Sermon from Sunday, April 19, 2026, Evangelist Judit, Agape Church, Text: John 20:24-29 (NIV)
"Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 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 put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.' [...] Then Jesus told him, 'Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'"
John 20:24-29 (NIV)
Why does the Word of God seem to slide off you without ever really sinking in? Evangelist Judit starts from a figure too often filed away as an "unbeliever": Thomas. From him she draws an unexpected lesson: the problem before God is not doubt, it's pretending. This article invites you to walk step by step through this April 19, 2026 sermon at Agape Church.
1. Thomas, the disciple who did not lie
For centuries, Thomas has carried an unflattering nickname: "Doubting Thomas." Three and a half years walking with Jesus, all the other disciples repeating to him "we have seen the Lord," and he dares to say out loud, "Unless I touch his wounds, I will not believe." Many see this as weak faith, a carnal man.
Judit takes the opposite view. She loves Thomas because he is honest. He does not hide what he feels, he does not play spiritual one upmanship with the other disciples, he does not pretend. He lays his doubt out on the table, in front of everyone. And it is precisely that honesty that earns him a direct encounter with the Risen One.
What Thomas became afterward
According to Christian tradition, Thomas was martyred in South India in the year 72 after Jesus Christ. The man who demanded to see before believing went to the ends of the known world to proclaim the One he had seen, and he died for him. Thomas's "doubt" was never a place where he settled down. It was a place he passed through, held out in the open before the Lord.
Jesus's voice was not anger
As a child, Judit pictured a Jesus angry at Thomas. Rereading the text as an adult, she sees it entirely differently. Jesus comes back eight days later, stands before him, and holds out his wounds: "Stop doubting and believe." There is no biting rebuke. There is dialogue, invitation, grace. The result is immediate: "My Lord and my God!" The exposed doubt became the highest confession in the whole Gospel.
2. The real problem is not doubt, it's pretending
Judit insists: Thomas's doubt is not what God finds fault with. What truly grieves him is the opposite attitude: doubting in your heart while pretending to believe on the outside. Putting on a spiritual front for others while, on the inside, faith is not there.
This is the yeast of the Pharisees, hypocrisy, the weeds, pride dressed up as piety. This is "the whitewashed tomb" that Jesus denounced among the religious people of his time. Many believers settle into this without realizing it: "Since everyone says you get to heaven by believing, I believe. Since everyone gets baptized, I get baptized." The starting point can look like that, but a day comes when the Lord wants a personal, genuine relationship.
Faith content with just knowing
"Oh, that verse, I know it. That story, I know it." Judit calls this "the I-know-I-know sickness." The Word goes in one ear and out the other. It never has time to wound, to plow, to disturb. The disciple stays on the surface, believes they have grown because they know more Bible references, but nothing sinks into real life.
3. Wrestling before the Word
For the Word to take root, you have to let it hurt you where it needs to. Judit uses a striking expression: to "writhe inwardly" before the text. To genuinely ask yourself: do I believe this? Do I believe that Jesus truly paid for this specific sin in my life? Do I believe the Holy Spirit is stronger than this craving that devours me?
Thomas wrestled inwardly. He refused to make too quick a peace with the others' version of events. He held onto Jesus until the answer came. And Jesus met him there.
Underestimating the Holy Spirit
Judit asks an uncomfortable question: could I be rating the sweetness of sin as stronger than the power of the Holy Spirit? The Holy Spirit is able to sweep away, from the inside, the pull of an addictive sin through a greater love and grace. Do we truly believe that?
4. Confessing honestly, but with reverence
The starting point of all this, Judit says, is honesty. "Lord, I can't do it. Your Word says: Seek first the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matthew 6:33, NIV), but I don't see the manna falling in my life. I'm afraid, I want to make it on my own, I want to believe and I can't." That is the prayer God is waiting for.
The Pharisee, on the other hand, never even reaches the starting point. He has already concluded that he believes. He has nothing left to confess.
Confessing without justifying yourself
Be careful of the manner, though. Confessing to the Lord does not mean unloading your grievances against others onto him. "Lord, so-and-so did this to me, someone said that to me, I can't stand them anymore!" That is not a confession, that is justifying yourself in God's presence while fishing for sympathy along the way. Judit reminds us of the right posture: "Lord, here is what happened to me, here is the anger and the wound I carry. Deal with this heart in me. Help me. Forgive me." Honesty before God is lived out in reverence, humility, and respect.
