April 12, 2026

“Doubting Thomas” 

Message by Rev. Alan Perkins

Good morning, and happy Easter! I say that because, although Resurrection Sunday, or Easter Sunday, was a week ago, in many Christian traditions the entire period of fifty days between Easter Sunday and Pentecost is considered a part of the Easter season, a time of joy and celebration. As Baptists, we don’t observe the various named Sundays of the Christian year as closely as some other denominations do—we mainly just celebrate Christmas and Easter—but I think it’s useful, from time to time, to remind ourselves that our branch of the Christian church is part of a worldwide communion of saints that includes many other branches, each with its own history and traditions. Although our branch is of course the most correct one. [I say that with a smile, because, although I do in fact believe that to be true—I am a Baptist minister, after all—the other branches also all believe the same about themselves. So we’ll . . . sort it out when we get to heaven.] 

In the meantime, whether you consider today the Second Sunday of Easter in the liturgical calendar, or just April 12, everyone agrees that this is a day on which something important happened in Christian history. And that is Jesus’ appearance to the disciple Thomas. Let me read that to you, from the gospel of John, chapter 20, verses 19-29. In this text we have first, the appearance of Christ to all of the apostles except Thomas, on the evening of Easter Sunday, and then the appearance to Thomas one week later. 

19 On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

21 Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you! As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22 And with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!”

But he said to them, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

So Thomas did receive the proof that he was seeking. And this is the incident from which he gets his nickname. I imagine Thomas, many years later arriving in heaven, after his martyrdom in India, and his old friend, Saint Peter, is there to welcome him at the pearly gates. “Thomas,” he says, “I’ve got some good news and some bad news. The good news is that from this time forward, wherever the gospel is proclaimed, your confession of Christ, ‘My Lord and my God’, will be remembered. 

And Thomas says, “that’s wonderful!” What’s the bad news?

Peter says, “well, you will be known by a nickname. Not one that we chose, or that the Lord chose, but one that just kind of develops in the church over time.”

“OK”, Thomas says, “What kind of nickname? Something like yours? Peter, the Rock?”

“No, not exactly”, replies Peter.

“OK, then, one like James and John, the ‘Sons of Thunder’”?

“It’s ‘Doubting Thomas’. You’ll be known as ‘Doubting Thomas’”. “Oh”.

Now, of course that dialogue is all fictional. But it illustrates the fact that the apostle Thomas is known primarily for this one incident in the gospel of John. And I think that he has been unfairly labeled. Thomas has gotten a bad rap. Because the most important part of his encounter with the risen Christ is not his initial doubt, but his lasting faith. And we can draw some valuable lessons from Thomas’ life, even though he is mentioned only a few times in John’s gospel. Let’s see if we can rehabilitate his reputation a bit. 

First of all, Thomas was courageous. For example, when Jesus received the news that Lazarus, his friend, had died, he told the disciples that he was going to the village of Bethany where Lazarus had lived, in the region of Judea. “Rabbi,” they answered him, “a short while ago the Jews there tried to stone you, and yet you are going back?” (John 11:8)
So this was a dangerous trip for Jesus to be taking. But here is the response of Thomas: 

16 Then Thomas (also known as Didymus) said to the rest of the disciples, “Let us also go, that we may die with him.” (John 11:16)

Despite the fact that he and the other disciples would be risking their lives to accompany Jesus to Judea, Thomas urged them to do so, demonstrating both his courage and his loyalty to Christ. His attitude was a bit fatalistic, yes, but he was absolutely committed to Jesus as his teacher and his master, even if it could mean losing his life along with him. 

Thomas also had the courage to say what everyone else was thinking, but that no one else was willing to put into words. I see him as a no-nonsense type of guy. Perhaps a bit gruff,
a bit rough around the edges. We all know people like that; perhaps you’re like that.
So when Jesus, at the last supper, told the disciples that he was going to prepare a place for them, and told them, “You know the way to the place where I am going,” Thomas looked around the table at the others, who were probably nodding thoughtfully, as if of course they knew what Jesus meant, and he blurted out, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” And thank goodness that Thomas had the courage to speak up, because Jesus replied, “I am the way and the truth and the life” (John 14:5-6). 

I mentioned earlier that Thomas was martyred in India. This is not recounted in the Bible, and it is not something that we can absolutely prove from history. However, the writings of the early church fathers, in the first three centuries after Christ, do mention Thomas going to India. Also, the famous traveler Marco Polo in the thirteenth century wrote that he visited
St. Thomas’ tomb in India. And today, there is a group of several million Christian believers in India whose roots go back to antiquity, and who trace their beginnings back to the missionary work of Thomas. They are called the “St. Thomas Christians”, actually, and are located on the southwest coast of India, in the state of Kerala. So it is probable that Thomas did journey to India and that he planted churches there. Tradition tells us that he was killed after converting some of the local king’s family members to Christianity. All of this testifies to Thomas’ courage in journeying to a foreign land to preach the gospel. 

