John chapter 20, verses 24 through 29. Doesn't happen very often, every now and then it does. Finally get a text where the preacher can preach to himself. If nobody else benefits, I'm going to be happy today because this text gave me great hope and encouragement. John 20, 24 through 29, your whole life all you've ever heard about Thomas is he is called Doubting Thomas. So I have written the title of this message to read, Heroic Pessimism, the Courage of Thomas. Heroic Pessimism, the Courage of Thomas. Our text reads this way, beginning in verse 24. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Well, eight days later, and if you do the counting right, that just means the next Sunday, Tuesday would be the third day, and thus and so forth, the next Sunday would be the eighth day. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you, which is what he said twice the last Sunday. Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands and put your hand and put out your hand and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, my Lord, And my God, Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? And then the beatitude of the gospel of John, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. I don't like optimists. Get under my skin. I married one. If there was a tornado coming from the West, I'd say, there's a tornado coming, it's terrible. And she'd say, well, at least we might get rain. I don't understand how you can live as an optimist. I see everything as bad. Everything's bad and everything's going to be bad, but the optimist seems to find something good in everything. Hey, the stock market crashed, at least we have a market. I don't understand people like that. Nevertheless, I'm identifying. I'm a pessimist. Thomas is a pessimist. Now, as we look into this passage today, they're gathered on Sunday evening, the Lord's Day. At this time in history, we already have a sense of communion, a sense of remembering the Lord, and here they are on Sunday evening. I'm making a point. Sunday evening, the church gathered, and somebody wasn't there. But we don't know where he's at, and we don't know what he's doing, and no one has a clue. So you got these guys in the room going, where's Thomas? I don't know. I don't know where he's at. Not present when the church gathered. Now we should take note that when we are not gathered with the people of God on the Lord's day, whatever God says to the church that day in that meeting, you miss. You rob yourself of everything the Lord has. So here's Thomas, for a whole week, for the whole week, he's suffering. Negative thoughts, depression, loneliness. All week long, he has nothing to feed on, nothing. Not one single thing does he have to feed on. While the others who were at church are marveling in the goodness of the appearance of Christ. Right? You catch this? I know this church is like a zoo. Try to focus here. Look, listen. These people are marveling because they saw Jesus, they heard from Jesus, they experienced Jesus, but Thomas doesn't get to marvel. He didn't see nothing, he didn't hear nothing, and he didn't experience nothing because he's at home on his social media watching TV instead of meeting with the people of God in the house of God for the glory of God, so he gets nothing. For years, we have known of Thomas as the moniker has been applied to him, Doubting Thomas. But I'm claiming this morning in absolute terms that the moniker Doubting Thomas does not fit. It doesn't fit. In Thomas, we certainly find for sure pessimism. We find that. But those who are pessimistic, and still, by faith, follow the Lord Jesus, are far more committed than any optimist in the room. Let's sink in. Everything's bad, we're all gonna die, nothing's gonna work out, the whole world's going to hell, I'm still following Christ. The optimist is like, it's getting better, everything's good, everything's gonna work out, and I'm gonna follow Jesus. Well, how hard is that? It takes great faith to follow Christ as a pessimist. I'm telling you, I've been doing it for 55 years. And I don't want to totally discredit the optimist, because my wife will kill me when I get home, but it's hard. But how hard is it to follow Christ when you think everything's going to turn out good? I mean, what are you going to do, be like a post-millennial or something? I didn't even understand how you could be post-meal. I mean, look at the news. Everything's bad. And seriously, another shooting, 89 people killed in Allen yesterday. School put on lockdown this week. I mean, you want bad news reports, we got a ton of them. My thesis is simple. It takes great faith to follow Christ when the whole picture looks disastrous. So if there's any pessimists in the room, I hope that you're helped this morning. And if you're an optimist, you'll find something good anyway. All right. Here's Thomas. Thomas is reported in the synoptics, Matthew, Mark, and Luke, three occurrences. He's just in the list, so you don't get no info. He's just a name in the list of the disciples, so there's no info there. All right. So then, how do we get any type of description? We have to go to the Gospel of John. In the Gospel of John, you get three references that have something to do with Thomas, and these shall help us. So you find the first one in John chapter 11. If you remember something about John chapter 11, the one thing that stands out is somebody died, and his name is Lazarus. Okay, so that's kind of the setting of that chapter, John 11. Here's the disciples over here, they've left Jerusalem. Why have they left Jerusalem? Well, quite frankly, because everybody in Jerusalem's