My Lord and My God By Andrew Davies

Remember that he was absent when the other 11 gathered together.
He was absent maybe for a good reason. We are not told why.
We can speculate, we can wonder, strange in a way that he wasn't there.
But by not being there he missed something very, very important.
We're told that on that same day at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut,
where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, that Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them,
Peace be with you.
So Thomas missed that glorious first manifestation of the risen Christ to his disciples.
That illustrates to us a very important truth and that is that very often when we miss the gatherings of the Lord's people,
without perhaps good reason, we miss something very important. We miss something rather wonderful.
In Wales in 1904 and 1905 there was a great revival.
The instrument in the revival was a man called Evan Roberts who lived in a little town called Dorsinon.
Prior to the revival Evan Roberts did not miss one meeting in his church for 13 years.
The reason was because he was afraid that the Holy Spirit might come and he wasn't present in the meeting.
That was the level of his expectation. One day the Holy Spirit did come
and for six glorious months Wales knew a wonderful spiritual revival.
100,000 people became Christians. The pit ponies working underneath in the pits refused to obey instructions during the revival.
Because the miners, the colliers, stopped swearing and the pit ponies didn't know what to do.
They weren't used to this new language that was being spoken to them by these Christian people.
The public houses were closed for four months in many South Wales towns.
And that was entirely due to the fact that the Holy Spirit had come into the South Wales area in such a way
that literally everybody living in the community knew that God was in South Wales.
It was a quite astonishing, quite phenomenal movement of the Holy Spirit.
Now Evan Roberts was expecting God to do something like that
and as I say, did not miss a meeting in his church for 13 years because he was looking forward to God coming in that way.
It illustrates the point that we may miss something important when we are absent without good reason.
But even when we are absent, the Lord is kind to us and gracious to us.
And Thomas being absent for whatever reason, the Lord knew that and the Lord came to help him and was very kind to him.
So a week later when the eleven gathered together, Thomas was with them.
And on this occasion Jesus came again and visited them.
And on this occasion we're told, he said to Thomas,
Reach your finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.
Thomas had a problem about believing. He was finding it difficult to believe.
The other disciples clearly believed that Jesus was alone, but he didn't.
The other disciples now had come to grasp the reality of the Lord's words and of the Old Testament scriptures that Thomas hadn't.
He wanted specific proof before he committed himself.
He was not going to believe unless there was some specific evidence to persuade him to believe that Jesus was alive.
So he dictated the terms of believing.
Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
Thomas was not going to believe unless he could actually touch the hand of Jesus that had been crucified,
and the side of Jesus that had been pierced with the sword.
So he dictated the terms. He said, I'll believe, but I'll believe on my terms.
Now there are many people like that who dictate the terms.
Our Lord is so kind and gracious as to accommodate himself to people who have difficulties of that kind,
and so he actually gave Thomas the evidence and the proof that he needed.
No doubt some of us would become impatient and intolerant of people with difficulties like that.
We might even become angry and upset. Not Jesus.
He was willing to give Thomas the evidence that he was looking for.
And he's still like that. He's willing to give us the evidence that we have really no right to ask for in a way,
and he sometimes comes to us, even on our terms, he stoops to conquer.
And our Lord is so kind and so gracious as to do that today.
So he helped Thomas in his difficulty, and not only did he help him in his difficulty,
but of course he wanted Thomas to become a witness to the resurrection too.
Here was a cool, cautious, careful man who was not easily going to believe.
He wanted to test things for himself. He wanted to know for himself.
He wanted to examine things. Maybe if he were alive today he would be of a scientific bent.
He wasn't going to be pushed or manipulated or indoctrinated.
He wasn't going to be, through some kind of psychological pressure,
made to believe because of the force of some personality.
He wanted to believe for himself.
And if he therefore, cool, cautious, and considered Thomas became a witness to the resurrection,
then a very important further piece of evidence for the resurrection would be added to the Christian faith.
