More Than a Touch

     Thomas Cranmer, as Archbishop of Canterbury in the 16th century, had been one to go with the flow until he was forced by the Catholic Queen Mary to watch his best friends, reformers Latimer and Ridley, burn at the stake for their Biblical faith.  Embracing the true gospel, Thomas was tortured horribly, denied it again, and ultimately—facing the stake himself—repented.   As the fire was lit, Thomas thrust his arm into the flames, saying that the hand that had signed his denials of the true faith must be the first to burn. 

     Fifteen hundred years before this, there was another Thomas who also wavered.   It was the night of the resurrection—Thomas had been there, but when Jesus came into the midst of the room, he was gone.  He had been there when the two followers of Jesus came back from Emmaus and shared the amazing testimonies of seeing the risen Lord.  He was there to hear about Jesus appearing to Simon Peter, but somewhere between verses 35 and 36 of Luke 24—Thomas vacated the premises—bugged out, as it were.  What a tragedy!  There can be no receiving of the Holy Spirit for salvation if you refuse to be there to receive Him.  You can't be filled with the power of the Holy Spirit if you won't wait for it.  Why didn't he?

     Notice the very first word of this story—"But."  Its a contrastive conjunction—"But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came."(John 20:24)  This conjunction sets up  a contrast.  You see, others were gathered, but he wasn't there.  Others were breathed on by Jesus and told to receive the Holy Spirit, but he wasn't there.  Others were born-again under the New Covenant in that moment, but he wasn't there.  Secondly, notice his name—"Didymus"—it means twain, twin, or double.  While it might refer to him having a biological twin, spiritually it speaks of double-mindedness—he loved Jesus, but not all the way.  Thomas followed Jesus, but not very closely.  He was a disciple, but not in one accord with the others.  James makes clear, "The double-minded man is unstable in all of his ways."(1:8) To say that he "bugged out" is actually a very appropriate way to refer to his departure—he was one bugged disciple.   What do I mean?  Well, the others had tried to encourage him by telling him how Jesus had appeared to them right after he left.  They had seen Him, and in the Greek, that means to look at Him with perception.  This bugged Thomas.  Many try to explain this away by claiming that he was just too grieved over the loss of Jesus to get together with the others.  But that just doesn't make sense—every indication was that Jesus was not dead and gone, but alive and right there in their midst.  The reversal of the tragedy should have canceled any grief.  The truth is, Thomas had heard all of the testimonies and how all of the others were now growing in their perception of the Lord, but he wasn't, and now he was bugged.  We can hear it in his own words: “Except I shall see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into His side, I will not believe." (John 20: 25)  If I can't have my way—something physical to hold on to—then just forget it. 

     Oh, how attitude is so very important!  We see this in the comparison of the honeybee and the poisonous hermit spider.  They both use the same nectar—one produces a sweet honey, while the other distills a deadly poison.  You see, Jesus had made clear immediately after His resurrection what attitude they were all to have.  Easter morning, when He met with Mary Magdalene, He told her not to touch Him.  The Greek word here for "touch" is "haptomai," meaning to connect, to bind, to apply oneself to—to handle an object and exert influence on it or on one's self.  His body had not yet ascended unto the Father and Mary was not to make His physical presence the focus.  For if she did, she would be molding Him into what she wanted Him to be, keeping Him like a little idol, and her trust in Him for who He really is would be destroyed.   When the ten disciples met with Him on the night of the resurrection, Jesus did tell them to handle Him.  But the word here is a different one, meaning to touch lightly in order to not mold and shape—to learn the composition.  The disciples were to touch Him and feel Him so as to find out what He was made of—not so He could be kept out there somewhere and be what they wanted, but rather, so that He could live within their hearts, and thereby, mold them.  They needed to learn His composition so they, being filled with Him through the Holy Spirit, would be composed of the same things—His righteousness, His purity, and His obedience.