trying to kill Jesus. And so they left, they go out into the wilderness, and out in the wilderness is probably one of the most fruitful time of Jesus' ministry. People are coming, people are hearing, people are believing, it's a very fruitful time. And then, in the midst of this very fruitful ministry, Message comes to Jesus, hey, your friend Lazarus is sick. And then you get this stalling for four days in that whole episode, and Jesus kind of seems to wait to make sure he's dead before he goes, right? Do you remember the story? So then you have this discussion, and Jesus is like, we've got to go back, because Lazarus is asleep. And they're like, dude, if he's sleeping, he'll wake up. He'll be fine. And Jesus says, no. Look, I'm trying to tell you he's dead, right? So that's the scene. And so you got these disciples. And all the optimists are having a hard time trying to figure out how we can find something good about going back to Jerusalem where everybody wants to kill you. And they can't come up with an answer. So the pessimist steps up and he says, look, here's what I've got to tell you. Let's go back because it's all bad, and when we get there and they kill Jesus, they can kill us too. At least we'll all die on the same day. Let's go back and die with Jesus. Suck it up, guys, and let's go back and let Him kill us all. Better to die with Jesus than to die without Him. So the pessimist steps up and by faith says, I'm clinging to Christ. If he's going to die, I'm dying with him. Then you get another scene in John 14. In John 14, you get a scene of, I'm going to leave and I'm going to go away. When I go away, I'm going to prepare a place for you. When I get this place prepared, I'm going to come and receive you to myself that where I am, you may be also. You know the way, you know where it's at, these types of things. This is communicated. And here comes Thomas. It's a bad idea. I don't like nothing about your plan, Jesus. It all sounds horrible. I don't know where you're going. I have no idea where you're going, and if I don't know where you're going, I surely don't know how to get there. Here's Thomas. I would rather go to Jerusalem with you, die with you. That's far better than a story where you're telling me you're gonna go away and I'm gonna be without you. What faith? The sense of a man who is desirous to be with Christ. And the worst news he could possibly hear is that Christ would be taken away from him. It's bad news to the pessimists. To quote John MacArthur, in effect Thomas is saying, quote, it was a better plan for us to die with you because then there's no separation. If we died together, we could all be together. But if you just go, how are we ever going to find you? We don't even know how to get there. So as we decipher and understand who Thomas is, at least we should glean this from him. that he loved Christ so much he just wanted to be near Him, even if it cost his life. It doesn't matter. I just don't want to be separated from Christ. Then his worst pessimistic view that could possibly enter his mind happened. Jesus is dead. The pessimist is destroyed. And he goes home, or he goes somewhere. The last thing he wants to do is be around a bunch of church people. Everything he's lived for, everything he's hoped in, has all been destroyed. And now, in a sense, he says, I quit. Never going back. I have nothing to do with any of this anymore. My worst fears have been realized. And now, I'm in this condition without Christ. And then we find on that day, that very resurrection day, that Christ appears to the disciples and says, peace be with you, Thomas is not present. Where was he? Why was he absent? He skipped church and missed gathering with the body of Christ. Maybe he said something like, well look, I've been around for three years, missing one Sunday evening ain't gonna matter. Missing one little service ain't gonna matter. None of those things matter. Look, I don't want to be around church people today. I just want to brood at home. Me and Jesus got our own thing going on, and I just want to stay over here to myself. The last thing I want to be around is a bunch of Christians who are acting like they're filled with joy, when I know good and well they're not. This is Thomas. His pessimism had driven him to darkness. I've been there. I go there every Monday. Driven him to despair. Driven him to sulking. To being alone was far better to him than hanging out with a group of unbelievers. I get up on Monday, I ride my bike, make no apologies for it. First ten miles usually I cry. Why? Because I'm a pessimist. Nobody listens when I preach. No lives are changed. No people are helped. No fruit is born. It's just all wasted energy. No one cares. That's Monday morning for me. For two decades plus, that's what I live with. I'm not asking for sympathy. I'm just telling you, that's who I am. That's how I live. I look just like Thomas. Nothing good ever happens. Nobody gets saved. No marriages endure. No people are holy. Nobody's godly. Nobody loves the Lord like they're supposed to. Nobody's listening. I am the most foolish man in all the world to keep standing in that pulpit and pouring out my heart They just leave thinking, what an idiot we have as a pastor. You say, that's not true, that's not true. That may be fine. That's what I think because I'm a pessimist. But there's hope for a pessimist. This Thomas robbed himself of Christ's appearance. He robbed himself of Christ's words. He robbed himself of Christ's comfort. He had a whole week of misery because he put his negative attitude above obedience to the Lord's day. Do not forget that he was in such