Sermons
“Believing Thomas"
“Believing Thomas"
Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
John 20:19-29 New Revised Standard Version
19 When it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 20 After he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord. 21 Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I send you.” 22 When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.” 24 But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”26 A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”†
Seven Stanzas at Easter
As we carry Easter forward, I want to share with a poem by multiple Pulitzer Prize-winning author John Updike:
Seven Stanzas at Easter
Make no mistake:
if He rose at all
it was as His body;
if the cells’ dissolution did not reverse, the molecules
reknit, the amino acids rekindle,
the Church will fall.
It was not as the flowers,
each soft spring recurrent;
it was not as His Spirit in the mouths and fuddled
eyes of the eleven apostles;
it was as His flesh; ours.
The same hinged thumbs and toes,
the same valved heart that--pierced--died,
withered, paused, and then
regathered out of enduring Might
new strength to enclose.
Let us not mock God with metaphor,
analogy, sidestepping, transcendence;
making of the event a parable,
a sign painted in the
faded credulity of earlier ages;
let us walk through the door.
The stone is rolled back, not papier-maché,
not a stone in a story,
but the vast rock of materiality that in the slow
grinding of time will eclipse for each of us
the wide light of day.
And if we will have an angel at the tomb,
make it a real angel,
weighty with Max Planck’s quanta, vivid with hair,
opaque in the dawn light, robed in real linen
spun on a definite loom.
Let us not seek to make it less monstrous
for our own convenience, our own sense of beauty,
lest, awakened in one unthinkable hour, we are
embarrassed by the miracle,
and crushed by remonstrance.
Crushed by Remonstrance
That’s a great concluding phrase, “crushed by remonstrance.” In case you’re not sure what remonstrance is, it is the demonstration of proof. It is the living, resurrected, body and being of Christ standing before you when you were certain he was dead and in the grave. Remonstrance is the full shame of Good Friday and Holy Saturday upon those who disbelieved—who just waited to see what might happen if anything. Remonstrance is the Second Coming when humankind will see him whom they pierced in glory and the full power of God. Remonstrance is Judgment Day—the moment each one of us may encounter the living Christ, as Mary Magdalene did at the tomb and as Thomas does today.
Jesus is Multidimensional
In the resurrection, Jesus has put on immortality. He appears and disappears, but not as a ghost. Jesus’ resurrected body is a physical body like yours and mine, and it is much more. Jesus is multi-dimensional. While he appears locally and bodily in these resurrection accounts, he is not confined to space and time as during his incarnation. This Jesus is present in all time, all of space, and all worlds—even all at once.
He appears within a locked room—certainly scaring the Disciples witless—and says to them, “Shalom!” Shalom literally means “peace be with you” but it is exactly like saying, “Hi!” It is an enormous understatement (bathos) not without humor. He breathes on the Disciples—imparting the Holy Spirit—and commissions them for his work. We can only imagine how that must have felt. It no doubt changed them all forever.
Jesus appears to some
Some—not all—of the Disciples see him. Thomas is not there; where is he? Has he gone off to be on his own after the crucifixion? Was he out running an errand? We don’t know. We just know he wasn’t there. One take-home from this is to acknowledge that Jesus does not reveal himself in the same way to everyone.
Some, like Paul, saw him with their own eyes and are knocked down by the experience. That may be true for some of you here (and I’d sure love to hear your stories!).
Other Disciples and followers saw him in the flesh with their human eyes. That must have been nice. I think we sometimes envy those who were first-hand eyewitnesses because, in many ways, we are like Thomas and have a tough time believing things we don’t see ourselves. Much like Thomas, most of us have to rely on the testimony of others.
Trusting the Testimony of Others
Thomas knew these guys. When they say, “We have seen him!” we have to believe that they did so with utterly believable conviction. Thomas knew when these guys were lying and when they were telling the truth. He knew them, and here they are, faces beaming with the truth, pleading with Thomas eager-heartedly to believe the good news, and Thomas tells them he’s having none of it. No way.
Did he know they were not kidding? Did he at some level not want to believe? Perhaps he felt a little resentment that Jesus appeared to them instead of him? “I was morose—nearly suicidal—so why didn’t Jesus come to me?”
A lot of people have asked this question in the same way whenever they hear about the resurrection. “If Jesus is alive, then why doesn’t he simply show himself to me?” “It’s fine for you that he’s revealed himself to you, but am I supposed to believe just because you believe? No way.”
