#28 Doubting Thomas "More than a lowest moment"

Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:11):
Welcome to the Unreligious Podcast, where we spread the love
of Jesus without judgment or by laws, focusing solely on
Jesus crossing the Bible. I am Big Drew Ski and
as you can probably tell if you're watching this on YouTube, especially,
I am flying solo again. Chris. You guys just gonna you,

(00:35):
guys just gotta pray for Chris, because I'm telling you
he has not had a good go of things. I
told you guys last week. He so, you know, we
recorded the Easter episode like two weeks before Easter, and

(00:55):
you know, the first episode the Death of Jesus, and
you know, in between that, he like chipped a tooth,
so we had to kind of delay recording, and then
he had to have the dental procedure, so he was
kind of recovering from that. And then they're still trying
to buy a house and there was some complications you know,

(01:15):
well not complications, but they're struggling with that, still trying
to sell their old house. And then in addition to that,
he basically caught the flu. Yeah, so he just had
a good go of it. So you guys definitely keep
Chris in your prayers and your thoughts. Because you know,
he's just he's just not having a good run of
luck right now. But so I know I teased it

(01:40):
last week that you know, we were going to kind
of talk about kind of what happened after Jesus's resurrection
with Chris not being here, you know, and to be
honest with you, he had it kind of laid on
his heart for a while now. He wanted to kind
of do that episode, and so I kind of decided,

(02:00):
you know what, I'm gonna wait for him to come
back before I dive into that episode. I didn't want
to dive into it without him here. Is like I said,
he just had that on his heart for a while now.
So I just kind of decided, you know what, I'm
gonna wing it and go and just do kind of
an episode on just something that was on my thoughts.

(02:25):
And so tonight we're actually talking about Doubting Thomas. This
episode is called Doubting Thomas more Than a Lowest Moment,
And uh, you know, I've always been infatuated with with
with the you know, Thomas the Disciple, and I just
you know, without Chris here, and you know, this is

(02:45):
one that I kind of wanted to do at some point,
and God, you know, one thing about me and Chris
is we work pretty well together. And if if he's
filling a pool towards doing an episode, we talked through it.
If I fill a pool towards doing an episode, we
talked through it. And we try to decide, Okay, what
do we want to cover that A we feel like

(03:06):
you guys are gonna be interested in, but also B
what do we feel led to do? And you know,
God's just kind of led us down this path and
it just so happens that, you know, we did the
Easter episode and then it led straight into like we'll
do now it's the perfect time to do that episode
because he wanted to kind of do it early on,
and then we felt pulled in a different direction, and

(03:29):
I think we we kind of started with like what
does it really mean to follow Jesus? And then the
rest of the you know, we're goodness gracious, this is
what episode twenty eight. So we're twenty eight weeks in now,
that's like half a year. And so, like I said,
I just didn't feel right doing that episode without him,
And this is one that you know, I had on

(03:50):
my mind for a while, and you know, so tonight,
you know, like I said, we're gonna, We're gonna that's
basically what I'm gonna talk about. But before that, like
I said, me and Chris, we always like to, you know,
catch you guys up on stuff. By the way, if
you have not already, make sure you click like subscribe.
That helps us more than you guys know, share this

(04:12):
with somebody that you think that may enjoy it if
they're new to the Christian walk and they're just not
really sure where to start. We're pretty easy launchpad because
you know, we're just a couple of good old boys.
But also, I know I teased it last time. I

(04:32):
need to make sure to add that into the notes.
But let me see if I can pull up. Well,
I'm not gonna pull it up. But also again check
the description of this podcast episode. Check out our tea spring.
We have a limited edition line of merch celebrating our
first five hundred listens. It's a big milestone for us.

(04:54):
I mean, you know, we didn't really know what to
expect when we started this, but there's some awesome merch.
I have a humbler and I think a hat on
the way as we speak. So make sure you guys.
Check that out. And one thing that we're really pushing
on that we need y'all's help with is we are
trying to get this podcast ranked. So you know, one

(05:16):
one thing that's going to help us out tremendously. And
I'm talking to some people that I know personally. Okay,
if you're listening to this, you know who you are,
hit the pause button and click rate rate this podcast
preferably four or five stars. But if you think we're terrible,

(05:39):
I don't know why you keep listening. But if you
think we're terrible, leave us a review. Okay, that way,
you know, hey, we at least we know what we
can improve on. But rate this podcast because that helps
us get ranked. The way that this works is, you know,
Spotify and Apple and all these different platforms they look

(06:01):
at listens, traction comments if there's the ability to do comments,
which it depends on the platform. But the ratings, the
number of ratings, and the the you know how high
those ratings are, you know, really helps us out. And
like I said, I don't care if we're dead last,
but we want to get ranked so that we can

(06:23):
start tracking our process. And what I mean by that
is when you guys, go to Apple. Okay, you can
go to you know, like I think spirituality, religious, there's
like leisure. There's all these different categories, and within those
categories you can click on it and you have like
the number one leisure podcast, number two three, you know whatever.

