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Christ is risen.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit.
I think the main temptation with today’s readings, especially the gospel lesson, is for us to really only talk about what’s going on with Thomas because, after all, let’s admit it, he’s kind of an easy target to focus on. And we will talk about him briefly, but there are other points in these readings; there’s a thread that connects them in this talk about resurrection and about the fellowship that I’d like us to look at as well.
So we’re gonna take the readings and kind of make this John sandwich. We’re gonna talk about the gospel first, then we’ll look at the reading from Acts, and then John’s epistle, and then we’ll kind of really even top it off with going back to the gospel lesson. In doing so, what I think we’ll see is how faith, and especially the necessity of believing in and confessing the resurrection of Christ, brings one into fellowship of the church, and how faith is trusting in the forgiveness of sins.
But for now, let’s look at that brief word about Thomas. You’ve probably heard him referred to as doubting Thomas, even though that word “doubt” doesn’t appear anywhere in the text. I mean, Thomas didn’t just doubt; he didn’t believe. He didn’t believe that Jesus was resurrected from the dead. Now we don’t know where he went when he was with the disciples in the garden and Jesus was arrested and they all kind of scattered. We don’t know where he went; we don’t know if he had actually heard that the risen Lord Jesus had appeared to Mary Magdalene and the women there at the tomb or to Peter. We don’t even know why he wasn’t there in that room with the disciples when Jesus appeared to them later on that resurrection day.
And I certainly vary about why he wasn’t there with them, but it seems to me at least that maybe his unbelief was reason enough. Maybe we can think of him as kind of just checking out of things for a moment. And maybe the other disciples got worried about him; perhaps they went looking for him. They maybe ran into him somewhere because they were hunting for him, and they said, “We’ve seen the risen Lord.” And Thomas says that unless he sees the wounds and unless he touches the wounds, he will never believe. So he’s not doubting Thomas; he’s unbelieving Thomas.
Thomas didn’t even believe it when the other disciples were witnessing to him what they had seen, and he seems very, very confirmed in this unbelief when he is the one who demands to see physical proof. And yet our Lord Jesus forgives Thomas. He even seeks him out so that he may forgive him and bring him to belief. So eight days later, when Thomas does rejoin the disciples in that room, Jesus appears to them again. Jesus tells Thomas to touch his wounds and do not disbelieve but believe, and he believes.
And so Thomas then becomes one of the more than 500 witnesses to whom Jesus appeared in these 40 days after the resurrection. And Thomas isn’t alone in his unbelief because apparently there are more than a few Christians who don’t believe in the resurrection either. Numbers vary. The surveys say that anywhere between a quarter to one-third of Christians may very well not believe in the resurrection. Some of them say, “Well, I don’t believe the accounts are accurate,” whatever that means. And Pastor Wolfmuller mentioned last week there’s even this contingent of Christians who say that if somehow Christ’s body had been found, if we find it today, if we have evidence of that, then that would change nothing about what they believe or confess, as if the resurrection itself weren’t necessary—not just believing and confessing it—but that it wasn’t even necessary.
And so this is a clear denial of Scripture because Scripture tells us, and not just in our readings today from the New Testament, but we see the resurrection prophecies from the prophets like Ezekiel, Daniel, Jonah, among others. In the New Testament, indeed, Jesus tells Martha, “I am the resurrection and the life.” And Paul writes in 1st Corinthians, “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.” In fact, where that comes from—chapter 15—that’s entirely about the resurrection. So there can be no true faith without confessing and believing in the resurrection.
And we must believe and confess this so that we are in fellowship with one another in the church. We get a picture about what this type of fellowship would look like and should look like in this reading from Acts chapter 4. In this text, Luke is beginning to talk about what’s going on in the church of Jerusalem—how it’s growing, how the word is working—but today he’s really talking about what this particular relationship looks like in that congregation. We know that thousands have heard the word, they have received faith by the preaching of Peter and all the other apostles, and they’ve been baptized.
But in this preaching, it’s important to note that the resurrection of Christ was central to it, and that this unity of the congregation is in unity in faith and spirit. You may recall in his Pentecost sermon to the Jews, Peter is sure to mention their patriarch David and how David spoke about the resurrection of Christ. And so the resurrection at this time was already central to the teaching of the church. For those who did believe, there was this accomplishment among them of this unity of faith and confession even among this different and diverse population. This was done not by men—not by Peter and the Apostles—but by the Word and the Spirit.
And so the people of this congregation, they were going to the temple together, they were breaking bread together, they were living for the Lord and for each other, and this fellowship, this communion, led them to be caring, to be giving, and to be unselfish with what they had been blessed with. And it wasn’t some type of expression or example of an economic or a governmental philosophy or approach to doing things. The rich didn’t become poor at the expense of the poor; although they gave as they had—as they had extra—they provided to others what they needed.
This wasn’t some kind of economic parity, and it wasn’t coerced. They simply took care of one another. It was a manifestation of Christian love as a fruit of faith, and this faith was this bond of union and this fellowship in the church. Fellowship in the church isn’t just membership; it’s not just being associated outwardly with a particular church body or particular congregation. It’s a spiritual state of being.
And this entire fellowship, as we see in the text, was encouraged by the preaching of the Apostles who testified to the resurrection of Christ. This text from Acts tells us that with great power the Apostles were giving their testimony to the resurrection of the Lord Jesus. So we see that they were living with the resurrected Christ in them, and they all gave testimony and eyewitness evidence of this. And this is the model for the church today.