How frustrating for the other disciples. “Thomas, come on! What’s the matter with you?” And, as well-meaning friends can do, they keep hounding him until they push him to the breaking point.
Thomas’ Big, Bad Dare
Fed up, or just no longer wanting to be hounded by the other disciples, Thomas throws down the gauntlet. Verse 25:
“Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands, and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
To say, “I just want to see for myself” is sufficient, but Thomas lays down a big, bad dare. “Unless I can put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.” Consider just how gruesome—how gross—this is. It seems to me he is really trying to shut the other guys up. I imagine it worked. What could they say to that but, “Oh, Thomas, really?”
Thomas: crushed by Remonstrance
So a week later, they’re all gathered together—Thomas with them—and Jesus appears. “Shalom,” he says. He walks up to Thomas, holds forth his hands, and says, “Okay, Thomas—you go right ahead—put your fingers in my wrists. And here, [Jesus lifts the edge of his tunic] give me your hand.” I don’t think Jesus just left it at that; I suspect he actually made Thomas follow through with his big, bad dare. I imagine Jesus grabbing Thomas’ hand, and while Thomas’s wide-open eyes and sagging jaw are taking in the scene, Jesus pulls his hand and places it in his side. Thomas tries to yank his hand back, but Jesus takes hold of his index finger and places it into the hole in his wrist. This is gruesome, but Thomas certainly asked for it. Thomas is crushed by remonstrance, and rightly says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God!”
What else might he want to have said? “I’m sorry—I didn’t know!” That’s what we all say to remonstrance.
We know remonstrance and live with it in our daily lives. The crush of remonstrance makes us say to ourselves, “I should have known better” or “I’m so ashamed; I didn’t know!” We didn’t know that guy who we think is weird and who we make fun of with others is one bravely struggling to overcome autism, or that very strange young lady who seems so angry and brittle was sexually abused throughout her childhood. No one knew that the socially-awkward co-worker was taking care of his invalid mother and sacrificing sleep and social life for her benefit. And when we find out, we all say, “If only I had known, I would have treated him or her differently.” That is the crush of remonstrance.
We should have known better. Should have simply treated that person with respect, understanding, and love. Even if we don’t understand—especially when we don’t—still, we should be treating her with respect and love.
We should have known that Jesus was who he said he was. We must believe the testimony or suffer a crushing remonstrance that can last forever.
the Blessing
Jesus’ final word is a blessing. Verse 29:
“Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
That is for us. We come to believe by hearing the Word rather than by seeing. We are enabled to see Christ through the testimony of others, just as the first Christians who were not eyewitnesses.
It is up to us to tell the world that Christ is risen, that he lives, and that he is our Lord and God. We should have the same believable conviction on our faces that the Disciples had when they told Thomas. We don’t have to hound them into reactionary mode, but we must tell them the truth about Jesus and otherwise trust Jesus to reveal himself to them as he has done to us.†
- What is the significance of the details John writes about Jesus’ actions and the circumstances?
- What does Jesus mean when he tells the disciples he is sending them out just as the Father sent him?
- How would you react if Jesus appeared to you following his resurrection?
- Why is the resurrection of Jesus so important to his believers now?
- The theme of the New Creation has repeated again in vs. 22-23. In what practical ways do his followers forgive and retain sins-extending Jesus’ forgiveness to others while warning the world of sin?
- Considering the character of Thomas, why is vs.28 so significant?
- How do Jesus’ words in vs.29 apply to us as believers in this time?
- How are we like the disciples in our faith? How can this help us as we live a life of discipleship
Easter: “Absolutely Alive"
The Easter Feast
Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
Intro: Holy Saturday
We held two, meaningful services on Maundy Thursday and Good Friday. Both were on the dark—nearly dismal—side, for they are full of Jesus’ downward trajectory and a world that fails to recognize Jesus for who he is. We rarely mention Holy Saturday—that time between Jesus’ death and resurrection, but I think it is worth a look before we read the Easter text.
Can we imagine how happy the Scribes, Sadducees, and Pharisees must have been? The populist Jesus movement which threatened their precarious balancing act with Rome was now put to rest. Yes, they may have thought, it was an unfortunate bit of business, but we’ve kept the Roman monsters happy for another year, and it means yet another year of peace. And look at this lovely table! Come on, let’s eat!
But the Romans didn’t want Jesus killed—turns out they barely cared at all.