     Thomas had decided to go another way—his own.  He would more than touch Him—he would thrust his hand at Jesus—"ballo," meaning to cast or throw with the idea of impulsiveness.  Oh, this is a tremendous problem in the Church today—impulsively seeking after the "physical" and calling it "Lord."  Countless millions attend dead churches once in awhile—or even week after week—and somehow think this guarantees salvation.  Some think they have it all wrapped up just by being good and decent people, and yet it is all nothing less than grabbing on to their own perceptions of Jesus and trying to exert their own influence on Him.  Some have turned the Church into little more than a social club, denying the true Cross, and putting the focus on a physical prosperity.  A.W. Tozer astutely recognized this fifty years ago and said, "Christ calls people to carry a cross; we call them to have fun in His name.  He calls them to forsake the world; we assure them that if they will just "accept" Jesus, the world is their oyster.  He calls them to holiness; we call them to cheap and tawdry happiness and scarcely anyone seems to care."   

     We see this desire to keep Him on our own level in the fast-spreading ecumenical movement, where every denomination, world religion, and even cult is given a stamp of approval.  Tolerance and unity are the buzzwords, no matter what beliefs are involved.  It has certainly been a handy-dandy way to get rid of the one true God and set up an idol.  We see it in the so-called revivals in Toronto, Brownsville, and other places where many  "bind" themselves to Jesus, but, by applying their own thinking and seeking after physical signs and manifestations, such as laughing, barking, jerking uncontrollably, and driving like a drunkard after the services, they actually set up their own idols.  The signs become God.  Are these really signs of Jesus and His holiness, or a reshaping of Him so He fits some carnal charismatic desires?  Jesus said, "A wicked and adulterous generation seeketh after a sign; and there shall no sign be given to it, but the sign of the prophet Jonah."(Matt. 16:4)  What more would you need than the resurrected life of Jesus, which is depicted in the story of Jonah, living within you by the power of the Holy Spirit?  Wallets get fatter through the marketing and advertising of these "revivals," while the late Leonard Ravenhill, one of the great revivalists, always said that a fire never needs to be advertised—you know where it is.   The evangelist in Brownsville, Steven Hill, even admitted that they use words like "repentance" and "sin," for without them, the manifestations would not "fly" in the Bible Belt.  He even said, "We model a lot of what is going on here from them (Toronto)."   What happened to God—the one true God?  You don't need to run around, grabbing at these physical representations—feelings, blessings, touches from God.  In fact, most of this clamoring for "touches from God" is only an excuse to exert your influence on Him, which is really just idolatry. 

     Throw down your idols—you can learn of His composition as you meet Him face to face in your times of prayer and worship.  Praise God—Thomas saw Him face to face—the real Jesus—and declared Him to be, "My Lord and my God." (vs.28) No laughing, no jerking—just the powerful revelation that there is a touch that is more than thrusting your hand to shape Him into what you want Him to be—it is trusting Him to be all He says He is in His Word and never going beyond that Word.  John Owen, the old Puritan, assessed many in his day: "You have an imaginary Christ, and if you are satisfied with an imaginary Christ, you must be satisfied with an imaginary salvation."  These words still ring true today.   Handle Him His way.  Get beyond thrusting; go all the way to trusting.  Thrust the hand of self-will into the fire of His purity and die trusting in Him.  Don't get bugged—touch Him rightly and let Him change you, instead of the other way around.

 

 

 

 

 

June 1              Proverbs 21-24                       16                    Isaiah 29-32

2                      Proverbs 25-28                       17                    Isaiah 33-36

3                      Proverbs 29-31                       18                    Isaiah 37-40

4                      Ecclesiastes 1-4                      19                    Isaiah 41-44

5                      Ecclesiastes 5-8                      20                    Isaiah 45-48

6                      Ecclesiastes 9-12                    21                    Isaiah 49-52

7                      Song of Solomon 1-4              22                    Isaiah 53-56

8                      Song of Solomon 5-8              23                    Isaiah 57-60

9                      Isaiah 1-4                                24                    Isaiah 61-64

10                    Isaiah 5-8                                25                    Isaiah 65-66

11                    Isaiah 9-12                              26                    Jeremiah 1-4

12                    Isaiah 13-16                            27                    Jeremiah 5-8

13                    Isaiah 17-20                            28                    Jeremiah 9-12

14                    Isaiah 21-24                            29                    Jeremiah 13-16

15                    Isaiah 25-28                            30                    Jeremiah 17-20

 

July 1              Jeremiah 21-24                       3                      Jeremiah 29-32

2                      Jeremiah 25-28                       4                      Jeremiah 33-36