Our Lord knew that for Thomas to be persuaded, there would be a further reason
for men and women in subsequent centuries to realize that the evidence for the resurrection was overwhelming.
So because our Lord wanted to help Thomas personally,
and also he had chosen him to be a witness to his resurrection,
he came to him and he did what he did.
As a result of our Lord giving him that evidence, that proof that he needed,
holding out his hands and telling him to put his hand next to his side,
Thomas was able to cry,
My Lord and my God.
He came to realize who Jesus really was and he cried that great cry of faith.
Now, this is important for you and me as well because there may well be some of us here who are like Thomas.
We, after all, were not there when Jesus rose from the dead.
We have the New Testament record for it, we have the evidence of the New Testament for it,
but we were not there.
So we are dependent upon the evidence that we have before us here in the pages of the New Testament.
And it may be that some of us are of a rather skeptical turn of mind.
And we may not really be sure whether Christ is risen, whether Christ really did rise from the dead.
And if we are of that turn of mind, and maybe not just of that turn of mind,
and maybe we also have within our heart a predisposition not to believe,
as well as a presupposition not to believe,
if we are already predisposed not to believe,
and we already have a presupposition in our minds that will disincline us to believe,
then how can we really be sure that the evidence of these early Christian people
is right and is authentic and is reliable?
Maybe you know Christian people, and it's quite clear to you that they're Christians.
Something has happened to them, they clearly believe in Christ as their saviour,
but you haven't believed like that, and you may not be sure, and you may not be clear.
And it may be that you wonder about them too, well why do they believe?
Have they left their intellects on a hat stand? Have they somehow or rather become fools?
Have they ceased to think? Why is it that people now believe?
And you believe that they're reliable people and you don't doubt their sincerity,
but you're not really sure whether you can believe in the way that they can believe.
Now that was Thomas, and it may be that some of us are like that,
natively, naturally in our minds and in our hearts.
We want proof. People say, well I want proof.
If I'm to believe in Christ, I want proof. I'm not going to take your word for it.
I'm not just going to listen to a sermon, you're not going to try to think that just by preaching a sermon to me
you're going to persuade me like that.
And I want some evidence, I want some proof before I commit myself.
So, like Thomas, we make demands.
Unless I see in his hand the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. I will not believe.
Now, our Lord knows that, he's aware of that, so he gave Thomas the help that he needed.
Thomas was only one person, but he was important to Jesus.
We might have given up on him, we might have said, well I can't go on trying to help this one man,
there are so many other people I need to help.
We don't really need this one man, let this one man go.
He's a skeptic, he's a cynic, well let him go. Let's concentrate on those who will listen.
We might have done that, but our Lord didn't.
Here was one sheep needing special help, here was one of his creatures needing special care.
Here was one man struggling with unbelief. He had little faith, he had many doubts.
He was a week behind the others to start with.
They'd been there a week ago, he hadn't been there, so he was a week late.
But Jesus didn't leave the man behind even though he was a week late.
Others were in the vanguard, here was a latecomer right at the back of the crowd coming in
and Jesus came to him and helped him and wanted to be his Savior and his Lord as well.
So he gave him the special help that he needed and as a result Thomas was able to cry,
my Lord and my God.
Now let's just think about that for a moment.
Why did he say to Jesus, my Lord and my God?
He didn't say, well Lord you're a great man.
He said, my Lord and my God.
There are many people who believe that Jesus is a great man.
That's not what Thomas said.
You remember that in the Old Testament the psalmist spoke about God in these terms.
In Psalm 63 for example the psalmist cried, oh Lord thou art my God, my God.
That's what Thomas said. The psalmist said it about the great Jehovah.
Thomas said it about Jesus.
Exactly the same terms, my Lord, my God. He was talking about Jesus.
The psalmist was talking about Jehovah God, the great creator of the universe.