Another hint to Thomas’ courage comes from the fact that he was not with the rest of the apostles when Christ first appeared to them, on the evening after the resurrection. We read earlier, in John 20:19, that “the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders”. In other words, they were hiding. Where was Thomas? Well, we don’t know, but he wasn’t cowering behind locked doors, worried that the temple guards would burst in and drag them all away to be crucified, as their leader Christ had been.
The other apostles were unwilling to go out in public and show their faces, but not Thomas. Apparently, he was the only one who was not intimidated or fearful. Maybe they sent him out to get some hummus. 

With all that as background, I suggest that Thomas also demonstrated a kind of courage and independence in not immediately accepting the testimony of the other apostles, that they had seen Jesus. You could say that he was obstinate or hardheaded, but I see his unwillingness to go along with the crowd as being principled and courageous. Remember, Christ had appeared to the others. They had all seen the risen Christ. But Thomas had not. All Thomas was asking for was to receive the same evidence that they had received. And until he did, he wasn’t going to budge. He wasn’t refusing to believe, but he wanted evidence. Keep in mind also that an entire week went by, in which the other eleven apostles, every day, were talking about what they had seen, and were likely trying to persuade Thomas to accept their story. But he wouldn’t yield. What did he say? “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” Thomas had the courage to resist all of that pressure and to hold out for what they had received, a visit from the risen Christ. Maybe a bit stubborn, yes, even defiant, but also strong-minded, and in my opinion, that took courage.

So what can we learn from all this? My takeaway is that we shouldn’t allow ourselves to be coerced into doing something, or believing something, that we aren’t convinced is the right thing to do or believe, even if those who are urging us to do it are people whom we trust and respect. In other words, we shouldn’t be people-pleasers: we should act in integrity, and not out of expediency. We should have the courage of our convictions. That doesn’t guarantee that we’ll always be right. But at least we won’t be wrong for the wrong reasons, because we let someone else pressure us. 

Let me give you an example of this kind of courage. It involves Martin Luther, who like Thomas, was unwilling to just accept whatever he was told. In 1542, Martin Luther was summoned to appear before an imperial assembly in the city of Worms, in Germany. The emperor had convened what was called a “diet”, a kind of inquisition, really, comprised of the emperor, princes, and church officials. Luther was invited to either defend or to retract what he had written concerning several matters which challenged Catholic doctrine, including the sacraments, the authority of the pope, and the practice of indulgences; which was basically selling admission into heaven for money. The stakes were high. Luther knew that if he failed to recant, he could be arrested or executed. And in fact, shortly after this council concluded, that is exactly what happened: he was declared by the emperor to be a heretic and an outlaw, and his arrest was ordered. Luther only escaped because he was “kidnapped” by a sympathetic Duke and hidden in his castle for several years, during which time he translated the Bible into German. And so at the assembly, Luther was under immense political pressure; his friends were all urging him to soften his tone. But Luther refused to retract what he had written, and here is the reason he gave:

“Unless I am convinced by the testimony of the Scriptures or by clear reason (for I do not trust either in the pope or in councils alone, since it is well known that they have often erred and contradicted themselves), I am bound by the Scriptures I have quoted and my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and will not recant anything, since it is neither safe nor right to go against conscience. May God help me. Amen.” 

In some versions of the speech, Luther ends by saying, “Here I stand, I can do no other”. But in either version, the meaning is clear. Despite the danger he faced, and despite the pressure from those who cared about his safety and who were urging him to recant, Luther chose to act in integrity, and in faithfulness to his understanding of God’s Word, and he stood firm. The result of his courage was the Protestant reformation. 

Here's a second, and related, thing that we can learn from the apostle Thomas: that
everyone has to believe for themselves, being persuaded in their own heart and mind that the gospel is true. Thomas couldn’t believe based on someone else’s encounter with Christ; he needed to experience the risen Christ for himself. And in the same way, we cannot believe for someone else; nor can someone else believe for us. Parents can’t believe for their children. Husbands can’t believe for their wives, or wives for their husbands. Pastors can’t believe for their people. This is a very Baptist idea, by the way, the idea that no person—
no priest, and no state church, nor any other religious entity—can exercise authority or coercion over the soul of another individual. Each person is responsible for their own faith before God. This is the doctrine of “soul competence”, or “soul liberty”. 

