PT-1 “Thomas” (Luke 6:15b)

 

MORNING SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 7/2/2026 12:27 PM

My Worship Time                                                                                       Focus: PT-1 “Thomas”

Bible Reading & Meditation                                                                     Reference:  Luke 6:15b

            Message of the verse: “Thomas”

            There are a lot of things going on in my life today as things are changing due to the cancer that my wife is fighting in her body, and so my SD’s may be a little shorter than they have been, but hopefully the Lord will continue to use them to bring glory to my Savior’s name.

            “His skeptical reply to the other apostles’ claim to have seen the risen Lord Jesus Christ, ‘Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe’ (John 20:25), has earned Thomas the nickname, ‘Doubting Thomas.’  In fact, that phrase has come to label a skeptical, habitually doubting person.  While it is fair to say that Thomas tended to be a negative person, he was too good a man for such a one-dimensional appraisal of his character. 

            “According to John 11:16, 20:24, and 21:2, Thomas was also called Didymus, which means, ‘twin.’  Whether he actually had a twin brother or sister, however, is not recorded in Scripture. His name is given in the Synoptic Gospels only in the lists of the apostles.  But as he did with Philip and Bartholomew (Nathanael), the apostle John fleshes out some aspects of his character.

            “The first incident in which Thomas appears is recorded in John chapter 11.  After His unambiguous claim to deity and equality with the Father (10:30), the enraged Jewish leaders sought to kill Jesus (vv. 31, 39).  Because His time had not yet come (cf. John 7:30; 8:20), Jesus ‘went away again beyond the Jordan to the place where John was first baptizing, and He was staying there’ (John 10:40), along with the Twelve.

            “While they were there, Jesus received the news that His close friend Lazarus, the brother of Mary and Martha, was seriously ill.  He may even had died by the time the messenger they sent reached Jesus and the disciples.  When He received the message, Jesus said, ‘This sickness is not to end in death, but for the glory of God, so that the Son of God may be glorified by it’ (11:4).  He did not mean that Lazarus was not going to die, but that death would not be the final outcome of his illness.  The apostles, who assumed that Lazarus was therefore going to recover, were no doubt relieved to hear Jesus’ words.  That the Lord remained where He was for two more days (11:6) must have further reassured them that Lazarus would recover.

            “But then the Lord dropped a bombshell on them: ‘Then aft er this He said to the disciples, ‘Let us go to Judea again’ (v. 7).  Shocked and appalled, the disciples protested incredulously, ‘Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone You, and are You going there again?’  (v.8). Why leave a fruitful ministry (10:41-42), they reasoned, and travel to Bethany in the vicinity of Jerusalem (the town was only two miles from Jerusalem [John 11:18]) where they risked begin arrested and executed?  Jesus replied (vv. 9-10) that He and they were perfectly safe during the divinely-appointed duration of His earthly ministry…

            MacArthur goes into much more details in his commentary on the gospel of John written in 2006.

            “The Lord then explained why they had to return to Bethany. ‘Our friend  Lazarus has fallen asleep; but I go, so that I may awaken him out of sleep’ (v. 11).  Still not grasping the situation, ‘the disciples then said to Him, ‘Lord, if he has fallen asleep, he will recover’’ (v. 12).  Since Lazarus was apparently on the road to recovery, there seemed to be no logical reason to risk everything by returning to Judea.  Finally, Jesus told them plainly, ‘Lazarus is dead, and I am glad for your sakes that I was not there, so that you may believe; but let us go to him (vv. 14-15).  At last, the disciples realized what had really happened and understood that it was futile to try to talk Jesus out of returning to Judea.  But they were still very hesitant and fearful about going.”  I have commented on this section about Lazarus on the following dates 8:26-8:31 2016 when I was studying the gospel of John, so if you want to you can look those dates up on my blogsite.

7/2/2026 1:05 PM