April 29, 2025 • 7 mins
In today’s Spiritual Foundation Episode, I talk about John 20: 19-31. I talk about how we often label people with part of their identity. I also share how our full identity is always more complex.
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Episode Transcript
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(00:00):
Thanks for joining me on episode 1536 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Norm Welsh.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
Having the ability to find God,
(00:22):
even in your most stressful of times is key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott
Mater. It's somewhat of a aggressive ask that he's doing,
(00:48):
and yet Jesus calls for him to do that.
Because the truth is,
he knew that Thomas,
to find his full identity,
had to move through this one part of his identity.
And I think that's what we all have to do.
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
(01:12):
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:37):
Today's Spiritual Foundation Episode I talk about John 2019:31 I talk
about how we often label people with only part of their
identity and also share how our full identity is always more
complex. John 20:19:31 says,
(01:57):
when it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week,
and the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear
of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
peace be with you.
After he said this,
he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me,
(02:18):
so I send you.
When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them,
receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them.
If you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.
But Thomas,
who is called the twin,
one of the 12,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him,
we have seen the Lord.
(02:38):
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 at his side,
I. I will not believe.
A week later,
his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with
them. Although the doors were shut,
Jesus came and stood amongst them and said,
peace be with you.
Then he said to Thomas,
(02:59):
put your finger here and see my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt,
but believe Thomas answered him,
my Lord and my God.
And 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.
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his
(03:19):
disciples that are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may continue to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of God,
and that through believing,
you may have life in his name.
This passage is where we get that term doubting Thomas.
And I think we often use labels like that to dismiss
(03:41):
certain people or certain perspectives.
Whether it's a group of people that we don't like,
or whether it's a disabled person or a person with a
particular difference in race or creed or belief or whatever it
is, we label those people and we say,
this is who they are.
We give them their full identity in one label.
(04:06):
Think about it here.
Thomas is bearing this weight for his choices,
his questions and his experience.
He has a different perspective than some of the others because
he had a different life experience.
Or maybe not.
Maybe in truth,
he's speaking out loud what was going on in the minds
of all of the disciples.
(04:27):
Think about it.
Back at the beginning,
we had this moment where Mary came back to tell the
disciples that Jesus was not in the tomb.
And yet whenever she did that,
you have to wonder,
did they doubt?
Is that why they went to check?
But yet we don't call them the doubting John or the
doubting Paul or Peter or any of the others.
(04:50):
Instead, it's Thomas who has that label.
And yet,
if you look at the entire.
If you look at the Gospel of John,
for example,
Thomas here is the one that when Jesus says in the
story of Lazarus,
let us go to Jerusalem,
Thomas, Thomas reply is,
let us also go that we may die with him.
(05:11):
Thomas moves the story forward.
He's active in following Jesus.
It's clear that he is not only representing moments of doubt,
but also moments of faith.
And I think we often bring that out and forget that
someone can be a complete person.
They can be a leader at one moment and a follower
(05:33):
at others.
They can be doubting at one moment and a believer at
others. They can be made in one way and yet complete
in others.
You have to wonder how Thomas got the label of doubting
when so many other examples within the Gospels show people doubting.
(05:56):
But how is it that Thomas got that label as this
one experience where he wasn't the one who had seen it
and he had doubts,
but then when shown he believed,
by the way,
the way that Thomas is asking to put his fingers in
Jesus wounds is not a word that would be used for
(06:16):
gentle, but more a word that would be used for poking
something sharply.
It's somewhat of an aggressive ask that he's doing.
And yet Jesus calls for him to do that.
Because the truth is,
he knew that Thomas,
to find his full identity,
had to move through this one part of his identity.
(06:40):
And I think that's what we all have to do.
Thanks for Listening thanks so much for listening to the Inspired
Stewardship Podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
(07:01):
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
do me a favor.
Go over to facebook.com
inspiredstewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd
like to get notifications from us so that we can connect
(07:24):
with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you
to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
Thanks for joining me on episode 1536 of the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. I'm Norm Welsh.
I challenge you to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
develop your influence,
and impact the world by using your time,
your talent and your treasures to live out your calling.
Having the ability to find God,
(00:22):
even in your most stressful of times is key.
And one way to be inspired to do that is to
listen to this the Inspired Stewardship Podcast with my friend Scott
Mater. It's somewhat of a aggressive ask that he's doing,
(00:48):
and yet Jesus calls for him to do that.
Because the truth is,
he knew that Thomas,
to find his full identity,
had to move through this one part of his identity.
And I think that's what we all have to do.