John’s epistle lesson is also about fellowship, and it also has tones of the resurrection in it. Luther said that this first epistle should really follow right behind John’s gospel because it really—John sets out in it to do much like he does in his own gospel and to show who Jesus is so that we may believe that he’s the Son of God. John says that Jesus was from the beginning; he was before creation, and he was given to be known; he was heard through the teaching and preaching of all Scripture.
And John says that in this he says, “We”—and when he says “we,” he means the Apostles—“we have heard the words of Christ. We have seen the signs and wonders. We have seen the miracles of Christ. We have seen and touched his body, his resurrected body. We have seen his glory.” So this is John’s witness and his testimony. John says that he says all this so that the hearer may believe and may come into fellowship with all other believers, and this fellowship comes first in the church so that we can then have fellowship with the Father and the Son, for there is no fellowship with God outside of the church.
Believers are integrated into the church, into the body of Christ, and therefore they now have this intimate relationship and fellowship with God the Father through Jesus. And if we are in this fellowship, we must walk in the light, as John puts it, for he is in the light. The “he” John is talking about is Jesus, and this means that Jesus is now living because he has been resurrected from the dead. Walking in the light is believing in the truth of the gospel, which preaches Christ crucified and resurrected. It also means doing the works of the Lord, and if we claim to do this, but our actions and behaviors are like those who are still in unbelief, then we are liars. For the righteous and holy life is what bonds us together in fellowship in the church.
And although we strive always to be holy, to be sanctified, we are, of course, gonna err. And we are gonna stumble, and we are gonna fall. Believe it or not, Christians still sin. And if we say otherwise, if we deny our sin, then we are liars. But even then, and actually, we make God the liar. If we say otherwise, if we deny it, then we’ve made him a liar. But even then, we have forgiveness in God. We have forgiveness through Christ if we are quick to confess and request this forgiveness so that we may receive the absolution that has come by the blood of Christ, for His blood removes all our guilt.
And when we do sin, we take comfort in knowing, as John tells us today, that we have one who sits at the right hand of the Father. We have a paraclete. We have an advocate to the Father, and we are righteous on his account, and this is John’s confidence, and it must be our confidence also.
Now I said we’d go back to the gospel, and so at the end of today’s gospel lesson, John tells us that he has written about these signs so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in his name. Now, the greatest sign of Christ was his resurrection, and we have to confess belief in it. If we deny the resurrection or we say that it wasn’t necessary, then we again make God a liar. The resurrection was necessary because it made Christ’s sacrifice satisfactory because, John says, he was the propitiation for our sin.
Of the untold number—thousands, millions—we don’t know—of beasts whose blood was placed on the altar, not one was ever sufficient to satisfy the wrath of God, but Christ’s blood was because it was shed as the final payment for sin. The resurrection is the culminating work of God in accomplishing our redemption. And so, in confessing the resurrection of Christ, we are also confessing the hope of our own resurrection when our corrupted bodies will be like his glorious body, and we are confessing that we are in fellowship with one another in the body of Christ.
Thomas didn’t confess the resurrection. I’m sorry, Thomas didn’t confess the resurrection. He didn’t believe in the resurrection. He demanded proof, and Jesus gives him proof. He shows him the wounds in his hands and in his side, and he shows that this is the cost of the peace that he brings to declare to the disciples. And this peace is their absolution; to forgive them of their own sin and their own unbelief.
And it is with this absolution that he also gives them his Spirit that they may then have the authority to go and preach and to forgive sins in his name. During his short ministry on earth, Jesus showed many signs and wonders to prove that he was the Son of God, and these signs continued in the Apostolic Age as the Holy Spirit worked through the apostles. And yes, he used physical sight to prove his resurrection in the 40 days.
But Jesus tells the disciples that the day is coming when there will be faith outside—that those who believe without seeing will be the ones who are truly blessed. And like Thomas, we often want to see for ourselves. We want more proof than just his word, but his word is sufficient. Because the word of the Apostles, inspired by the Holy Spirit, is the public witness of the resurrection of Christ. So to believe it, we must remain in the Word. We must abide in it. We have to continue to come here to this place. We have to continue to confess our sins and be absolved. We have to continue to take the Lord’s body and blood for the forgiveness of sins and for the strengthening of our faith. We have to be of one accord in the Christian congregation. We have to be in fellowship with each other.
The truth of the resurrection and the imperative that we believe in it to be in the fellowship of the church has been taught in the church since the early days, since it began. The resurrection was always part of the Father’s plan to deliver us and give us victory through Christ. Victory over sin, victory over the grave, and victory over death itself. It’s why we preach in our funeral sermons—we preach the resurrection. It’s why we proclaim Jesus’ words from John 11: “I am the resurrection and the life,” says the Lord. “He who believes in me will live even though he dies, and whoever lives and believes in me will never die forever.”
Dear Christians, Jesus’ resurrection is the seal of the completed redemption and reconciliation of the world. If Christ had been just a mere man, a mere mortal, then why would his death give us any comfort at all? And his resurrection is not just proof of his divinity; it secures for us the blessings of our own resurrection to eternal life. His resurrection guarantees our resurrection, and his word gives us the proof and assurance of that resurrection. And it’s really the only evidence we need.
So then, let us be bold in our confession, that we look for the resurrection of the body and the life of the world to come. Amen. And may we also boldly proclaim that Christ is risen. The peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, guards your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus, our Lord. Amen.