The people—the parade-goers, the onlookers, the Zealots—all knew this was a terrible thing that happened. This Jesus, they would have thought, was a good man murdered by those sellout Temple Elites. Who knows what they’ll try next. Anyway, let’s not let it ruin our Passover. As to Messiahs—well, maybe next year.
Holy Saturday is our world—a world which by and large disbelieves the whole Jesus story. The so-called faith of many is simply waiting to find out. We live between the first and second coming of Christ. Many people are just kind of going along to wait and see. Is Jesus coming again? If so, then when? I guess we’ll just have to wait and find out.
Many people—even many claiming the Christian faith—practice a Holy Saturday Christianity. Not really sure, but biding our time until more revelation occurs. This kind of Christianity is indistinguishable from run-of-the-mill American agnosticism. We want to believe, but we don’t really know, do we? So we live this life like it’s Holy Saturday.
Our text necessarily blows this mindset out of the water and rules it out completely.
Text: John 20: 1-18 New Revised Standard Version
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the tomb. 2 So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 Then Peter and the other disciple set out and went toward the tomb. 4 The two were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He bent down to look in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen wrappings lying there, 7 and the cloth that had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen wrappings but rolled up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. 10 Then the disciples returned to their homes. 11 But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb. As she wept, she bent over to look into the tomb; 12 and she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had been lying, one at the head and the other at the feet. 13 They said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping?” She said to them, “They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him.” 14 When she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was Jesus. 15 Jesus said to her, “Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you looking for?” Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, “Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary!” She turned and said to him in Hebrew, “Rabbouni!” (which means Teacher). 17 Jesus said to her, “Do not hold on to me, because I have not yet ascended to the Father. But go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” 18 Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, “I have seen the Lord,” and she told them that he had said these things to her. †
Genesis II
Genesis 1:1 reads:
In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless void and darkness covered the face of the deep.
With the creation, we have three time signatures: In the beginning, on creation day, when all was dark—Day One of creation. Our text begins in the same way, with three time signatures: early, Sunday morning, while still dark. This is significant because John is indicating that we’ve entered into a new time, a new era, even a new kind of time. This is Day one of the New Creation, Day One of Redemption, and the Kingdom of God.
It is still dark not only because it is morning, but because Mary Magdalene, the Disciples, and the world are still “in the dark” over what had happened; they still have no idea that Jesus has risen and a new age has begun.
The entire episode is something of a comedy of errors. Mary Magdalene goes to the tomb where Jesus was placed. Sabbath is over; this is her first chance to see him since sundown on Friday night. She sees the tomb with the stone rolled away, and runs off in a kind of panic to tell Peter, who apparently served as captain of the Disciple Team.
She finds Peter, along with “the Disciple whom Jesus loved” which is perhaps a humble way for John to refer to himself, rather than saying “me” in the narrative.
The Disciple Jesus Loves
How would you like this designation: the Disciple whom Jesus Loved—not at all a bad nickname. Perhaps John, in wondering exactly how to refer to himself, could find no better way to express his relationship to Jesus and his role in the whole drama than this.
And it is wonderful, isn’t it? John is nothing in and of himself but is defined by what Christ has done for him. He doesn’t say, “I, John,” but names his significance as a passive reality. I am the disciple whom Jesus loved. Not, of course, that Jesus didn’t love them all, but this is his self-awareness of who he is in relationship to Jesus.
Interviewed by the CNN, John doesn’t indulge himself. He doesn’t refer to himself as “Disciple #3 of 12,” “Great Follower of Christ,” or any other self-honoring title. He says none of those things because he sees that everything he is—is entirely a matter of Jesus’ love.
He doesn’t say he deserves that love, nor that he earned it. He says that love is given by Jesus, and that’s the end of it. The cameras have their red lights on and the microphone is stuck at John’s chin. “You’re one of Jesus’ closest disciples! What have you got to say about Him?” John replies, “Jesus loves me; that’s all that matters, that’s everything I am.”
Jesus loves me—if you and I can say that, what more do we need to say about ourselves? It all flows from there: Jesus loves me; that makes me infinitely more than I could ever do or be otherwise.
What the Disciples See
So, Peter and John run to the tomb, but the other disciple, who was younger and more fit than Peter, outran him and reached the tomb first. Although John gets to the tomb first, he doesn’t go in. John was clearly not prepared to see what he raced toward: an empty tomb. Tombs are generally every bit as bad as you might expect. For Jews of the day, death was fiercely unclean—not only touching a corpse but smelling death—made one unclean. John gets there first, but he doesn’t go in.