The trap of the well behaved child
Judit tells her own story. Raised early in the Word, she learned very quickly what "the right answer" was. When she was hurt at school, she knew she wasn't supposed to hate, so she put a lid on her emotions and moved on to the next thing. Years later, the result was that she no longer knew who she was, what she loved, what she truly wanted. She had built her life on the correct theoretical answer, without ever bringing her raw heart before Jesus. That is the "whitewashed tomb" that the Lord eventually exposes, by grace.
5. The Holy Spirit flows like water
The Holy Spirit is compared to fire, to a dove, but also to water. He flows within you, washes away sin, makes the Word germinate. But if walls of self righteousness, pride, self pity, or personal standards block his path, the Word can no longer get in. And if the Word can no longer get in, no fruit of the Spirit can come out of you.
So these obstacles must be identified, one by one, brought to the Lord, and left for him to tear down. This is what Paul calls the struggle against sin, even to the point of shedding blood.
6. Believing and fighting
Hearing the Word is not enough. Judit uses a simple image: you can memorize a recipe by heart, but if you never cook it and never eat it, you will never be full. Faith that does not act is a seed that fell on the path, among the rocks, or among the thorns (Mark 4, NIV).
"If circumstances change, I will obey," "When I truly believe it, I will believe it": these are not words of obedience. Spiritual law works backward: when you take your stand in the unseen, the seen moves afterward. Jesus has already paid for the victory at the cross. Until you apply it in his name and by his blood, it does not become your concrete victory.
7. Do not doubt his love
Judit closes with a vital point: do not doubt God's love for you. This may be the subtlest sin of a child of God: believing yourself so unworthy that you refuse his grace. Telling yourself "I don't deserve to be invited to his table" when he is inviting you there. This looks like humility, but it is still pride, refusing to accept the robe of righteousness offered by the cross.
The image of the cross should keep coming back before your eyes. The Creator climbed onto that wood. No order of "stop, that's enough" ever came down from heaven. All of his blood was poured out. Receiving that grace with full awareness is "coming to your senses" before the finished work.
Key Takeaways
- The problem before God is not doubting, it's pretending to believe.
- Thomas is a model of honesty: he carries his doubt out in the open and lets Jesus resolve it.
- The "I-know-I-know sickness" keeps the Word from entering the heart.
- Wrestling inwardly before the Word is the condition for it to bear fruit.
- Confession is made in reverence, without self justification or blaming others.
- Faith without action is a seed that never sprouts.
- Doubting God's love is a sin disguised as humility.
Concrete Application This Week
Take a moment alone before the Lord, without your phone. Choose one area where you feel you are "pretending": a sin you can't seem to let go of, a prayer you repeat without believing it, a buried wound. Say it exactly as it is: "Lord, I don't really believe that..." or "Lord, I am angry at... and I don't want to let it go." Then ask: "Give me faith. Remove whatever is blocking the water of the Holy Spirit in my heart. Let me see the cross." Do not hang up before peace comes. Then choose one concrete step of obedience for the week, even a tiny one.
"If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness" (1 John 1:9, NIV).
Verses Cited
- John 20:24-29 (NIV), Thomas and the Risen Lord
- Matthew 6:33 (NIV), Seek first the kingdom
- Mark 4:1-20 (NIV), The parable of the sower
- James 4:7 (NIV), Resist the devil and he will flee
- Isaiah 55:8-9 (NIV), My thoughts are not your thoughts
- Revelation 3:16 (NIV), The lukewarm church of Laodicea
- 1 John 1:9 (NIV), Confession and purification
FAQ
Question: Does doubting mean lacking faith?
No, not in itself. Judit reminds us that Thomas, loved by Jesus, doubted openly and was never punished. The problem is not the doubt we bring to the Lord, it's the doubt we hide while putting on a show of faith.
Question: How do I know if I have "the I-know-I-know sickness"?
A simple test: when a message is preached, do you barely connect with it, or does it truly disturb you? If you think "I already know that" before letting it challenge you, the Word only skims the surface. Come back to the text with this question: "Do I truly believe this, right now, in my own life?"
Question: What should I do when I feel like I don't have faith?
Confess it honestly, as Thomas did. "Lord, I don't have faith, give it to me." Judit insists: Jesus gives faith to those who acknowledge their inability before him. The starting point is never to manufacture belief in yourself, it's to ask with empty hands.
Sermon from Sunday, April 19, 2026, Evangelist Judit, Agape Church.
Translated from Japanese into French in a sober pastoral style.
to take notes and ask questions.