You see what Thomas was saying. Thomas was saying that this Jesus of Nazareth is, is the great eternal God.
My Lord and my God.
He's confessing Jesus to be the Son of God, to be not just a good great man but to be God himself.
My Lord and my God.
Now, was Thomas wrong to do that?
If Thomas was wrong to do that, to say to Jesus you are God and you are my Lord and my God.
If Thomas was wrong to do that, why didn't Jesus rebuke him?
People say that Jesus was only a man, a special man, a perfect man perhaps but only a man.
But Thomas was saying much, much more than that.
Well now, if Jesus were only a man, Jesus would have known that he was only a man.
Well then, why didn't he rebuke Thomas for saying something about him that if he were only a man he would have known was not true?
Do you remember that Paul, the apostle Paul, when people in Lystra wanted to acclaim him as a god,
he rushed into the midst of the people and said stop, you mustn't worship me, I'm only a man.
The angel in the book of Revelation said to the apostle John, when the apostle John fell at his feet,
you mustn't worship me, I'm only an angel, you must worship God.
So Paul stopped people worshipping him because he was only a man.
The angel stopped a man worshipping him because he was only an angel.
Well then, you would have expected Jesus to have stopped Thomas immediately if Thomas were wrong.
Instead, Jesus accepted his testament.
When Thomas confessed him to be his lord and his god, Jesus said,
blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed, you have seen me and you have believed.
So, you see, now Lord Jesus Christ did not stop Thomas at all.
Quite the contrary, he accepted his confession of faith, my lord and my god.
Well, maybe Thomas was just speaking in an exaggerated, thoughtless way.
People do, don't they? They use the word God and they use the phrase my god.
Very loosely, very easily today, that phrase trips off people's lips without real thought.
Well, was Thomas just doing that? Was he saying something that was just exaggerated and thoughtless?
Well, of course he wasn't doing that. No Jew would do that anyway.
No Jew would take the sacred name of Jehovah and use it in the cheap and an empty way as an oath.
And if it had been irreverent on Thomas's part, then Jesus would have stopped him and rebuked him.
No, Thomas was personally and particularly addressing Jesus in this way,
my lord and my god, and Jesus accepted his confession of faith.
You see why? Here is what happens when a person is really converted,
when a person really becomes a Christian.
To become a Christian is to have two things happen to you.
First of all, light dawns upon your mind. Light.
You realize who Jesus is. You realize that he's God, that he's the Lord.
Now authentic Christian conversion means that.
It's not just an intellectual matter, though it is that. It's a matter of amazement.
This man is amazed, my lord and my god. He's amazed that he hasn't realized this before.
He was there, after all, when Jesus had fed 5,000 with five loaves and two fishes.
He was there, no doubt, when Jesus had raised Lazarus from the dead, and Lazarus had been dead four days.
Well, now then, he's beginning to realize who Jesus is.
This is no ordinary man. This is not even a greater good than a holy man.
This man is God. This man is God, my lord, my god.
Now that's what Christian conversion is all about.
Unless people have come to know that, then they're not really Christians.
It's this is what makes a man a Christian.
It's not the fact that we're born in a so-called Christian country,
or that we come from a so-called Christian home.
It's the fact that we know Jesus Christ is our Savior, and our Lord and our God.
That's what it means to be Christian.
And you get more than you expected when you come to Christ, because Thomas wanted proof of the resurrection.
Instead, he discovered that he was in the presence of his Lord and his God.
So there's amazement here.
He doesn't very coolly and very casually, and in a very half-soaked kind of way, say,
Well, hello, my Jesus.
You know, there are people today, they have hardly any conviction at all about the Christian faith.
And they're supposed to be Christians.
They're convinced about anything and everything else, but when it comes to being a Christian,
they're cool and half-soaked and laid-back and apathetic.
I can't imagine anybody who is a real Christian being cool and laid-back and apathetic.
My Lord and my God.