(06:44):
And so that helps us to be able to get
noticed and spread the word around. So please do us
a favor and rate this. Again. I'm talking to people
that I personally know. You know who you are, Pause
this and rate it. Okay, everybody else you know rate
it please if you want. I'm gonna talk to you
guys nicer because you know, I don't know who I

(07:05):
was listening to this, but so just catching guys up
in my week. Literally right now as I'm speaking, the
NFL draft is going on. It looks like my Tennessee
Titans as of right now took cam Ward, which I'm
totally cool with. I wish they would not have ever
taken Will Levis. I didn't want him to take him
in the first place. Anybody that puts mayonnaise in their

(07:27):
coffee should just not be starting an NFL quarterback. That's
what I'm saying. I'm sure he's a great guy, but
you know, uh, I just that that decision. I was like, look,
he's a nice guy, but I don't want him be
in the quarterback of my team. Sorry, you know. But now,
granted that was kind of b c. Okay, I wasn't

(07:49):
quite as thick in my walk as I am now.
But cam Ward looks like he's going to be the start,
you know, not starting quarterback, but we're drafting him, so
I'm cool with that. Travis Hunter went number two, which,
to be honest with you, I'm kind of a big
fan of Travis Hunter. Hate on me if you want,
but the dude a is a dog and he likes
to fish. I mean, what else? I mean, Hey, that's

(08:11):
a quick, easy way into my heart. Yeah. NFL drafts
going on, so that's kind of interesting to sit back
at watch snack Man hit me up with the biggest
haul I've ever had in my life. I had three
boxes of snacks, and there were so many snacks that
we had more than enough to put in our pantry.

(08:33):
And because we've had to dive into the blessing box
quite a few times here lately, we decided to take
and give back and put a lot of those extra
snacks into the Blessing Box. So snack man, if you're listening,
appreciate that. I got to go to church two wednesdays

(08:54):
in a row, which was awesome. A couple wednesdays back,
I was puking my guts out, had a terrible migraine,
ended up having to go home, and then I just
like slept for half the day trying to nurse that headache,
and then like an hour or two or whatever before
church kind of rolled over, felt halfway decent. I looked
at my wife, I was like, you know, I literally

(09:14):
never get to go to church because I worked so
late on Wednesday nights. I'm gonna try to go to church.
And as bad as I felt, I was glad that
I went. You know, brother Keith Boggs and brother Justin
Green from Real Momentum, which I'm gonna plug him again,
but it's the hat that I'm always wearing, which it's
backwards on the video. But Real Momentum Ministries they do

(09:38):
it right now. They're doing a Better Man series, which
if you guys don't know what better Man is, it's
it's just kind of a it's a what's the word
I'm looking for. It's like a devotional series that's just
you know, dedicated towards making men better men. So got
to go last week within this week. It just the

(09:58):
way it happened was it was like got into work,
got rolling, I hit no snags whatsoever. I was just boom,
just like way ahead of schedule all day. And by
the time I got off, it was like five forty five,
and I was like, dude, that's gonna be tight, but
I still might be able to make it to church.

(10:19):
So I lived like thirty minutes away from where I worked,
so literally drove thirty minutes, got back home. I called
my wife on the way and I was like, I
think I'm gonna be able to go to church, And
so she ended up staying home with my soon to
be one year old, and me and my five year
old ended up going. But literally, my wife was a champ.

(10:41):
She literally like set out my overalls and my t shirt,
my clothes for me, and she even put my stuff
into the car, got the car started, and then when
I was coming down grabbing a cherry Coke zero, she
was like loading my five year old in the car
for me. Super awesome, But it was kind of funny
because I mean dude, I was like rushing, and I

(11:02):
was like, dude, okay, So left at five forty five,
drove home, and I was like, and I'm sorry. It
was like five thirty five or maybe five forty and
I needed to leave by six fifteen to basically be
like five minutes late. So I'm not gonna say I
spit home, but I mean, you know, I got home
as efficiently as I could and then ran upstairs, showered

(11:25):
real quick, through my clothes on. I was sweating, and
ended up driving to church and we were like five
ish to ten minutes late. Come stumbling in, realized I
forgot my better man manual or handbook or whatever you
wanna call it, and came stumbling in. But you know,
I made it and it was awesome, and I just,
you know, I don't know what churches you guys go

(11:47):
to or where you're at, but like, don't ever let
being late to stop you from going to church. You know,
I knew I was gonna be like five to ten
minutes late. Now. Granted, if you're gonna be like thirty
to forty five minutes, you're gonna miss all of it.
I understand that. But it worked out perfect and then
you know, Brother Keith Boggs and Justin Green. I mean

(12:09):
they were just you know, laying it down. I think
I got my notes over here still, but I mean
there were several nuggets which I'm gonna drop one of
them here in a minute before we get started. But
you know, and then Men's Bible Study Tuesday was awesome.
It's just been a good week and I'm just glad that,
you know, I have Christian brothers that you know, I

(12:29):
can I can talk to and rely on. You know,
there was several So this was a quote that Brother
Keith quoted from someone else, but in the Men's well,
I actually sorry. In the Men's Bible Study, he was
talking about how the truth is you can't be a

(12:50):
good leader to you become a good follower. That really
resonated with me. But one thing that he said that
really stuck out to me is when you're sharing your testimony,
it's important to remember that you are not the hero
with the story. And that just really stuck with me.