So Peter arrives, huffing and puffing because he hasn’t been working out enough, but he’s the man; he walks right in.
What he finds are the grave clothes and a head-cloth neatly folded up and placed to the side. Now just a word of reason: if someone or some group had decided to steal the body, doesn’t it make sense that they would have taken him out wrapped? And if not wrapped, and they were doing something both immoral and illegal, what would be the point of neatly folding up the head-cloth and setting it aside?
On the other hand, if Jesus were transformed from death to life—his body completely healed and restored—it’s not unthinkable that he would sit up, lift off the covering like a bedsheet, take off the head-cloth, fold it, and gently set it aside.
The Disciples do not see Jesus; they just see the linen wrappings. The text says that the Disciple whom Jesus loved “saw and believed.” Here is another first from this Disciple. He outruns Peter, gets to the tomb first, and now he believes, apparently before the others.
The key here is that “he believed.” Until now, they didn’t get it; they ran around in ignorant wonder trying to put together what on earth had happened.
EVERYTHING Changed
What a marvelous moment it must have been. John who was afraid of the tomb waits for Peter and when they enter, John watches Peter examine the shroud. He picks up the head-cloth, and it strikes him in a Eureka moment: This was supposed to happen! Jesus told us about this, but we had no clue what he was talking about. It is just like he said.
Everything changed. Not just John’s life. Not just the life of Jesus, his friends, and followers; but everything with a capital E. This was the new Genesis of a new world because that day death failed to be final. It was Day One of a new creation, a new cosmos within which death is not the final word.
God raised him up, loosing the pangs of death, because it was not possible for him to be held by it. —Acts 2: 24
If death is no longer final or permanent, what is?
At the center of Christianity is a belief that is identical to John’s belief. It says that this horrid thing that happened to Jesus was supposed to happen. Jesus wasn’t killed by the Jews or the Romans but laid down his life willingly as a sacrifice. It was all part of a plan to reverse the effects of sin and death.
Like the Big Bang, it is a singularity—a one-off to transform the cosmos. Not only Jesus was changed, but Nature—and the nature of Nature—in a new creation of which John gives us the new Genesis: early Sunday morning still dark.
Easter celebrates the singularity of the death of death.
Biologically, death is still the greatest power in the universe. Everything and everyone dies—even the cosmos itself spreads and cools into extremely vast darkness and cold. It is the one permanent that everyone has been able to agree upon. Until now.
Recognition
Mary’s encounter with Jesus is also a bit of a comedy. She has gone back to the tomb to cry. Two angels ask her a question but she thinks they—and Jesus himself—are just gardeners.
“Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken away my Lord.”
Then, when Jesus calls her by name, “Mary!” she recognizes him: “Rabbouni!”
Jesus tells her to go back to the other disciples and tell them that he is going back to his father “and YOUR Father.” Day One of the New Creation is initiated by a restored relationship with God. What sin and death broke are now restored by Christ.
For any here who may not believe in the resurrection:
There was no body in that tomb. The body that had been beaten, bled, pierced and drained of life was put into the grave by Friday afternoon, but on Easter morning that body—renewed, transformed, physical and metaphysical at once—sat up from death, folded up the head-cloth and stepped out into a transformed cosmos, a New World, that is our life and witness.
He is risen! †
“The Light Revealed"
“The Light Revealed”
Sermon by Noel K. Anderson
First Presbyterian Church of Upland
John 12: 27-36 nrsv
27 27 “Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—‘Father, save me from this hour’? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour. 28 Father, glorify your name.” Then a voice came from heaven, “I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again.” 29 The crowd standing there heard it and said that it was thunder. Others said, “An angel has spoken to him.” 30 Jesus answered, “This voice has come for your sake, not for mine. 31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out. 32 And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.” 33 He said this to indicate the kind of death he was to die. 34 The crowd answered him, “We have heard from the law that the Messiah remains forever. How can you say that the Son of Man must be lifted up? Who is this Son of Man?” 35 Jesus said to them, “The light is with you for a little longer. Walk while you have the light, so that the darkness may not overtake you. If you walk in the darkness, you do not know where you are going. 36 While you have the light, believe in the light, so that you may become children of light.” †
The triumphal entry of Jesus into Jerusalem
is what we call Palm Sunday. In the three texts we’ve read this morning, we have Jesus riding into Jerusalem—with the Disciples not really understanding what was going on and the Pharisees more determined than ever to kill him. We have Jesus announcing that the hour of his glorification has come. And we have this third, curious text with the thunderous voice of God from Heaven promising to glorify Jesus—which will come through his being lifted up, which no one seems to understand.