He's amazed.
It's not just because of his temperament.
He's amazed at the fact that he's in the presence of his God, his Lord,
and he's risen from the dead and he's alive, so he's amazed.
Amazement is characteristic of real Christianity, and there's too little of it today.
Too many Christians today are like arctic rivers.
They're frozen at the mouth, and they're frozen in heart,
and there's very little heat and light and warmth and amazement.
Do you remember Charles Wesley's hymn, Amazing Love?
How can it be? Amazing love.
He's not casual about this. He's not half-soaked about this.
He's alive. He's animated. He's amazed.
Now this amazement has got to grip the church again
if people are going to listen to the message of the Gospel.
Until we begin to be amazed about what it means to be a Christian,
we can't expect other people to want to become Christian.
If Christianity is just another religion, another faith, another philosophy,
and we're all half-soaked about it, we don't expect people to want it, do we?
When we become amazed, when we are thrilled to bits, so to speak, thrilled to the heart
because Jesus Christ is our Lord and our God,
then we can really expect people to set up a notice.
So here is a man, Thomas, who's amazed to be in the presence of his Saviour.
Now conversion, as I say, is that. It's light.
But secondly, it's delight. It's delight.
He says, not Lord and God, but my Lord, my God.
There's a personal involvement here. He's full of joy.
The man is alive with joy. He can't keep his seat, so to speak.
My Lord, my God. Not just God, but mine.
This was the joy of salvation flooding his soul.
This is the joy of a man who really knows that Christ is his own Saviour.
Do you remember how the writer of the book of the Song of Solomon puts it?
My beloved is mine and I am his.
Now conversion means delighting in Christ. It means enjoying Christ.
Christianity is all about joy.
C.S. Lewis, that great atheist in the early 40s back in Britain, became a Christian.
He was the most reluctant atheist, he said, in all Britain.
And he wrote a book about his conversion which he called Surprised by Joy.
He found a joy that he'd never known before and that's what Christian conversion is all about.
Light and delight.
So here is a man who's now rejoicing in the fact that Jesus Christ is his Lord and his God.
And openly he confesses him in that way that we've just been describing.
He worships him, he gives him the homage and the obedience of his life.
Here is a man who has a real faith in a real person and he really knows it.
And he says my Lord and my God. Now that's real Christianity.
And there is so much sham Christianity.
So much Christianity that is not real today that sometimes it's difficult to find the real amidst the sham.
But here is authentic Christianity.
My Lord and my God.
That's the cry.
It's a very important and wonderful thing when a man or a woman comes to know that Christ,
the perfect man who came here into our planet to live a perfect life,
is also the Son of God who came from heaven to redeem us from our sins and to take us to heaven when we die.
And let me say this as I come to a close.
The cry is significant but I want us to notice also how Thomas came to this position.
Because you might say well I can understand that he's coming to that position but how did he get there?
How do I get there?
He is clearly announcing his faith in Christ as his Lord and his God but here am I and I'm not there.
How do I get from here to there?
How do I come to know Christ like that?
Well, you see, Thomas came to a meeting.
There were other people in the meeting.
He came into the meeting skeptical, doubtful, uncertain.
A little bit ill at ease, uncomfortable.
There were people in the meeting whom he knew to have seen Christ and known Christ and were sure of Christ being alive
and there were other people in the meeting and he was the man who didn't.
So here was a man who came into a meeting and he wasn't quite sure of himself.
He was a bit uncomfortable but he came and he sat down.
He was the odd man out but he left that meeting a changed man.
He came in, in one way he went out in another.
What produces a change like that?
Well, let me hasten to add, not psychological pressure.
Christianity is not about psychology.
Not through manipulation, not through hypnosis.
How did this man change?
Well, let me just pick out the three things that happened to him.
First of all, his conscience was troubled.
He knew that Jesus the preacher was preaching to him and he didn't like it.
It was as if Jesus was reading his heart.