(13:10):
He also talked about how there's nothing that you can do.
This was a quote from I don't think I wrote
down who the quote was from, but he quoted it
said there's nothing I can do for an undisciplined person
to succeed. Everything worthwhile is uphill. The problem is we
have downhill habits, and if we have downhill habits and

(13:31):
uphill hopes, we're in trouble. So but just great, great
series of Bible studies. They I'm gonna go ahead and
give a shout out because Justin gave a shout out
in the Men's Bible Study. But if you're looking for
like a men's based Bible study, Real Momentum is an
awesome podcast. I definitely encourage you guys to check it out.

(13:53):
I was actually listening to it on the way home,
but it's an awesome podcast. Highly recommend it. One thing
that I do want to hit on before I get
into tonight's topic of doubting promises. Dude, you guys can
probably hear it in the last episode, but it literally
hit me as I was doing the episode, and by
that point I was too far in to really focus

(14:13):
on it. But like, one thing that I've really been
thinking about here lately ever since, like Easter is like, dude,
we really don't think about it, but it's like, dude,
they made it impossible for Jesus to get out of
that tomb. Like literally, I mean, you know, he was

(14:37):
wrapped up super tight, all that stuff he was put
in the tomb. They literally put a two ton rock
to you know, block this tomb. Then they sealed it
with like a ropey wax mixture or whatever. They used
the seal which was punishable by death to even tamper

(14:58):
with they put, you know, have very many guards Roman
guards outside, and these were like bad dudes, ma'am. I mean,
just imagine like ten or fifteen Navy seals guard in
a tomb, you know, and still as impossible as they
made that tomb for Jesus to get out of. Not
only did he like raise from the dead, but he

(15:21):
rose from the dead three days later busted out of
this impossible to bust out of tomb. But here's the kicker,
And this is what I've been thinking about all week,
and you heard me talk about it in the last episode.
But like none of that was for him. Like we
act like Jesus needed to bust out of the tomb

(15:44):
to get out, and like he didn't need to bust
out of the tomb to get out. He could have
got out, he didn't like literally that that tomb wasn't
gonna hold him, like and it's like they made this
tomb in Pa, well, he very well could have rose
from the dead and got out of that tomb, but

(16:05):
he busted out of that tomb for us. Dude. It
wasn't you know, that stone didn't get rolled away so
he could get out. That stone got rolled away so
we could get in, dude. Because literally, it was like
he did that for us to be able to go
in and see that he wasn't there, because had he

(16:26):
arose and just like you know, ascended through the tomb
and the rock and the stone, they would have said,
oh no, no, there's no way that's not Jesus. He's
over there in the tomb. It's still sealed, right. But
it's like he did all that for us to be
able to go in and see that the tomb was empty.
And we focus on the fact that this impossible tomb,

(16:49):
you know, he busted out of. But it's like, as
awesome and impossible as that was, he didn't do that
because he needed to get out. He did that. He
wanted us to be able to go in and see
that he wasn't there, And like, dude, I just think
about that, and I'm like, you know, God is so good.
But it's also like sometimes we think we're smarter than

(17:12):
we are, and it's like, you know, God meets us
where we're at, but then he also liked Thomas, which
is this is the leading to tonight's episode. But it's
like he meets us where we're at in a way
that we can understand. And the Bible says, Blessed are

(17:34):
those who have believed without needing to see, you know,
and it's like, when we need that, he'll give that
to us. Now, maybe it's not exactly what we think
he should or whatever, but it's like even today, people
say all the time, oh, Jesus, God do this, or

(17:57):
Jesus if it's like, dude, what else does he have
to do? Man? I hear people say all the time, Well,
you know, all the technology we have, you know, why
did Jesus come back when he did? He should have
came back. Now we've got all this technology, we can
prove it. First off, I'm convinced there's only one woman
in the history of like humanity. That's like, uh, okay, yeah, God,

(18:19):
Like I'll carry the son of God. Sure, you know,
like and then not only that, but it's like it
had to be a woman willing to dedicate her life
to that. But then also you had to have the
right guy that was going to be godly enough to
listen and say, Okay, yeah, like I'm going to catch

(18:39):
some flak for this, but yeah, let's let's let's go
with God's plan here.

Speaker 2 (18:43):
And you know, you want to talk about gossip and toxicness,
like can you imagine if like Mary and Joseph had
to deal with like Facebook, Like.

Speaker 1 (18:56):
Listen, I mean I was talking to my my cousin
Ray Ray and them, and they said, you know, Mary
was pregnant, but listen, here's the thing. Boobo, Okay, marying
just Toph think married yet Okay, they better not let

(19:17):
me see them as thin of God. No suh? I mean,
can you believe you think about like how bad it
would be. But like you take all that, even if
Jesus came back today, we would say it's a I
We wouldn't believe it. We would say the video was doctored. Right.
It's like, you know, all these people say, well if

(19:38):
if Jesus, if you're real, bust open this can of coke.
You know you see that on TikTok all the time,
and Jesus, God, if you're real, It's like, dude, what else?
What I mean? Dude, literally defeated Hell in the grave,
rose back from the dead, rose other people back to dead,
did marry? Like what else does God have to do?