Welcome and thank you for joining us on the Inspired Stewardship
Podcast. If you truly desire to become the person who God
(01:12):
wants you to be,
then you must learn to use your time,
your talent and your treasures for your true calling.
In the Inspired Stewardship Podcast,
you will learn to invest in yourself,
invest in others,
and develop your influence so that you can impact the world.
(01:37):
Today's Spiritual Foundation Episode I talk about John 2019:31 I talk
about how we often label people with only part of their
identity and also share how our full identity is always more
complex. John 20:19:31 says,
(01:57):
when it was evening on that day,
the first day of the week,
and the doors were locked where the disciples were for fear
of the Jews,
Jesus came and stood among them and said,
peace be with you.
After he said this,
he showed them his hands and his side.
Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.
Jesus said to them again,
peace be with you.
As the Father has sent me,
(02:18):
so I send you.
When he had said this,
he breathed on them and said to them,
receive the Holy Spirit.
If you forgive the sins of any,
they are forgiven them.
If you retain the sins of any,
they are retained.
But Thomas,
who is called the twin,
one of the 12,
was not with them when Jesus came.
So the other disciples told him,
we have seen the Lord.
(02:38):
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 at his side,
I. I will not believe.
A week later,
his disciples were again in the house and Thomas was with
them. Although the doors were shut,
Jesus came and stood amongst them and said,
peace be with you.
Then he said to Thomas,
(02:59):
put your finger here and see my hands.
Reach out your hand and put it in my side.
Do not doubt,
but believe Thomas answered him,
my Lord and my God.
And 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.
Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his
(03:19):
disciples that are not written in this book.
But these are written so that you may continue to believe
that Jesus is the Messiah,
the Son of God,
and that through believing,
you may have life in his name.
This passage is where we get that term doubting Thomas.
And I think we often use labels like that to dismiss
(03:41):
certain people or certain perspectives.
Whether it's a group of people that we don't like,
or whether it's a disabled person or a person with a
particular difference in race or creed or belief or whatever it
is, we label those people and we say,
this is who they are.
We give them their full identity in one label.
(04:06):
Think about it here.
Thomas is bearing this weight for his choices,
his questions and his experience.
He has a different perspective than some of the others because
he had a different life experience.
Or maybe not.
Maybe in truth,
he's speaking out loud what was going on in the minds
of all of the disciples.
(04:27):
Think about it.
Back at the beginning,
we had this moment where Mary came back to tell the
disciples that Jesus was not in the tomb.
And yet whenever she did that,
you have to wonder,
did they doubt?
Is that why they went to check?
But yet we don't call them the doubting John or the
doubting Paul or Peter or any of the others.
(04:50):
Instead, it's Thomas who has that label.
And yet,
if you look at the entire.
If you look at the Gospel of John,
for example,
Thomas here is the one that when Jesus says in the
story of Lazarus,
let us go to Jerusalem,
Thomas, Thomas reply is,
let us also go that we may die with him.
(05:11):
Thomas moves the story forward.
He's active in following Jesus.
It's clear that he is not only representing moments of doubt,
but also moments of faith.
And I think we often bring that out and forget that
someone can be a complete person.
They can be a leader at one moment and a follower
(05:33):
at others.
They can be doubting at one moment and a believer at
others. They can be made in one way and yet complete
in others.
You have to wonder how Thomas got the label of doubting
when so many other examples within the Gospels show people doubting.
(05:56):
But how is it that Thomas got that label as this
one experience where he wasn't the one who had seen it
and he had doubts,
but then when shown he believed,
by the way,
the way that Thomas is asking to put his fingers in
Jesus wounds is not a word that would be used for
(06:16):
gentle, but more a word that would be used for poking
something sharply.
It's somewhat of an aggressive ask that he's doing.
And yet Jesus calls for him to do that.
Because the truth is,
he knew that Thomas,
to find his full identity,
had to move through this one part of his identity.
(06:40):
And I think that's what we all have to do.
Thanks for Listening thanks so much for listening to the Inspired
Stewardship Podcast.
As a subscriber and listener,
we challenge you to not just sit back and passively listen,
(07:01):
but act on what you've heard and find a way to
live your calling.
If you enjoyed this episode,
do me a favor.
Go over to facebook.com
inspiredstewardship and like our Facebook page and mark it that you'd
like to get notifications from us so that we can connect
(07:24):
with you on Facebook and make sure that we're serving you
to the best of our abilities with time and tips there.
Until next time,
invest your time,
your talent,
and your treasures.
Develop your influence and impact the world.
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