It was as if the preacher knew about him but he never had an opportunity, Jesus,
to hear Thomas say, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails
and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.
First of all, Jesus wasn't there when Thomas had said that.
Thomas had said that to the others. Jesus wasn't there.
But now, when Jesus comes into the meeting, Jesus says to Thomas precisely the words that Thomas had said to the other disciples.
And he says to Thomas, reach your finger here, look at my hands, reach your hand here and put it into my side.
Do not be unbelieving but believing.
So how did Jesus know what was going on in Thomas's mind when nobody had told him?
Now that's what happens when people become Christians.
They begin to realize that God is speaking to them.
This has happened so many times. I've had people coming on to me after a meeting and they've said to me,
now how did you know about me?
Perhaps they've come to church for the first time and perhaps at the door they've said, who told you about me?
You were preaching to me this morning, weren't you?
And I say to them, well I'm sorry I've never met you before and I've no idea who you were
and I didn't even realize you were in the congregation.
That's the Holy Spirit convicting people.
Nothing to do with the preacher. How could the preacher know?
Here was Thomas being convicted. Jesus knew his heart, Jesus knew his mind
and Jesus was just unfolding before Thomas his own condition.
He knew him.
And that's the first thing that happens when a person becomes a Christian.
You realize that Christ knows you. You can't hide.
The second thing is that he was made aware of the greatness of Jesus's person.
We've touched on that, there's no need for me to repeat it again.
All I want to say is this, that Thomas was magnetized by a glorious personality
and that personality was Jesus Christ of Nazareth.
He was compelled to him. He was drawn to him. He couldn't escape from him.
He was attracted to him. This person was special, unique, different.
And so there was a majesty, a glory, a splendor about Jesus that nobody else in the world possessed.
Who was it who said that if Shakespeare came into this room we would all rise up to greet him by the hand?
But if Jesus Christ came into this room we would fall before his feet.
We worshiped him. That's what Thomas did.
He worshiped him. He was made aware of the greatness and the glory of Jesus.
So he was convicted first of all of his own sinfulness and then secondly he was made aware of Jesus's greatness.
And the third thing that persuaded him, that brought him as it were from fear to faith, was the wounds of Jesus.
Because Jesus said to him, you reach your finger here and look at my hands and you reach your hand here and put it into my side.
The wounds of Jesus. He saw the nail prints. He saw the spear thrust, the mark.
I don't know whether he actually put his hand upon the nail prints or his hand upon the side of Jesus.
Jesus asked him to do that but whether Thomas actually did that we are not told.
Maybe just the sight of the wounds was enough.
The wounds of Jesus. He saw them. He saw the nail prints in his hands.
And those wounds told him that Christ loved him. Those wounds told Thomas that Christ had died on the cross for him.
That those wounds were for him. That he had borne his sin. That he was being punished for his iniquity.
So he believed in the wounds of Jesus because Jesus had suffered and died for him.
There's a lovely story, I think it's true, about John Newton who wrote that lovely hymn Amazing Grace.
John Newton for many years was a very hard man, not a Christian, the master of a slave ship.
And as a mariner, as a sailor, once back in Britain he broke ship. He broke ship in order to go and visit his wife Mary.
He shouldn't have broken ship. When he got back on board ship he was discovered and flogged in front of the whole ship's crew.
Unmercifully flogged.
Well the next time he came back home to visit his wife Mary he got up in the morning and went over to the wash basin just to wash.
And it was the first morning that he was back and Mary in bed saw him going to the wash basin and he took his shirt off and
she saw these wheels, these wounds across his back. She came out of the bed and put her hands onto the wounds and the wheels and she said to John,
John, however did you get these? And then he told her the story.
That he got them because of his love for her. Because he'd wanted to see her.
You have to take the consequences of that as a consequence and as a result.
If you realize just how much he loved her.
When you look at the wounds of Jesus you realize just how much he loves us.
