day.

In Jesus' name we pray.

Amen.

You can be seated.

Well, we are in the season of celebrating and recognizing the power and significance of the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The resurrection of Jesus Christ.

The fact is, we would not be here gathering together this morning if Jesus had not risen from the dead.

His disciples would have remained a group of fearful, heartbroken, and defeated men and women if it weren't for the fact that they met the risen Jesus Christ on that third day when he appeared to them.

Peter describes it in this way in his letter to some of the early Christians, saying this in the passage that was read just now.

According to his great mercy, he has caused us to be born again into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead.

We are born again into a new life through the reality of the resurrected Jesus Christ.

And this is how we can have a living hope.

This is how we can experience new life.

I'm not sure if you were aware, but hope can die.

Our hopes can die.

Maybe you've experienced that in your life.

Or your hopes have died.

But this is a different kind of hope that doesn't die.

This is a living hope that is made possible by this fact.

Jesus Christ is alive today.

That's what I'd like to talk about this morning.

And there's something about being a human being that points us in that direction.

There's something inside of us that when we're faced with death, something cries out and says, that's not right.

And it's because we were not designed to die.

We were designed to have life.

We were created to live forever.

And there's something in the heart of every human being that longs for that.

They long for eternity.

And not just eternity, but for a quality of life to be experienced here and now on earth.

Jesus' resurrection is the doorway into that reality.

Jesus' resurrection is the doorway into that hope and experience that we all long for.

Our gospel from John this morning captures one of the first encounters of the risen Jesus among his disciples who had followed him for three years, who had followed them in a way that brought them hope like they had never experienced before.

And yet, their hopes, I would imagine, in many ways, died.

All the hopes that they were carrying with them as they followed Jesus everywhere he went, all the way to that moment where Jesus hung on the cross, where Jesus was crucified.

And I have to imagine that when Jesus' body was buried in that tomb, many of their hopes were buried along with him.

There was one person missing, though, on that third day when Jesus appeared to his disciples.

Thomas wasn't there for some reason.

I don't know what happened.

I don't know if he drew the short straw and he had to go out and pick up the pizza.

No one really knows why Thomas was not there.

Have you ever missed something that was truly unique and extraordinary?

That you might have had an opportunity to be a part of and you weren't.

I would imagine that was kind of like what Thomas was experiencing when he started hearing reports from the other disciples.

We saw Jesus.

He showed himself to us.

He spoke to us.

He said, Peace be with you, and he breathed on us, and he said, Receive the Holy Spirit.

And something happened inside of us when he spoke those words, receive the Holy Spirit.

It says in this passage from John, that when Jesus showed himself, the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

That's probably the worst translation of any word in the Bible that I can think of.

They saw the resurrected Jesus, whom they thought were dead, whom they had thought was dead, who had they put, who they had put all their hopes and dreams upon.

And they were glad?

No, I don't think they were just glad.

I think they were experiencing inexpressible joy.

Something was happening extraordinary.

And they came to Thomas with that kind of joy, saying, Jesus is alive.

Now the interesting thing to me is that Thomas doesn't believe them.

Think about it for a second.

Thomas had spent three years with these men, doing everything with these men.

If anyone was to be trusted, it would be those guys, right?

Think about the people in your life that you trust.

When they say something, you're going to believe them.

If there were anybody in the lives of Thomas that he would believe, it would be them, right?

But he doesn't.

He says something extraordinary.

He says, unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.

That's a pretty strong statement.

Unless I see it with my own eyes, and not only see him with my own eyes, but touch his nail-pierced hands and his wounded side, I will never believe.

Why do you think he doubted the testimony of his friends?

Why was it so hard for Thomas to make that step of faith and belief that they had seen Jesus, that he was alive just as he had promised, and told them several times, listen, the Son of Man is going to suffer.

He's going to die, but he's going to be raised on the third day.

Why was that so hard?

I don't know.

Maybe Thomas was like some of us who are sort of the personality type that says, I will believe it when I see it.

And you better make a pretty convincing case.

Maybe some of us are wired like that.

Maybe Thomas was wired like that and said, I need proof.

Or maybe it wasn't just about his personality that demanded the cold hard facts, but it was also perhaps the sting of disappointment.

The sting of disappointment.

I bet some of you know what the sting of disappointment is like.

This is when you set your hopes on something that's really important to you, that you look forward to and hope for and perhaps believe is going to happen someday, and it doesn't.

That's the sting of disappointment.

Maybe when Jesus died, something inside of Thomas just broke.

It snapped.

Because he had put so much hope in this Jesus.

He had pushed all his all of his chips, metaphorically speaking, he put on Jesus.

And now he was dead.

I think it's helpful to think about what Thomas was hoping for exactly.

What was Thomas hoping for?