I’d like us to look at three points from John’s Palm Sunday text as we dive into Holy Week 2022:
1. The providence of God.
2. The promise to “draw all people” to himself.
3. How we come to understand and trust in God’s plan.
1. The providence
of God
God is in perfect control, despite any earthly appearances
One of the great themes in John—which also appears in other gospels—is that God is in total control. Nothing that happens does so by any other power than the power of God. Jesus' mission—meaning his coming crucifixion—is entirely under his control. In John 10: 18, we read:
"No one takes it [my life] from me, but I lay it down of my own accord. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it up again. I have received this command from my Father."
Jesus wasn't killed by the Romans, as the worldly view would have it. Jesus was not killed by the Jews, as many in church history have wrongly said. Christianity's past forays into antisemitism are its ugliest moments. Nothing comes close by comparison to the implication that the Jews killed Jesus. No, Jesus gave his life willingly—no one took it from him. God is in control, and his providence is perfect.
Notice: John does not give us the same Gethsemane account as the other gospels; his take is very different. Look at verse 27:
Now my soul is troubled. And what should I say—'Father, save me from this hour'? No, it is for this reason that I have come to this hour.
This appears to be the opposite of what we hear in other gospels, where Jesus asks the Father to "remove this cup." But here, John shows us that Jesus did not want it any other way. John tells us Jesus was confident in his mission. Jesus says, "No, it is for this reason I have come to this hour"! Then are the gospels giving us mixed messages? Not necessarily, because in reading John, we know how we ought to read the other gospels; namely, with all the emphasis on the latter phrase, "Not my will but yours be done." This acceptance of his mission is the common thread in all four gospels: Jesus was never in doubt about his mission—the plan he shared with the Father-- though he dreaded the necessary procedure. You'll get it if you've ever had a painful but necessary surgery to look forward to. The thing must be done—and you know it must—but you can't help wondering whether or not there might be a less painful process.
In all the gospel passion narratives, God is provident and in complete control—calling all the shots and lining up the players and events to secure our salvation. The Jews and the Romans are merely pawns on a board where God plays both sides.
We all need to know that God is provident—in charge, in control, and utterly trustworthy. We need to trust that God will follow through with his every promise. As in billiards, he has called every shot beforehand and makes every one. He will accomplish all he promises, and those promises are what we call hope. Those promises are the very substance of our faith.
So we need to talk about God's promise in this text, but we first need to understand how John sees salvation on the timeline of history.
John's Timeline of Salvation History
Have you ever known one of those people—near geniuses who can't figure out what time it is? They may be brilliant in several spheres of activity, but they can't figure out what time is? They are always late or painfully early but constantly challenged by the idea of time, where it comes from, and where it goes. That's John. John is a cosmic thinker, and for him, past, present, and future are all inseparable.
His gospel is filled with people who come face to face with Jesus for significant encounters. For John, that moment of encounter is each one's Judgment Day—the end of the world and the beginning of that person's eternity. Forever exists in a moment, specifically, in the very moment we encounter Jesus.
Judgment Day isn't a far-off future historical event; it is now, here in the eternal now is the final judgment of all humankind. Consider a couple of verses:
John 3:19
And this is the judgment, that the light has come into the world, and people loved darkness rather than light because their deeds were evil.
John 5:24
Very truly, I tell you, anyone who hears my word and believes him who sent me has eternal life, and does not come under judgment, but has passed from death to life.
And from today's text, verse 31:
31 Now is the judgment of this world; now the ruler of this world will be driven out.
John tells us that Jesus himself is Judgment Day. Judgment Day occurs when we encounter Christ. In the moment of that encounter, we experience our judgment. When we come face to face with Christ—the Word of God—we stand before the divine throne of heaven on Judgment Day. John would not have us think of Judgment Day as a far-off historical event to be awaited. Our judgment day occurs in moments like this one. Just like now. He is with us; he is near. Do you know him? Does he know you? Do you know he knows you? Are you under his grace, or are you still wondering? There is no Judgment Day to wait for to get your answer because that Judgment Day is right now. The light's on you—do you know his promises?