And so because of this, when we share the gospel and urge people to believe, our appeal isn’t based on authority, or tradition, or popularity. We don’t say that people should accept the gospel because some governmental or ecclesiastical body has ordered it—unlike in the days of kings, when the faith of the king was decreed to be the faith of the people. We don’t say that people should accept the gospel because that’s what their family or their ancestors believed. We don’t urge people to become Christians so that they can fit in with the crowd. No, when we invite people to believe in Christ, we appeal to them as individual moral agents; we appeal to each person’s reason and will. Every person who comes to faith receives an inner call from the Holy Spirit, directed personally to their mind and heart, and every person must respond to God individually, for themselves and for themselves alone. Christ emphasized this in John 10:1-5:

“Very truly I tell you Pharisees, anyone who does not enter the sheep pen by the gate, but climbs in by some other way, is a thief and a robber. 2 The one who enters by the gate is the shepherd of the sheep. 3 The gatekeeper opens the gate for him, and the sheep listen to his voice. He calls his own sheep by name and leads them out. 4 When he has brought out all his own, he goes on ahead of them, and his sheep follow him because they know his voice. 5 But they will never follow a stranger; in fact, they will run away from him because they do not recognize a stranger’s voice.” 

The relationship between Christ and his people is a personal one: he calls them by name,
as individuals. And they recognize his voice and follow him. Christ does not see his people as just a large, undifferentiated “flock” of sheep. He sees them as individual members of that flock. He sees you as an individual, whom he cares for and died for. He knows you intimately. He knows your joys and your sorrows, your hopes and fears, your strengths and weaknesses.

Here's how the Psalmist described it, in Psalm 139:

1 You have searched me, Lord,
    and you know me.
2 You know when I sit and when I rise;
    you perceive my thoughts from afar.
3 You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways.
4 Before a word is on my tongue
    you, Lord, know it completely.
5 You hem me in behind and before,
    and you lay your hand upon me.
6 Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too lofty for me to attain.

 13 For you created my inmost being;

you knit me together in my 

mother’s womb. 

(Psalm 139:1-6, 13)

And Thomas understood that. He knew that he couldn’t believe based on someone else’s experience of Christ. He needed to encounter Christ for himself. Now, does that mean we should expect a personal visit from Christ in bodily form, as Thomas and the other disciples received? No, because six weeks after this, on the day of Pentecost, God sent his Holy Spirit. And so now, our direct and personal experience of Christ is through his Spirit, who is the Spirit of Christ. As Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” And he was talking about us. Since Pentecost, we believe by faith, and not by sight. 

And so this idea, that we believe in Christ as individuals, and not only as members of a group, and that we continue to have a personal, individual relationship with Christ throughout our lives and throughout eternity, has several implications. First, it means that the quality of our spiritual life and our relationship with Christ is up to each one of us. It isn’t something that we inherit, although we greatly value our spiritual heritage and the faith of our parents and grandparents. Nor is it something that we can just absorb from our faith community, as if by some kind of spiritual osmosis. Although we greatly value the spiritual benefits of fellowship and corporate worship. But if you want to have a living, vibrant relationship with Christ, you will have to pray, and read the Bible, and obey God. Yourself. No one can do it for you. If your husband or wife is a great prayer warrior, that’s great, but it won’t help you to draw closer to Christ. If your parents are, or were, always faithful to attend church on Sunday, that’s great, but it won’t strengthen your knowledge of the Scriptures. Over the years, I’ve seen that when one partner in a marriage is strong in their faith, and is active in following after Christ, then the other one will sometimes kind of coast along on that, as if they can have faith by association, or faith by proxy. But it doesn’t work that way. Your spouse’s faith is their faith, and your faith is your faith. If you want your faith to be healthy, you have to nurture it and feed it. Yourself. 

The fact that our relationship with Christ is individual also means that the expression of faith will look different for each person. One person expresses their faith through music; another person expresses their faith through acts of service, like fixing the plumbing. One person expresses their faith by teaching and preaching; another person expresses their faith through cooking, or through decorating the church. One person expresses their faith by visiting those who are sick or homebound; another person expresses their faith through administrative work. like planning or organizing. And all are important. Paul speaks to this in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12, and I’ll draw your attention to just one passage. Paul is comparing the various gifts to parts of the body, all working together. And he says this:

“21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable,” (1 Corinthians 12:21-22)

“Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable”. However God has made you, as a unique individual, we need your gifts and abilities. They are not optional, or unnecessary. Whether your faith is expressed in a public way, like standing up here behind a pulpit on Sunday mornings and preaching, or in a quieter, less noticeable way, like showing mercy to people who are in need, it is all equally important and equally valuable. God made you as a unique individual, and the way in which you express your faith will flow from who he made you to be. And God doesn’t make mistakes. We need what you have to offer. 