He died that we might be forgiven. He died to make us good.
We might go at last to heaven saved by his precious blood.
Dear friends, if you want proof that Jesus really loves you, look at his wounds.
He died for us. It's a real death. Our sins are therefore really forgiven, really taken away.
And of course they were the wounds in the hands of the risen Jesus.
He wasn't dead anymore. He was alive and he is alive and he finished the work.
So he will always be our savior and the wounds that he once bore in the cross he now wears in heaven.
But they're rich wounds and they're visible above in beauty glorified.
A wonderful thing to know that Christ has been wounded for him. Wounded for me. Wounded for me.
Isn't that an amazing thing?
Now that's what produced the great change in Thomas.
Not only was he convinced of his own sin and of the glory of Christ,
but he was convinced that Jesus Christ the Son of God had died for him.
So he was converted. He was drawn from darkness to light, from doubt to faith, from unbelief to confidence.
And that's what happens to people when they really listen to Christ.
A change takes place. We move from unbelief to belief, from doubt to certainty.
And change is entirely due to the work of God in our hearts revealing Christ to us
and the wonder and the glory of his death for us upon the cross.
Now let me ask you. Has that happened to you?
Are you a Christian? Have you come to know this savior whom Thomas came to know?
Well as you look to Christ and trust in him as the risen Lord who is here by his Spirit this morning,
you are forgiven too. And you receive the same assurance and confidence that he did.
And you are able to say, my Lord and my God.
And as you go through life from that moment on, with all its trials and difficulties, he'll be with you.
And you'll be able to say, the Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
Not very long ago I conducted the service, the funeral service of a man in South Wales who had never been to church, I think, all his life.
He was a member of the rugby club there in Brigend. He played for Brigend as a flanker.
He got sick with cancer. I was able to visit him while he was dying.
And I believe in the goodness of the Lord, the Lord Jesus Christ came to him and saved him.
There were 300 men at his funeral and not one of them would come into the chapel, but they were all to the grave.
And so I read the 23rd Psalm like this.
The Lord is not my shepherd. I shall surely want.
There are no green pastures to lie down in and no still waters to be led by.
My soul perishes. There are no paths of righteousness to be led in.
And there is no one there in the valley of the shadow of death.
I will be terrified when I die. There will be nobody with me.
There will be no table before me in the presence of my enemies.
My head will never know the anointing of his oil. My cup will be empty forever.
And there will be no goodness or mercy for me. And I will perish and die and go to hell.
And I said to the men, if you do not believe, then that is exactly where you are.
The Lord is not your shepherd. You don't believe. Very well then, face the consequences.
Be consistent. If you don't believe, then that is where you are and that is what will happen to you.
And then I was able to read the 23rd Psalm.
The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not want.
He makes me to lie down in green pastures. He leads me beside the still waters.
He restores my soul. He leads me in the paths of righteousness for his name's sake.
Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil.
For you are with me. Your rod and your staff, they comfort me.
You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies. You anoint my head with oil.
My cup runs over. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life.
I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.
Well, where are you this morning? In which group of people?
You say the Lord is not my shepherd.
For the Lord is my shepherd. That's what Thomas was doing. My Lord and my God.
And because the Lord is your shepherd, then he will be all that the Psalmist says he will be to you.
And he will change your life and make you his child and give you a joy and a peace that you never knew existed.
He one day will come to take you to be with him in that heavenly and eternal home.
The Lord is my shepherd.
May God enable each one of us this morning to be able to say that.
And to be able to say it personally. The Lord is my shepherd.
Not just my mother shepherd or my father shepherd or my wife or my husband shepherd.
The Lord is my shepherd.
Well then come to him. Trust in him.
Put your faith in him. Say with Thomas my Lord and my God.
And our Lord Jesus Christ will say to you blessed are you Thomas.
You have seen and have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen. That's you and me.
And yet have believed.
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