What were so many people hoping for when they expected the Messiah to come one day, the Christ, the anointed one, the new king of Israel?

What were they looking for and hoping for?

Well, they were looking for this Messiah to establish a new kingdom where Israelites and Jewish people would be restored to a place of honor and respect and power and significance in the world, which they hadn't enjoyed or experienced for centuries.

Think about this.

Think about what it might have been like for Thomas growing up, hearing all of these stories about the things that Yahweh had done with the people of Israel, all these signs and wonders and miracles, and how he led them out of Egypt into the land of promise, and kings like David and Solomon and all their glory and splendor and encounters with God.

They were ridiculed by the Romans, they were oppressed, they were taxed heavily.

And to listen to these stories and put your hope on someday somebody's gonna come, and our circumstances are gonna change.

Things are gonna turn around.

Maybe those were some of the things that were coming alive in Thomas when he walked with Jesus and saw Jesus doing all these incredible, miraculous things, thinking, this is the one, this is the guy that we have been waiting for.

Things are gonna change now, things are gonna get better.

Only to get to that point where everybody is shocked to see this Jesus, this Messiah, the anointed king, hanging on a tree, crucified, dead, and then buried in a tomb.

Maybe there are some things that you have hoped for in your life that are really important to you.

And you've been looking to God for the answers, for the outcome, and you haven't seen it.

When that happens, disappointment can create in us a really challenging experience where it's hard to believe for certain things.

Again, maybe you've had your hopes dashed.

I'll give you one example.

Um when I was in middle school, my mother started getting sick, and it started with something simple.

She was she had TMJ.

I don't know if you ever remember, if you remember TMJ, but she had that.

That was the beginning of a long line of many things over several years where things went from bad to worse.

And I remember always kind of hoping that maybe this next surgery would mean my mom would be healed and restored, that I would have my mom back in a sense.

Or that this new doctor or new medication that she was gonna try to get well and that she would be better, and I would have my mom restored to me.

But that never happened.

It never happened.

And I'll be real with you.

In my heart, I stopped hoping.

I just resigned myself to the fact that my mom is not gonna get well.

And that was a hard thing to walk through.

That was a difficult situation to deal with with God.

Why?

Why?

Maybe that is part of what we see happening here with Thomas.

Maybe that's part of what's going on in your life right now.

I think we learn a lot though by how Jesus responds to Thomas.

It's pretty extraordinary how Jesus handles Thomas, right?

He doesn't come to Thomas with a lecture.

I told you so.

I told you I was gonna be, I was gonna rise on the third day and you didn't believe me.

He doesn't ridicule him, he doesn't chastise him for his lack of belief.

He simply does what exactly what Thomas asked him to do.

He does exactly what Thomas asked him to do, which is pretty extraordinary, isn't it?

Maybe it's possible that we can be honest with God too, about where we're struggling in our faith.

We can be honest with God about the doubts that we have in our life in certain areas, where maybe it doesn't seem like he's coming through in the way that we had hoped for or expected.

It's beautiful how Jesus handles Thomas in this situation.

Have you ever wondered why Jesus didn't wait for all of the disciples to be together to appear?

Why didn't he wait for Thomas?

He could have.

He could have waited for another moment when all of them were together.

But he didn't.

He chose to go during a time when he knew Thomas wasn't there.

I wonder why he did that.

Maybe he had a different path for Thomas.

Maybe he wanted to reveal himself in a unique and different way to Thomas because he knew that's what Thomas needed.

God in Jesus will approach our doubts and unbelief in different ways.

Because we're different people, we're made different, we have different personalities, we have a different perspective on life.

Jesus is going to have a different way with you than he is with me in terms of revealing the reality of his resurrection, the reality that he is alive, he is with you, he has overcome death, and he does have a plan and a purpose for your life.

Jesus also chose to wait eight days to come back.

I don't know if you noticed that.

They waited eight more days for Jesus to come back.

I bet there were some disciples in that group that were wondering on day eight.

Did we really see Jesus?

He was here, wasn't he?

That happened.

That happened, right?

Sure, there were.

They probably had doubts at that point.

And yet Jesus comes and Thomas is with them.

So Thomas did have some level of faith.

Otherwise, he wouldn't be with the disciples again.

He would have gone off on his own, I'm guessing.

There was a part of his heart that did believe.

Maybe it is true, maybe Jesus is alive.

So he's with them on that eighth day when he comes back and he reveals himself, not just to the disciples, but very personally to Thomas, who said, Unless I put my hands in the holes of his hands, unless I put my hand in his side, I will never believe.

Except the sign of the prophet Jonah.

Now, Jonah was swallowed by a whale.

He was as good as dead until the third day, when that whale spit him out onto dry land.

And he went from death to life.

That's what Jesus was talking about.

I'm not going to give you a sign, I'm not going to have to prove myself to you, but I will provide the sign of Jonah, which is what?