I’ll give you one more consequence of the fact that we believe in Christ as individuals, and that our relationship with him is personal and individual. Here it is: We all need to accept and value one another, in all of our glorious variety, and not try to fit people into a mold or expect them to be just like us. Because it is an undeniable fact that God loves variety. Consider the natural world, for example. In this world that God designed and created, scientists have identified over 37,000 distinct species of fish. That figure comes from an online resource called “Eschmeyer’s Catalog of Fishes”, which is named for a man who spent 40 years as curator of fishes at the California Academy of Sciences, Bill Eschmeyer. During his lifetime, Bill visited every museum in the world that held a specimen of a new species of fish, museums on six continents and over 100 countries. 37,000 species. And there are many more yet to be discovered. Over 400 were added just in 2025. If you were to start naming each species of fish using their scientific names, at the rate of one per second: “Abalistes filamentosus (that’s the hairpin triggerfish); Abalistes stellatus (that’s, of course, the flat-tailed triggerfish); Acanthurus achilles (the Achilles surgeonfish), and so on, it would take you ten hours just to read through the list. Now, if you asked me how many different kinds of fish you need when creating a new world from scratch, I might have said three or four hundred. But God made 37,000. Why? Because he loves variety. 

The British biologist, John Haldane, was once asked what he had concluded about the Creator from his lifelong study of animal life. His response was that God must have “an inordinate fondness for beetles”. Why? Because there are over 400,000 different species of that particular type of insect in the world. And those are just the ones we have discovered and named. Scientists say there could be a million more beetle species yet to be discovered. 

And the God who created over 37,000 species of fish and more than 400,000 species of beetles is the same God who created each of the 8 billion people in the world, and who created each of them to be unique. Because God loves variety, and differences, and uniqueness. And that includes each one of us here today. One of the things God loves about you is that you are different from every other person on the planet. That’s the way he made you, because he loves that variety. And we need to value that in one another, just as God does. God made Thomas and loved that he was different from the other apostles; a bit more skeptical, a bit more intellectually demanding, a bit more independent. We know God loved that because he made Thomas that way, and then he called Thomas to be one of the twelve apostles. Not despite his uniqueness, but because of it. God values your uniqueness, and we need to also value one another’s uniqueness, including our [their] quirks and eccentricities. 

Finally, let me give you one last thing that we can learn from the apostle Thomas. We saw that he was courageous. We saw that he stood firm on his convictions, unwilling to bend just because others urged him to. Now let’s look again at verses 26-28 of John chapter 20:

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

This was when “doubting Thomas” became “believing Thomas”. You see, Thomas was not using his need for evidence as just an excuse not to believe. He wasn’t committed to unbelief. No, as soon as he encountered the risen Christ, he immediately discarded his doubt and skepticism, and proclaimed his personal faith in him. And he didn’t just say that Jesus was Lord and God. What did he say? “My” Lord and “my” God. He not only believed, but he put his personal trust in Christ as his own Lord and Savior. 

There is a time for skepticism, and doubt, and the weighing of evidence. Note that Jesus did not rebuke Thomas for his temporary unbelief. He told him to stop doubting, once he had given him the evidence he needed, but Jesus didn’t criticize Thomas for doubting in the first place. So it’s OK to doubt and withhold judgment, for a time. But at some point, it’s time to decide. And so I’ll conclude with an appeal to anyone here this morning who may still be considering the claims of Christ, anyone who is in that same position that Thomas was, during the week between Easter and the following Sunday. You’ve heard some things about Christ that sound amazing: that he was crucified on a cross to pay for our sins; that he rose from the dead, and that everyone who places their trust in him will receive forgiveness of sins and eternal life. And you’ve been contemplating all this, and mulling it over, and weighing the evidence. If there is still information that you feel you need, or things you are working through, please come see me. I welcome the opportunity to talk about Christ with skeptics and doubters, people just like Thomas. But at some point, you need to make your decision for Christ. And I urge you to do that, even today. Receive him as “your” Lord and God, receive him as “your” Savior, as Thomas did. 

And when you do that, you will have what Jesus promised when he appeared to Thomas. Remember what he said? “Peace be with you”. That is the peace with God that those who receive Christ enjoy, knowing that their sins are no longer a barrier to fellowship with God; knowing that they have been reconciled to God the Father in Christ. This is the peace with God that comes from knowing we are no longer separated from him because of our sin. Won’t you receive that peace today, by putting your trust in Christ? And then tell someone about your decision as soon as possible. 

The First Baptist Church of Richwood - April 12, 2026