(20:00):
Like to prove himself to you? We went over the
prophecies on the Easter episode. That was like I only
went through like thirteen of them. Jesus did like three
hundred and fifty one. It was like what what did
I say? One? And like I don't even know eighteen
quadrilla and or so I forgot what the number Eve
was that I read off. It was eighteen digits. So

(20:23):
I just think if that's incredible, And like I said,
I think it's awesome that God meets us where we're at.
So tonight we're gonna get into tonight's topic, which is
again doubting Thomas, which if you don't know who that was,
he was a disciple of Jesus, and it's it's called

(20:43):
doubting Thomas more than a Lois moment. Sometimes the world
remembers your worst moment, but Jesus never defines you by it.
That's awesome when you think about it. And again I'm
going to quote Keith Boggs who quoted whoever he quoted.
I can't remember who he said he quoted. But it's
important to remember that when it comes to your testimony,

(21:07):
you are not the hero of your story. God is,
which is incredible. But so we're gonna focus on a
little bit of scripture and doubting Thomas. So so, and
let me pull I meant to pull my Bible up,
but I'm gonna pull up Bible Gateway because you know Internet, man,

(21:29):
It's it's it's a wild and awesome thing. Dude. It's
like you can do so much stuff with it. We're
gonna go to Bible Gateway and again, in Chris's honor,
we're gonna do n IV. We're gonna do John twenty
twenty four through twenty nine. Usually I try to put

(21:52):
the Bible verses in the note. Got to do that.
So so this is when Jesus comes back and he
appears to Thomas, and we're gonna come back and we're
going to back this up. Actually, I tell you what,
I'm going to deviate a little bit and I'm actually
gonna so this actually came from like a personal Bible

(22:14):
study that I did a while back, And I'm actually
gonna start with this flow here because I like my
original notes better. But let's start with what we actually
know about Thomas. This is my actual notes. I'm deviating,
but doubting Thomas, who was he? Well? Wikipedia says that

(22:34):
he was a skeptic who refused to believe without direct
personal experience. Can you imagine literally like you had one
small moment of doubt and you were labeled as like
doubting Thomas for the rest of your life. It's unreal.
The world knows him as doubting Thomas. But I think
it's important to remember that we labeled him doubting Thomas

(22:59):
Jesus never that's just what we know him as. So
what do we actually know about him? Well, we know
that he was a true disciple, meaning you know he
was there after Judas betrayed him. He was one of
the last twelve or technically eleven before they brought him
Athias later to bring it back up to twelve. But
by this point, you know, he was one of the

(23:19):
last few the proud disciples that was left after the
multitudes left. He was there at the Lord's Supper. He's
one of the last true disciples. He was called Didymus,
which means twin. That's d I d y m u
s which means twin. Who is he a twin of right?
I don't know, Like we don't even really have that

(23:40):
much on him in the Bible. That's why I'm so fascinated.
I'm so fascinated with Thomas because we know so little
about him, yet everybody knows him as doubting Thomas, Like
I can relate to that. He was mentioned in Matthew
Mark Luke and Acts, But honestly, he's always just mentioned

(24:02):
in passing. Like there's little blips and blurts that that
where he's mentioned, but it's always like, you know, when
he's mentioned, he's basically like popping up and having a
realistic reaction to something. But it's like, you know, he's
he's essentially either doubting or he's just mentioned as like

(24:22):
you know, yeah, Thomas and other disciples or just the
other disciples are there. We know that he's from Galilee.
I'm actually gonna skip that point and come back because
we're gonna talk about that later this I'm gonna skip
over that one but and we know that, you know, essentially,
according to historians, he was killed by a spear and

(24:43):
then his remains were taken to Odessa e ed E S.
S A. And I'm gonna go over this in the
notes as well, but you know, I think it's important
though to remember that like all he wanted was like
the same assurance that the other disciples wanted, and Jesus

(25:04):
was happy to accommodate this, you know, and like, to
be honest with you, like Thomas had a very realistic
reaction to some stuff. But so I'm gonna give you
just a little bit of a preface here. But essentially,
Jesus died, which we talked about in the Easter episode,
and then he resurrected, which we talked about last week.

(25:25):
Well after he resurrects, he kind of starts appearing to people. Well,
at one point he appears to the disciples and they're
essentially in in like they're in hiding essentially because like
Jesus just got killed and so they're like, well, okay,
like we're next. So they're in hiding, and so it

(25:48):
just so happens that like all the disciples are like
hanging out, you know, they're playing scrabble, you know, they
just ordered some door dash whatever. They're chilling up in
this room and like basically, you know, Jesus appears to him. Well,
Thomas isn't there, right, for whatever reason, he wasn't there.
We don't know if he was over there doing his

(26:09):
taxes where if he was checking on his stock portfolio,
like seeing what his insurance was, like, we don't know, right,
because you know, at this point, everybody's like freaking out
and hiding and stuff. Of course, I'm completely improvising a
lot of this. I'm just making sure you guys are
paying attention. But for whatever reason, Thomas wasn't there, and
Jesus appears to all the disciples. Well, then disciples go

(26:31):
back to Thomas, like, dude, Jesus is back, and he's like, no,
I'm not, No, I'm not. I don't believe that. Like
and they're like no, dude, like he's really back, Like
we're serious, And like I said last time, that would
be like if one of your best friends was like
murdered put in a grave and then like after a

(26:53):
few days your friends go and like, dude, he wasn't dead.
You're like, bro, I seen him like, no, of course
he was that. No, I'm telling you back. So John
twenty twenty four through twenty nine. Now Thomas, also known
as Didamus see told you Drewski gets the point. One
of the twelve was not with the disciples when Jesus came.

