Is seeing believing? Read John 20:24-29….
Standing in front of a kneeling Thomas, who had finally seen and believed that Jesus was truly alive from the dead, Jesus says to Thomas blessed are those who have NOT seen and yet believe.
Lee Strobel is a graduate of Yale Law School, was the Chief Editor of the Legal Section of the Chicago Tribune, and was a driven career man, a hard drinker, and an even harder atheist. So when his wife became a Christian and believed the Gospel message, he was furious. He hated hw she was changing and that she was going to church and reading the Bible.
So thinking he could leverage all his training as a lawyer and a journalist he made it his mission to disprove Christianity and expose it as the sham for what he was certain it was. And that would convince his wife to abandon this new “thing” she got herself into. After two years of intense research Lee ended up in the exact opposite place he ever would have expected two years ago when he began his mission to destroy the credibility of the Christian faith. Sitting at his home office desk, legal pads full of notes piled all over the place, Lee no longer saw Christianity as a sham. Late in the night he realized that his feverish research had actually accumulated a large and convincing pile of evidence, not against – but in favor of his wife’s Christian faith. And he was faced with a dilemma: would he actually follow the evidence like his training taught him – or would he reject where the evidence pointed? Had it pointed away from Christianity he would’ve celebrated his conquest over the faith. But the evidence didn’t point away – it pointed powerfully towards Christianity. Could he – as a lawyer – abandon everything he ever stood for and dismiss ALL the evidence? And so that night Lee joined his wife in the faith and believed on Jesus Christ.
Since then Lee Strobel has written numerous books from “The Case For Faith” and “The Case For Christ” and more. They are all fantastic and I urge you to read them.
But how could Lee believe? He didn’t SEE Jesus personally. The answer is he didn’t need to see Jesus in the flesh. He came to see Jesus through all the evidence: the historical, the archealogical, the manuscripts, the prophecies and more – including the witness of the Scriptures themselves.
The idea that our faith is a “blind” faith is absurd. We cannot see God but we can see the evidence for the God of the Bible. Think of Romans 1:19 when it says, “since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities – his eternal power and divine nature – have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.” Every human being is without excuse before God because every human being lives in the creation he has made and that entire creation is a daily witness to all of mankind of the Creator.
Faith, in the Bible, is never based on seeing. “Seeing is believing” is a worldly maxim. But it is flawed. We walk by faith, not by sight” 2 Corinthians tells us.
You and I don’t get to see and touch and hear Jesus like Thomas did. But faith is not based on seeing. Romans 10:17 says believing is based on hearing: “Faith comes by hearing the message.” The way biblical faith works is that faith is a response to what one hears, not what one sees. Even with Thomas – he did not finally believe because he saw. You’ll notice in the text that he believed once Jesus spoke to him. Once he heard the word from Jesus.
#1: SEEING IS NOT BELIEVING
First, I want you to remember, many saw Jesus in the flesh with their own eyes and witnessed his miracles, and heard all his teachings with their own ears. And did NOT believe in him:
- Matthew 12:38-42;
- Matthew 16:1-4;
- Mark 3:22-30;
- Mark 16:14
- Luke 24:26-32
- John 7:47
Seeing is not believing. Even with the disciples and with Thomas, it was not even seeing Jesus standing right in front of them. When the heart is hardened against God and you “see” God as your enemy no amount of “evidence” is going to convince you. It is a matter of your pride and your stubborn attitude.
APPLICATION: Do not hide behind the excuse that you have never seen with your own eyes.
#2: THE TESTIMONIES OF OTHER EYEWITNESSES ARE SUFFICIENT
Second of all, the testimony is more than sufficient for us to believe. Jesus said in Acts 1:8 right before he ascended to heaven, “You will be my witnesses….” Turn with me to He
#3: HEARING IS GOD’S DESIGN
Third, God’s plan was to make certain people eyewitnesses of Christ who would go and tell others:
- John 17:20
- John 19:35
- Mark 16:15-16
- 1 John 1:1-3
After the Apostles and those 500 witnesses (1 Cor 15) who saw Jesus alive for 40 days after He had been dead and buried no one in history would see Him again (except occasional appearances to people in Acts and to John for the book of Revelation).
But everyone else throughout history from that moment on would only HEAR of Christ. Turn to Hebrews 2:3-4 with me. Jude says to his readers, “Remember dear friends what the apostles of our Lord Jesus Christ foretold.” Remember what they said. This is why Paul said in Ephesians 1:13, “…having heard the message of truth…you believed.”
Faith in Jesus Christ does not depend upon seeing with your eyes. It depends on seeing with your mind that the message being proclaimed to you is true. God expects a response of faith by those who hear the good news. So we must understand that seeing is not a requirement for believing.
Most Israelites throughout history NEVER saw the great miracles of God and the prophets but only heard of them. Psalm 44:1 says, “We have heard it with our ears O God; our ancestors have told us what you did in their days, in days long ago.” The Hebrew Psalmist is expressing his faith in God and his belief in what God did long ago not because he saw what God did but because he HEARD of it.
#4: SCRIPTURES ARE A SUFFICIENT WITNESS
Fourth and final, we have the Scriptures. The Scriptures are a witness. The Word of God is powerful, living, active, sharp and able to penetrate
Luke 16:29-31….
Then turn to Luke 24:25-27…
Rom 15:4, which says “For everything that was written in the past was written to teach us…”
2 Timothy 3:15, “Timothy you have known the Scriptures since infancy and that they are able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Christ Jesus.” The Scriptures make you
John 19:35
Faith does not come by seeing, but by hearing. Turn to Romans 10:17 declares, “Faith comes by hearing the message”.
APPLICATION: YOU here today, I say to you the same thing, “Stop doubting and believe!” How can I be saved? asked one man in the Bible. Immediately the servant of God told him, “Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ and you WILL be saved.” That man never saw Jesus, but heard of Him and believed. So must you
Seeing is not believing. Believing is seeing. And we believe because we have heard.
We walk by faith, not by sight.