The Path to Knowing

The Path to Knowing

As Seen in the Life if Thomas

Introduction:

Just because I believe something does not make it true even if I can justify it. Think about a time when you really believed something to be true. You had reasons why you believed it, but it turned out to the false all along. The disciple named Thomas was a very courageous man who believed that Jesus was dead and had justified reasons for believing so, but he turned out to be wrong. For a period of eight days Thomas believed that Jesus was dead, when in fact Jesus had risen from the dead. For eight days Jesus had been raised from the dead and Thomas did not know it. When Thomas came to know that Jesus had in fact raised from the dead, it changed His entire life. We have a natural need for knowledge. We were created to know and be known by God. Many believe that we can’t really know anything but must live based upon our own opinions. This belief leads to a society of chaos and regret.

What does it mean to know something? Knowledge is a justified true belief.  The difference between knowledge and opinion is justification. However, our justification must be based upon actual truth or we really don’t have knowledge. With this in mind, we should consider two types of reasoning that form the majority of what we believe. Inductive reasoning is belief based upon observation. In other words, we form our beliefs based upon what we see in the world. Deductive reasoning starts with a belief and through that belief we interpret what we see in the world.

So how are you forming your conclusions about the truth claims of Christianity? I would thank that we use both types of reason being discussed here. This message looks into how the Apostle Thomas came to believe that Jesus was in fact resurrected from the dead. By looking at this account we come to see how the path to knowing is one that requires courage and commitments.

Main Point: The path to knowledge is one of courage and commitment.

1.     Why I would rather travel a path than a road.

a.     A path is followed very slowly, while a road can be driven down at a high rate of speed.

b.     A path is contemplative while a road can simple be passed along.

c.     I can stop on a path without fear of being run over.

2.     Courage and commitment to go were the truth leads. John 11:1-17

3.     Courage and commitment to ask the difficult questions. John 14:1-6

4.     Courage and commitment to trust the evidence. John 20:24-29

Personal Challenge: Seek the comfort of truth rather that the delusion of you own opinion.