(27:15):
So the other disciples told him we have seen the Lord.
But he said to them, unless I see the nail
marks in his hands and I put my finger where
the nails were, and I put my hand in his side,
I'm not gonna believe what you're saying. Which, again, that's
a realistic reaction, like to be like, Okay, I'm not

(27:41):
gonna believe it till I see it for myself. You know,
that's a realistic reaction. And also that's kind of a
spirit of like discernment. Right, he's not just gonna go
along with what everybody else is saying. He wants to
see for himself, right, like he wants to see for
him He's not just gonna take anybody's word for it.

(28:02):
I can respect that because that's how I am, right,
That's that's a spirit of discernment. So a week later
his disciples, Jesus' disciples were in the house again, and
Thomas was with them though the doors were locked. This
is cool. A lot of people skip over that though
the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them

(28:23):
and said, peace be with you, which, like me personally,
I like to picture like Jesus is like, you know,
actually having a little bit of a sense of humor.
I can almost picture Jesus like just appearing to be like,
peace be with you, like almost as like a joke,
you know, but to be honest with you. Most likely
he was like peace be with you, like because they

(28:44):
were probably gonna freak out because literally it's like he
just appears in this room. But then he says to Thomas,
which again you know, he's shown some divine nature. He
knows what Thomas said. He says, put your finger here,
see my hands, reach out your hand and put it
into my side. Stop doubting and believe, which I can

(29:08):
picture him Jesus like eye to eye with Thomas just
being like, dude, it's me, man like, stop doubting, it's me.
It's real. I'm here, dude. Like I can almost see
Jesus saying that with a smile on his face. Right,
I'm trying to tear up just thinking about it. But
and then Thomas says to him, my Lord and my God.

(29:31):
So instantly, when Thomas seen, he believed, and it's like
he's basically fallen to his knees, like my Lord, my God,
because at that point he knows it's Jesus, he knows
he died, he knows he's back, and he's all in
at this point. Right then Jesus said to them, because
you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those

(29:53):
who have not seen and yet have believed. So you know,
you see all the time on social media, right, there's
like these I said media, right, you see on social
media all the time where these people talk about how like, dude,

(30:17):
I died on the floor and then like my spirit
went down the hell and I seen hell for myself,
and then Jesus reached down and grabbed hold me back up.
Oh dude, That's what I'm saying. Like I seen Jesus
in a dream. He appeared to me and I was
radically checking. They have all these crazy awesome stories, right,

(30:38):
And there's times where I'm like I sort of feel
like the run of the mill generic Christian because it's
like I used to drink I used to do things
with like women that I shouldn't have done before marriage.
And like I've done like I downloaded some you know,
illegal music back in the day on you know, like

(31:01):
blind Wire, and it's like I probably ripped the tag
off a mattress a few times. It's like, you know,
like but I've never like I never did any like
hardcore drugs. I never went and like did any crazy stuff.
Like I never killed anybody. I never done this stuff.
It's like I got saved when I was seven, and

(31:23):
then I was a prodigal for like ten years and
I came back, but for the most part, never did
anything crazy, you know. And I never had these like
super crazy out of body encounters and whatever. And I
think sometimes we as Christians look at some of these
crazy stories and we think, Dude, like my testimony is
really not that exciting, you know. It's like I've not

(31:47):
done a lot of like I didn't do a lot
of cool stuff that sounds good and whatever. But like
in this passage, dude, Jesus is saying, like, because you
have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who
have not seen and believed. So it's like he's basically
saying like, dude, you see me and believe me now,

(32:09):
But there's people that believed in me that never seen me.
And so if you're listening to that and you're like, dude,
I've never had these like crazy experiences or I've never
had this out of body thing happen and whatever, Like dude,
you're blessed because you didn't need all that to believe
who he was. And I'm not saying like it's bad
to believe in like the you know, the prophecies and

(32:35):
the evidence. I'm a person that likes to seek for evidence,
and like I'm really interested in apologetics because like, I
want to swim in the deepest, darkest, murkiest waters that
like an atheist or someone who's not a believer would
swim in, Like, and I want to study the topics

(32:55):
of like how could adjust an awesome Oh, I'd like,
you know, allow people to die and things to happen,
and like all these you know questions of like, well,
you know, I was trying to think of another example,
but it's like there's all you know, you get on
TikTok and all this, and you listen to like these

(33:17):
atheist content creators and stuff and these deconstructionists, and it's
like they're asking all these questions and it sounds good
the way they word it, but then it's like you
go to the Bible and it's like a lot of
times there's plausible explanations, and it's like I love to
study the deepest, hardest to understand questions, but it's like,

(33:38):
you know, that's how my brain works. But it's like
not to debate theology with people and to like argue
with Christians. But the last thing that I want is
someone who's lost or not a Christian or doesn't believe
in Jesus to stumble on this podcast or bump into
me and ask me a question to me be like,
I don't know, just but just don't doubt it. Just

(33:59):
believe that. Read the Bible and believe it. It's like,
you know, and that level of discernment, also coupled with
interest and apologetics, is part of the reason why I
relate to Thomas. But we wrote this dude off for
thousands of years as like oh yeah, old Doubton Thomas

(34:20):
just doubt everybody all the time. And it's like, bro,
he had like a realistic thing like that wasn't shame.
It was grace meeting with the question. Right, So so
let's let's I'm gonna get back to the notes here
because I'm I'm I could. I'm telling you I could
roll for four hours and I would lose every one