2. The Promise to draw all people to himself
What and how can it really mean “all “ people?
Verse 32: Here's the promise:
And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself.
All people will be drawn to Christ. That is Judgment Day, and it is also good news. Now, what is meant by "all people"? Over the centuries, scholars have tried to lawyer it down to simpler forms. Augustine said that it meant all classes of people—all castes and all places on the social ladder—which is interesting. Whether rich or poor, all will be drawn, but only if you're among the elect rich and elect poor. John Calvin had a similar take, saying that "all people" meant all nationalities, particularly Jews, Romans, Greeks, and so forth, as if it said "all peoples." A more precise translation is as broad as it plainly reads: "all people" means every human being without exception—all will be drawn to Christ.
Does that mean that all will be saved? Not necessarily, but all will be drawn to Christ because Christ alone is the world's judge. Not only Bible-believing Christians, but Buddhists, Hindus, Muslims, Atheists, Agnostics, and Heathen alike will come face to face with Jesus, and therein shall be judged. No human being will pass from this life to the next without a face-to-face meeting with Christ. We need that to be enough for us; the Church should not play at trying to guess who is in and who is outside of God's favor. But all will be drawn to Christ, and that is a promise we can celebrate. What Christ says or does is up to him. Every human being, every soul, will come to Jesus Christ and be judged. How he judges each soul is his business, not ours. Our business is to proclaim him as the only door between this life and eternity.
So God is provident. He calls the shots and fulfills every promise. We must grow and learn to trust that truth in every way we can.
3. how we come to understand and trust in God’s plan
We can either choose or ignore our capacity to trust God
How do we come to understand and trust in God's plan? I want to offer two practical ways, and the first way is that we commit our minds to trust God.
We have plenty of educators in this congregation, and all of you know better than I the power of expectations. What we learn to expect, we also inwardly commit ourselves to accomplish. We must regularly teach ourselves to expect that we can and will trust God. We pray for trust. When we pray the Lord's Prayer, we say, "Thy Name, Thy Kingdom, Thy Will," which expresses trust. We can also tell ourselves in our inner dialogue: "I belong to Jesus; I trust in him," "I will trust in the Lord today," or "Every day, I grow to trust in Christ a little bit more!" We do well to raise our expectations that we shall trust God, and we should teach our children to do likewise.
We live in this world with real choices. We can take on the mantle of faith every day or ignore it. We can choose to pursue our growth and depth in faith or just slide along. I guarantee you that when hardship comes—and it will—the person who has grown in faith will be far better off in dealing with it.
In choosing to set our minds on trusting God and committing ourselves to that trust, we are preparing ourselves and our children for future faithfulness.
The second way we come to understand and trust is by looking back. We look back in gratitude.
Look again at verse 16:
16 His disciples did not understand these things at first; but when Jesus was glorified, then they remembered that these things had been written of him and had been done to him.
As we look forward in this life, the future is always foggy and dim-lit. But looking back, we have 20/20 hindsight. What works, what doesn't work, what helps, what hurts—all are afforded great clarity in hindsight.
What the Bible calls wisdom is mostly this—it is good judgment based upon much experience. Those who have lived a long time have made many mistakes from which to learn. The wise, old sage is not necessarily the person with the highest IQ, but rather the person who has a lot more hindsight lessons to inform their future decisions.
Basically, your grandmother knows more about life than your college professors. That's the difference between wisdom and knowledge. For instance, your grandmother will probably not tell you that there are between 63 and 81 human genders.
We come to understand and trust in God's plan as we see how he has always fulfilled his plan in the past. We read Scripture and see a perfect pattern of prophecy and fulfillment—God calls every shot—and this gives us reason to trust in him as we look forward into that otherwise foggy and dim-lit future.
In your own life, as in mine, we look back at trials and crises—in the midst of which we were fraught with anxiety—and see how God was faithful. God kept us, carried us, and saw us through. On the far side of it, I always say the same thing to myself: "Why do ever doubt? Never doubt. Never doubt!" which is a way of saying, "Come on, trust in God!"
Finally, the more we practice trusting in God and expecting ourselves to trust in him, the more our gratitude grows because we see him clearly fulfilling his plan through us. It may be through looking back, but every triumph only solidifies our capacity to trust for every future event. In the end, our soul prayers come to resemble the prayer of Jesus: “Not my will, but your will O Lord!” †