Encountering the Risen Christ #4 - Doubt
John 20:24-31
Russ Brasher & Emily DeAngelo
Part of Encountering the Risen Christ—April 19 - May 25, 2025
May 9, 2025

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Message Notes and Group Study Guide

Date: May 10-11, 2025
Speaker: Russ Brasher and Emily DeAngelo
Series: Encountering the Risen Christ
Message: #4 - Doubt

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Scripture

24 Now Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came. 25 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.”

26 A week later his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”

28 Thomas said to him, “My Lord and my God!”

29 Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”

30 Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31 But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. —John 20:24-31 (NIV)

Notes

Study Guide

Step One: Prayer and Scripture Reading

  • Ask someone in your group to pray to open your time together.
  • Ask another person to read John 20:24-31.

Step Two: Discuss

  1. What was most challenging, encouraging, confusing, or stood out most to you?

  2. Thomas initially responded with doubt to the disciple’s claim that Jesus had resurrected. How do you think the disciples responded to this? What would it look like to create a safe space for doubts to be expressed?

  3. What do we learn about how Jesus responds to doubt? In what ways is expressing doubt beneficial to us?

  4. What doubts or questions about your faith do you currently wrestle with the most?

  5. In verse 28, we see Thomas exclaim “My Lord and My God,” showing a profound transformation. For those of you who are convinced in your faith, what was the turning point? For those of you who might be questioning your faith, what do you need to see in order to be convinced?

  6. In verse 31, John says that he writes his gospel so that we might “believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.” What does it look like to believe in Jesus? What does it look like to “have life in his name?”

Step Three: Close in Prayer
Ask someone in your group to close in prayer, focusing on specific requests for people to find and follow Jesus.