(34:42):
of you. So, uh, I don't have Chris keep me
in line. So you know, but what we call him
versus who he was. Thomas is remembered mostly for his doubt,
but he was a true disciple the biblical and historical
notes again, we know who's he was called Didimus. That's
in John eleven, sixteen, twenty twenty four and also twenty

(35:04):
one two. He's only briefly mentioned in Matthew ten three,
Mark three eighteen. And like I said, don't worry about these,
I'll put the notes in there. But but the funny
thing is is like other disciples had failures. Right, Peter
denied Jesus like to his face three times and even

(35:28):
dropped some colorful like redneck language, you know in the
one part to like try to drive home his point.
And it's like, you know, Elijah in First Kings nineteen
begged to die. Sarah laughed at God when he says
she's gonna have a baby Genesis eighteen twelve, David committed
adultery and murder, and he was still called a man

(35:51):
after God's own heart. We don't call Peter like Peter
the denier, you know, we don't call David the fornicator
or the adulterer, like we don't call oh, yes, David
the man who are we don't call we don't call
David that. But for some reason, Thomas has this this
like one small moment where he doubts right, and it's

(36:16):
like we label him down in Thomas, you know, for
some reason, he's the only one that caught that label.
And it's such a human thing for us to do, right,
But the thing is is Jesus meant that dow Right.
He didn't humiliate Thomas. He came to his level and said, look, dude,
put your fingers in my in my hands, my palms,

(36:40):
you know, look touch the scars, look at my side.
Like he literally comes to Thomas, meets him on his
level and says, dude, I got you. Hey. You know,
I know it's pretty hard to believe, but like, dude,
I got you. You know, like that's that's incredible to me. Man.
I hope y'all are getting as much as I of this.
I'm I'm cooking, dude, like this is I mean, if

(37:01):
it's done, butter your biscuit. I don't know what is.
But Jesus made a special trip just for Thomas. Thomas
only wanted what the other disciples already had, which was assurance,
right like he literally all the other disciples seen it
and he didn't see it. He just wanted to be
have the same assurance that they did. Right. Jesus was

(37:24):
happy to accommodate him. Jesus sees our hearts right, and
God invites us to reason with him and have questions.
Bible verse Isaiah, remember how to spell one? Sorry, I'm

(37:49):
doing this in real time. One eighteen. The Lord says,
come now, let us settle. And I don't have time
to unpack the whole passage, but this is a small snippet,
but go read Isaiah one. But God says, come now,
let us settle the matter. Though your sins are like scarlet,
they shall be white as snow. Though they are red

(38:12):
as crimson, they will be like wool. If you look
at the King James version, I believe, he says, let's
look at new King James. He says, come now, let
us reason together. He said, dudelet's sit down and talk
it out, Like, Hey, you got questions, I got answers.
God is truth man like, so he says, like, dude,

(38:34):
come let us reason together. He wants to answer our questions.
The Bible has the answers to our question. We just
have to reason with God, and he's going to show
us the way Romans fifteen to one through two. Bearing
others burdens, We then, who were strong, ought to bear

(38:56):
with the scruples of the week, and not to please ourselves.
Let us let each of us please his neighbor for
his good leading the edification. So again, you know, we
need to reason not only with God, but reason with
each other. Jesus said, stop doubting and believe, but then

(39:16):
also affirmed future believers. He was in a lot of
ways he was talking to us in that moment, right
Like he was basically saying, Hey, blessed are those who
haven't seen and still believed. You know, that's kind of
a you know, we can use that for us. But
so let's look at some of the rest of the story,
right Thomas's legacy flip the mic on the floe, get

(39:46):
to get too much razzled eyes with it. As I'm
flipping the John, I'm gonna quote brother Heath Boggs is
well quote the Real Momentum podcasts. They said something that
was pretty awesome. They said, sometimes God takes forever, but
he's never late. And I think it's amazing because it's,

(40:07):
like I said on this this episode, for what it
feels like a year now, I wrote this this lesson outlined. Man,
did I date this? Yeah, like March of last year.
And it's funny how this fits right into the bridge
of Jesus being resurrected. So John eleven, So this is

(40:32):
a when Lazarus dies in Deathny. This is one of
the few times that Thomas spoke up. But it says
then Thomas called twin said to his fellow disciples, let's
go too, so that so that we shall die with him.
Let me back up just a little bit. Okay, so
this is one of the times that the Jews tried

(40:52):
to stone Jesus. Let's go back to verse eight. Rabbi,
by the way, this is CSB version rab By, the
disciples told him just now, the Jews tried to you,
and you're gonna go there again, and then Jesus says,
aren't there twelve hours in a day. If anyone walks
during the day, he doesn't stumble because he sees the

(41:13):
light of the world. But if anyone walks during the night,
he does not stumble because the light is not in him.
Or sorry, he does stumble because the light is not inhy.
Then it says he said this, and then he told
them this is Jesus talking again, says, our friend Lazarus
is falling asleep, but I'm on my way to waking.