a state because his heart is broken over the loss of the one he loves. So don't miss that. The reason he skipped church, at least now we know, he skipped church because his whole world's been shattered because he's lost Christ. On the other hand, for you optimists in the room, the disciples did not say about Thomas' not being in church. The disciples did not say, well, that's his loss. Hey, he didn't come, that's on him. Let him take it, that's his own loss. He should have been here. He didn't say that. He didn't say he should have been here. You notice what they did? Anybody listening? The disciples went and told him what he missed. Hey, you're not gonna believe this. You missed church Sunday. You won't believe who showed up. Jesus. We saw his hands. We saw his side. You know what he preached? He preached, peace, be with you. Man, I wish you'd have been there. It's a great word. And Thomas, in his pessimism, he's going like, ain't no way I'm buying your report. They don't believe a word you're saying. You just flat made this up. Unless I see the prince in his hands, unless I put my hand in his side, I'm not believing anything you say. But don't miss it. They told him what he missed. So, when you skip and miss and all those things, all you get is second-hand info. If somebody cares to tell you what was said or done, you just get second-hand info. You just get passed down messages. Rather than hearing directly from the Lord on the Lord's day, you have to pick it up through some other means. the other disciples, the group who had seen the Lord. And that's what they told Thomas. What a great message. Thomas got a message. We have seen the Lord. Is there a better message after Jesus is crucified than that message? Can we not preach all day long on an eyewitness account? Can we go to first John and say, I saw him, I touched him, I handled him, the very word of life was amongst us. That's what they tell Thomas. And the rejection was clear by Thomas because pessimists have a hard time. He's not convinced by words. I need proof. I've got to have proof. I've got to touch. I've got to see. You say, yeah, there's great things going on by the word of the Baptist church. I don't believe it. I gotta see it, I gotta touch it, I gotta see some evidence of it, because I'm not believing your words because I'm a pessimist. I don't believe it until I see some reality to it. This is Thomas at his best day. I know it's a great word you're preaching, I ain't buying it. Thomas says, in Greek, he uses a double negative, oomei pistouo. There's no way possible that I will ever believe what you're saying. That's what Thomas says. That's the Greek text. That's his words. There's not a remote chance in all the world I will believe you. That's what he says. It's not, you say, what do you mean, Thomas, you will not believe? Let's clarify. Does it mean he does not believe Jesus? No, no, no. He loved Jesus. He believed Jesus. He followed Jesus for these years of ministry. He loved him with all of his heart. The thing he isn't believing at this point is the resurrection. Just be clear, there's just one aspect of this gospel he's not embracing yet. I'm not embracing that Christ has literally, bodily been raised from the dead. He's still holding that at bay. Could not believe the resurrection of Christ. So Thomas says, Give Thomas proof. He's got to have proof to dispel his pessimism. But if you give him proof, here's where it gets hopeful. Are you listening? If you give him proof, what will he do with it? If Thomas finally gets his pessimism answered, what will he do? He will take the gospel to the very end of the world. and no one will silence him ever again. We'll see that in a moment. There are times, dear church, when people need verification for what they've heard. Times, they need that. Some people need to hear the truth, but then they need to experience the truth that is told to them. They need to experience it lived out before them. Example. I will not believe the good news you tell me unless I see the reality of your news in the way you live. I need proof. You don't think there's pessimists in this world? Church is a scam. All they want is your money. Sexual scandal, sexual scandal, sexual scandal, sexual scandal, sexual scandal. I will never go to church. Those people are all corrupt. No, no, no, it's not that way. No, it's not that way. And we're talking to a world of pessimists. And they want to see the reality of a gospel that actually changes somebody's life. Want to share the good news, and they want to live a life that has been totally transformed by the good news, that in hopes a pessimist might say, Ah, there is proof. And by the way, when people have doubts and pessimism, we take them to the book because there is proof written down. It's not some kind of mystic story of hope in nothing. There's a solid reasonableness to our faith in the Word of God. We have reveal in verses 26 through 28. Now the next week, the next week, the next Sunday evening. So whatever's happened between Monday and Saturday, I don't know what Thomas has been through. I can kind of relate because I go through it every week. But whatever the case may be, he's at church next Sunday. He's at the evening meeting. He's worked through his gloom and now he's back at church. But here, when he comes back, what grace has anybody in the room ever experienced this kind of grace? You skipped out on church, you've been away from the family of God for a while, you haven't been living as you're supposed to live, you haven't been gleaning from the Word of God, and yet you come back and the Lord gives you good food. And