His resurrection.

Again, when Jesus cleared out the temple and drove out the money changers and the people making the temple into a marketplace, they said to Jesus, What sign do you show us for doing these things?

And Jesus replies, Destroy this temple, and in three days I will raise it up.

In three days I will raise it up.

There had to be something different between what was happening with Thomas and what was happening in these situations.

You follow me?

They were each demanding a sign, proof, to believe.

I believe that a lot of it has to do with how we approach God with our unbelief.

Are we coming to him as the judge on our terms?

You have to prove yourself to me.

Or are we coming to him with a sincere and genuine struggle?

I need help to believe, God.

I'm struggling because I had all my hopes set on you.

And when you died, something of that hope died inside of me.

There's a difference between those two approaches.

Do you see the difference there?

Are we coming to him with our hopes as a judge demanding proof on our terms?

Are we coming with a sincere struggle?

I need help to believe in you, Jesus.

I'm struggling right now.

Jesus' response will depend a lot on how we do approach him in those situations.

Jesus has Thomas put his hands in the holes in his hands.

I mean, just imagine that for a moment.

Put your hands out for a second.

And look at your hands.

And imagine two holes in the palms of your hands.

Two gaping holes.

That Jesus extends to Thomas and allows him to put his own finger into that hole.

The way that Jesus reveals himself so personally and intimately and vulnerably to Thomas is extraordinary.

That's what Thomas needed, and that's what Jesus gave to him.

And then he says to Thomas, have you believed because you have seen me?

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

That's you and me.

Isn't it?

There's something blessed.

There's something glorious, something unique about us putting our faith in Jesus when we haven't seen him or touched him, like Thomas did.

There's a unique quality to that.

There's something that pleases God's heart when we walk by faith and not by sight.

When we trust him, even with our greatest hopes, when we can't see our lives moving in the direction of that hope being fulfilled.

So how is it that we encounter Jesus today?

Because he is alive.

And it's through his resurrection, that doorway, that we begin to experience what it's like to have a living hope.

Well, the first thing is our approach.

When we come with a sincere desire to know Jesus, God, I want to believe.

Help me, because I'm struggling.

And we're honest about our disappointment.

Maybe there's a disappointment in your life regarding a hope that you had held for so long.

Be honest with God about that.

Just like Thomas.

I think one of the things for us as we approach Jesus, who is alive and well, is that we approach him not for the sake of what he can do for us, but for him.

And I think that's where a major shift happened for Thomas.

He had hoped for particular outcomes, that his circumstances and the circumstances of the Israelites, the Jewish people at that time would change.

He had set his hopes on particular outcomes, not a particular person.

And that's a part of the process that Jesus is leading us through is he wants our hope to be placed more on him than on the outcomes.

Because that's where living hope is experienced.

That can't die, that will never die.

Peter, at the very end of that passage that we read earlier, says, though you have not seen him, you love him.

And even now you do not see him, but you believe in him and rejoice with an inexpressible joy filled with glory because you are receiving the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls.

Do you love him?

Though you have not yet seen him, you love him.

Is there something about Jesus that attracts you?

You just you keep, it's like a magnet drawing you closer and closer to him.

Even though you don't see him, there's something about Jesus that you love.

And even though you can't see him now, there's something about you inside of you, something inside of you saying, it's true, it's real, he's alive, he's available, he wants to hear from you, he wants to talk to you, he wants you to experience him in your life.

That is God setting you up for an experience with Jesus.

I don't know what it will look like for you.

It's going to be different than Thomas's experience, but he knows exactly what you need.

And if you come to him with humility and say, there's something about you, Jesus, that I love.

I can't get away from it.

There's something inside me that recognizes this is real.

You are alive.

And I want to experience that in my life in a personal way.

Jesus is here, the resurrected Christ.

He's here in his people, but not just that, here in the presence of the Holy Spirit, speaking to some of you this morning, and maybe calling you for the first time to touch, to touch Jesus in a way, to reach out for Jesus and to have Jesus reveal himself to you in a way that brings you into a living hope that can never die.

Let's pray.

Jesus, for every heart that is seeking you this morning, for every person being drawn to you, for every person that has that mustard seed of faith, we ask you to reveal yourself.

And if you're one of those people, maybe you just in your own heart right now, you ask for Jesus to reveal himself in a way that you can know it's him.

Just like Thomas asked.

And that you would reveal yourself, Lord, in a clear and unmistakable way.

That you would draw your people into a living hope, where they experience you day by day, where where they walk with you, where they walk with you, Jesus, where they hear you, Jesus, where they talk to you, Jesus, where they see you moving and acting in the lives of people around them and through them.

We thank you, Holy Spirit, for bringing Jesus to life for us today.

It's in his mighty name that we pray.

Amen.

Amen.