(41:34):
So this is where he goes to resurrect Lazarus. Then
disciples said to him, Lord, if he's falling asleep, he
will get well. Jesus, however, was speaking about his death,
but they thought he was speaking about natural sleep. So
then Jesus told them, plainly, I love this because like

(41:54):
literally Jesus is trying to be like, well, old Lazarus, well, boys,
he went to sleep on us. You know, he's uh,
you know, he's he's not with us, and they're like, oh, well,
let's just go wake him up. And Jesus literally is like,
he says, plainly to them, our friend Lazarus has died. Look, literally,

(42:18):
he's gonna be like like, no, boys, he's dead, which
is just funny because it's like we look at the
disciples as like bumbling idiots, but it's like, how do
how you think God looks at us, bro like seriously,
like I mean, and the disciples didn't even have the
Holy Spirit yet, right because Jesus hadn't left yet. So anyways,

(42:39):
Jesus says, I'm glad for you I wasn't there so
that you may believe. But let's go to him. So
he's basically saying, I'm glad for you that I wasn't there.
Now I'm about to show you something you don't believe,
some stuff here. And so then Thomas called twin said
to his fellow disciples, let's go too, so that we
may die with him, you know. And then Jesus goes

(43:02):
and basically raises Lazarus from the dead. So so you
can see they're like, you know, we look at Thomas
like he's just like this bumbling like sissy or something
part of my French, but it's like he actually has
a little dog game. So looking at Thomas's legacy, tradition

(43:22):
and history says that after he has this run on
this head, on collision with Jesus, and he puts his
finger in the scars, and and he falls to him
and says, my Lord, my God. He's completely transformed. Thomas
is Actually he's essentially given credit for preaching the gospel

(43:48):
to all of India, like he's given credit for being
the one that brought the gospel to India, you know,
and and possibly some other parts of Asia. We know
that he's martyred by a spear. He was buried, possibly
in my lapour, but his remains were moved to Odessa.

(44:13):
So literally he went from disciple to doubt or some
evangelists to martyr. Right, so I guess to start laying
in this plane and wrap this up. You know, Thomas,

(44:33):
like I said before, he's kind of given a bad, badrip.
Like literally, the only few times he speed, he's you know,
pops up right. He's asking an honest question, Like he's
always asking like honest, realistic questions that we would ask.

(44:56):
That's what drives like drives me crazy, is like I'm
looking at this guy. I'm like, dude, we labeled this
guy doubting Thomas, But like I think that God sees
his heart and he knows like where his heart's at right.
Like I said, Thomas did what every one of us

(45:17):
would do. Jesus made a special trip for him to
be honest with you. I believe that in a lot
of cases, or I think in a lot of ways,
Jesus actually respected Thomas's devotion. Like I feel like this
is kind of compared to like, I'm not going to
take somebody's word for something. I'm going to go to
scripture and I'm going to read it for myself. You know,

(45:40):
Thomas's need for himself, sorry, Thomas's need to believe for
himself and not just take everybody's word for it. Again,
I think is something that we can admire. Jesus wants
us to see him and he wants to answer our
questions in our doubt because he is truth. Jesus came
to Thomas's level. He didn't humiliate him. Jesus seeing Thomas's

(46:04):
heart was to truly know God. I think that's part
of the reason why he didn't check him when he's like, well,
you know, where are you going? How are we going
to know? It's an honest question. His heart is to
know and to seek God right. Jesus again, he reminded
those who've seen him, blessed are those that have not

(46:27):
seen And then Thomas goes on to again like literally
bring gospel to like an entire continent. So what I
want to talk to you guys about And I just
want to kind of get real here for a minute
in these last closing minutes here, But like we labeled
Thomas as sorry, we labeled Thomas as doubting Thomas, right,

(46:58):
So what's your label? What is your label? Like? What
if the world gave you a name that God never
called you, you know, called you by I mean, are
you a doubter? Are you a mocker? Are you stubborn headed? Like?

(47:20):
What labels do you have? You know? I mean like
if we had to, like, you know, if you had
to ask yourself questions like do you ask yourself questions
like will I fail again? Am I enough? You know?
Peter again he failed, but Jesus restored him. Well, like

(47:46):
why would somebody use like why would God use somebody
like me? Well, look at Gideon, right, he says I'm
the least in Judges six point fifteen and then Judges
six sixteen. God says, I'll be with you, you know insecurities,
you know I'm not spiritual enough. Moses even thought, you know, well, God,

(48:09):
I'm not like that good of a public speaker. I stutter,
you know, I'm kind of unsightly. I'm a little bit
of redneck, like like how, I mean, how how am
I going to do this? You know that was an
Exodus four. Then God basically says like, dude, I'm with you,
you know, and he take he ends up taking errand
as well. But it's like you look at well, God,
my label is I'm I'm an addict, I'm insecure, I'm angry,

(48:32):
I'm a failure. I'm a college dropout, like I'm gonna
screw up. I can't get right. Everything I touch, I
mess up. I make the wrong decision every single time.
Might as well coma can't get right, dude, I'm the
town drunk. You know. You look at Mary Magdalene and
Luke eight two, and she was the she was like

(48:54):
looked at as like this outcast, second class citizen, but
she was the first want to see Jesus resurrected. Well,
I'm not Christian enough, you know, Uh, I don't do
all the right things. You know, you look at the
Woman of the Well and Jesus basically said, you know.

(49:18):
He looked at her and said, yeah, no, I know,
actually I know. I said your husband, but actually you've
had like three husband and the guy that you're sleeping
with right now is not your husband. But yet he
used her to spark a revival, and she literally goes
back and because of her, an entire city is saved.