you go, thank you. Here's Thomas back, and the Lord says the same message which he missed last week. Peace be with you. Not, I'm not giving you nothing because you skipped church. But we see grace again. It is good peace to be with you. He says, by the way, you touch your hand, your finger right here. Put your hand right here. Like he already knew what he said. Because like Jesus is omniscient and knows all things. And what I see in this transaction here about our Lord is the grace of our Lord is revealed in that he comes again. Gives you one more shot, one more day, one more opportunity. We see the omniscience of our Lord in revealing that he knew everything Thomas thought and everything he said. We see the sovereignty of our Lord is revealed that he can unlock any door. We talked about that last week. We see the kindness of our Lord, and that he says, peace be with you. The rebuke of our Lord is heard when he says, put your finger here. It's a light rebuke, but it is a rebuke. You've got no justifiable reason, Thomas, to not believe me. Now, touch me. Put your hand here. These type of things are said. The command of our Lord is also seen. Thomas, do not be an unbeliever. Be a believer. That's what he tells him. And then you could write a book. Books have been written. You could preach for days upon end. What a Christological statement. The Jehovah Witnesses are wrong and they're going to hell. The Mormons are wrong. The Muslims are wrong. Anybody who does not have a right view of Christ is outside of the will of God and outside of the gospel of God. You must embrace Christ for who He Himself claims to be. He claims to be fully man and He claims to be fully God. He makes no question about this. This is who He is. You can't embrace Him as man only. You can't embrace Him as God only. You must take the hypostatic union. You must hold them together in unity and believe Christ for who He Himself claims to be. And here's Thomas the pessimist, and he opens his eyes, he looks straight at Christ, my Lord, in reference to his humanity. You're fully human, you are fully my Lord, you are my boss, you are my sovereign, you are over me, but you are also my God. A full and complete Christology is found on the lips of Thomas, not doubting Thomas, but pessimistic Thomas is now courageous enough to stand in front of the whole world and say, Jesus is fully man and he is fully God. He is now moved out of his gloom, everything's changed, negative thoughts are gone, and he is catapulted forward as an evangelist. So you say, well how do you know that? Well you have to move beyond the Bible into church history and all the extra biblical material that is about Thomas. Let me give you just a little bit of that. Not much later in the Bible, he's there on the day of Pentecost. The Holy Spirit is poured out, and they receive the Holy Spirit in power. Under this power, they're compelled to go into all the world and preach the gospel. Now, I'm the pessimist in the room. If Thomas stays true to his character, I can hear Thomas now. You want me to go where and do what? Those people are never going to believe me. Those people are never going to listen to me. Those people are never going to embrace the gospel. This is the craziest thing I've ever heard. Those thoughts can come through the mind of the pessimist. But you know what he did? He took the gospel to Babylon. He took the gospel to Persia. He took the gospel to India. You think about a guy who didn't show up for church one night because he's in gloom and his pessimism, and now he has proof of Christ, and you see him in Babylon and Persia and India preaching the gospel. You're like, what has happened to Thomas? There are Portuguese mariners and explorers in the 16th century that reported evidence of Thomas' ministry, including a sizable band of believers. You know what they were called? They were called St. Thomas Christians. In the 16th century, you're running into people who've been affected by the gospel Thomas preached. He eventually, I mean, he was bold. He flew past his pessimism and he just kept doing what God said. He just kept preaching the gospel. And you know what he did? He ran afoul with Hindu priests in India. Hello, that makes sense to me. And so the Hindu priests get mad at him. You know what they do? They take a spear and they jab him in the side and martyr him. And he has the same mark that the Lord Jesus had, a spear in the side. And he sealed his testimony of faith by the giving of his own life for the gospel. His tomb can still be visited today in Malipur, India. You can go there and I'm sure they have some type of shrine for him. So the one who was convinced of Christ by seeing the spear mark in Jesus' side received a mark of his own. You say, Well, how does that help you? You have no idea. You have no idea. Tomorrow's coming. Wake up. Nothing good happened all day Sunday. Nobody listened. Nobody believed. Nobody cares. Everybody goes about their own life. And I've got a medal through this week by myself alone because ain't nobody hanging out and doing nothing with the preacher. I get it. You take all that pessimism and you say, you know what? I think I'm going to take a one-way ticket to somewhere nobody knows where it's at and not tell them, and I'm never coming back. That's Monday morning. That's the first 10 miles of crying on the bicycle, right? Then, what happens? It's amazing. It's almost in the category of a miracle. Somewhere by the end of Monday and you get into Tuesday, you start reading your Bible. And you start praying. And you start asking God for hope. And the Spirit of the Living God comes up inside