(49:41):
You know, they meet Jesus and then they believe that
Jesus is who he says he is. Like she, it
would basically be like kind of the equivalent of like
an OnlyFans model nowadays, right, she'd be looked down on society,
but Jesus, Jesus looked you in the eye and said, look,
I know you're thirsty, but like, if you roll with me,
you're never gonna be thirsty again. And he's like, yeah, no,

(50:03):
I know you've been sleeping around, but listen, I'm the Messiah.
I'm here, and he tells her stuff about you know,
her life that only he knows, and then she goes
and leads a revival and an entire city comes to
know Jesus. You know, I think about Paul and it's like,
you know, if you're listening to this, He's like dude,
I've killed people, like you know, I'm like the roughest, toughest,

(50:26):
like gangster, biaker whatever, like I've done horrible, terrible things.
Paul was like high up Pharisee with the sand Heedron
and all that. He was literally killing Christians for believing
in Jesus. He killed Stephen. It was like a disciple.

(50:46):
And it's like he's going around killing people as Paul
or you know, sorry Saul, and then he has a
head on collision on Jesus and Jesus is like, dude,
I'm real, Like I'm real. And as soon as he
has that encounter, he's a completely turned around. And all

(51:08):
the terrible things that Paul It'saul did each you know,
changes his name to Paul. Without Paul, we don't have
most of the New Testament. Dude, ends up being a
tighten of the faith. I think it's important to remember that,
like these these labels that you're dealing with, you know,
I'm not Christian enough, I'm not spiritual enough, i don't

(51:30):
know enough about the Bible. I'm an addict. I'm insecure
of angry. I'm a failure. I've screwed up. Will I
fall again? I'm probably gonna fall again. Am I enough?
How could God use somebody like me? Dude? Just read
the Bible, man, literally, just read the Bible. That's what

(51:50):
I love about it. Every great figure in the Bible
did something to mess up, right, And it's like it's
just a reminder like that us. So what if your
lowest moment is where your breakthrough begins. You're not too
far gone, you're not too broken. You're not the same

(52:13):
name that the world gave you. That name, that label,
that's not what God gave you. Look at you know,
Simon Peter. You know, oftentimes Jesus like literally will change
people's names. It's like, now, dude, you're this Saul becomes Paul,
that label that you were. Dude, Like two years ago,

(52:34):
I was drinking, I was watching porn, I was cussing,
you know, I was just doing all these things. And
it's like, I'm totally different now, and I'm so different
that people know me. They think that, like the church
I go to is a cold because I'm totally different.
They're like, oh, well, you know that church you go
to is cold. Everybody goes up, there's gonna get baptized,
you know, everybody goes up. There's gotta gotta be you know,

(52:57):
turn to be a preacher or this or that, and
you know it's like, dude, it's when you encounter Jesus
you should be different. Like that's how it should be.
You should be so radically transformed that you don't gossip,
you don't drink, you don't want to start a fight

(53:18):
everywhere you go. That's what Jesus does to you. Then,
So again, you're not too far gone, You're not too
far broken. You are not the name that this world
gave you. You are who God created you to be.
Like Thomas, you are seen, invited and loved by Jesus.

(53:39):
He still says, come closer, touch my wounds. I've got
something greater for you. So again I want to close
again with John twenty twenty nine bluster of those who
have not seen and yet believed. Your doubt isn't a
deal breaker. It's an opportunity for God to come close.

(54:02):
Lean into that. Because again, your it's your life, is
part of your testimony. But it's important to remember, you know,
like I quoted before, from the Bible, study your testimony.
When it comes to your testimony, you were not the
hero of your story. God is, but your story is

(54:23):
going to resonate with people just like Doubt and Thomas.
Dude that you know, I'm so infatuated with Thomas because
I'm like, dude, what labels would I have? Like what
if my one lowest moment someone took that and stuck
me with that label and I had to deal with

(54:45):
that the rest of my life. And it's just like,
you know, I relate to Thomas and so I hope
that you guys have got something out of this. I'm
gonna be happy when Chris is back. I miss I
miss Chris. But I want to say thank you guys
for listening to this, thank you for being real and
vulnerable with yourself. And I want you to think about

(55:06):
these labels and I'm just telling you, whatever you gotta do,
if you got to write these labels down and then
torch them, you know, thumbing a bonfire or whatever, don't
let these labels stop you from going to Jesus. If
you just turn your life over to Jesus and you
just lean into him, he will radically change you. It's

(55:29):
not gonna be overnight, but just stay in that love again.
If you guys have any questions comments, I forgot to
say at the beginning of the episode, if you guys
have any questions, comments, anything like that, The Unreligious at
gmail dot com. We have social media as well, Facebook,
all that stuff. But I hope that you guys have
got something out of this. Again, my name is Big Drewski.

(55:52):
I have had so much fun sitting here chatting with
you guys, or at least chatting with your ear because
you know, it's it's not like you can chat back,
but you can get involved, you know, like I said,
send us emails, leaving us comments. If you're watching this
on YouTube, you can, you know, leave us comment on YouTube.
That's totally fine. Until next time, though, I am Big

(56:15):
drew Ski. This is the Unreligious podcast, and I'm out peace.

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#28 Doubting Thomas "More than a lowest moment"

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