of you. And somewhere through the week you're like, Yes, I've got a word for By the Word Baptist Church. Somebody's going to be changed. Something's going to happen. I can't wait for Sunday because somebody is going to hear from God and their whole life is going to be changed. And I just get welled up and the Spirit of the living God gives me proof and pessimism dies. For 23 years, pessimism has been put to death, and Christ has won a victory. Passion, hunger, desire, and great hopes for a people, whether they ever materialize or not, it's the Spirit of God that does it. Because if it was me, I would have quit in 2001, and you would have never seen me again. That's the truth. I would have quit a long time ago, but isn't God good? Because He can take lousy pessimists like me and Thomas, and He can give us proof, and He can say something like this. He could send a guy from Syracuse, New York, to teach the Word of God on Tuesday night, and he could teach this. Preach the Word. In season and out of season. No matter what happens, pessimist preacher, the command of God is to preach the Word. That's what I heard Wednesday night. On Wednesday night, I was feeling good. I know what I'm supposed to do. This happens every week. Every week. When you come to resolved faith, you should be able and willing to go anywhere and do anything that the Lord Jesus would lead you to do. That's what Thomas did. And if the Lord Jesus would want me to go to Briar Baptist Church, by the word Baptist Church, and live and die there, then praise the Lord. Wherever you want me to go, whatever you want me to do, this is what God's called me to. So pessimism or no pessimism, this is the Lord's work in my life and I'm thankful. And lastly, we have the word rejoice. Rejoice. Blessed. The beatitude of John's gospel, you see it there in verse 29, and it says, Jesus said to him, have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Blessed. pertaining to being especially favored, blessed, fortunate, happy, privileged. To believe the gospel preached or the gospel read is to be blessed by God. Every believer in the room is the most privileged person under heaven. You realize there are millions, billions that don't believe. But for those who believe, God says they are blessed. Some people want to see magical writing in the sky. Some want to see a supernatural sign. Jesus, show us a sign. But those with faith in the written word of God are those who are blessed. I'd rather not see rotting in the sky. I'd rather not see a sign. I'd rather just believe because He said so. Those are the ones who are blessed. As John Calvin would say it, it amounts to this. that faith, that faith is not of a right kind unless it be founded on the word of God and rise to the invisible kingdom of God so as to go beyond all human capacity. Let your faith rise to heaven and apprehend Christ and there's nothing in this world that can take that away from you. Not your pessimism, not your optimism, and not all the calamity of the world can take this. My faith has found a resting place in glory. We are the people of Romans 10, 17. Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ. That's who we are. But I have to identify with Peter. Would you join me in identifying with Peter? This is what Peter says. It's like Peter knew Thomas. Hello? Right? This is what he says. This is what he says to the church this morning. Are you listening? Though you have not seen him. That's what he says. You haven't seen him. You love him. Though you do not now see him. You believe in him. and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. What a word. So I declare to you this morning that Jesus died on an old rugged cross. He was buried in a borrowed tomb and he rose from the dead on the third day. He appeared to his disciples. He appeared to Thomas. He appeared to over 500 brethren at one time. He ate broad fish with them. He taught with them for over 40 days. And then before their very eyes, he ascended to heaven to be seated at the right hand of the throne of God to rule and reign over the whole universe for all of time. In order for you to be blessed, you have to believe that. You have to believe that. If you don't believe it by faith, and you will not give your life to Christ, you're not blessed. You're damned in this life, and you'll be damned in the life to come. The only way to be blessed is to embrace Christ by faith. So, let all the pessimists bring their dark conclusions about everything to God, to the God of the Word, and submit all your negativity to this book. Then in humble submission, ask the Holy Spirit to set truth before your eyes, to strengthen your heart that you could be devoted in following Christ because of your great love for Him. So praise the Lord for heroic pessimists like Thomas. Praise the Lord for men and women who in spite of their pessimism continue to faithfully pursue Jesus even if it means dying with Him. I am thankful today, I am thankful today that pessimism will not have victory over the resurrection of King Jesus. Pessimism may find the bad in everything. I know it to be true. But with eyes of faith, the pessimist will continue to give 100% for the one he loves. That's what he'll do. Even if everything looks bad, he'll just keep giving it all because he believes Christ. So whether you're a pessimist or whether you're an optimist, Bring yourself into submission to truth of the revelation of Christ. Let those with high hope and let those with no hope keep finding all their soul's need in looking to Christ. As Brother Jeff Crago comes, I pray that we can worship in song as we close out our service.