Recently someone emailed me a list of signs with a note to enjoy.

In a New York restaurant:

In a Florida maternity ward:

In a Maine restaurant:

In a Pennsylvania cemetery:

Generally signs have a greater purpose other than to make you laugh. Usually they point the way, inform you about something, or offer a warning. In this morning’s gospel lesson from John 20, Thomas is demanding a sign. He wanted a sign that would dismiss his doubts about the resurrection of Jesus.

Have you ever wished you could have some physical evidence to prove God exists, some sign like Peter wanted, something to see, to touch, to experience with your senses?

How much easier would it be, to believe or to tell others about our Risen Lord, if right now, Jesus stood in our midst as He did in the locked room where His followers had gathered after His crucifixion?

If that were to happen, what do you think your family members who are not with you this morning would say? What would your classmates say? What would the people you work with say? What would your neighbor say?

Do you think they would believe you? Or do you think they would react as Thomas did.

It has been said that if you want signs that prove that Jesus existed read the gospels. In the four gospels you will find everything you need to know for you to believe in Jesus.

It has also been said that if you want signs that prove that God doesn’t exist read the newspaper. In the paper you will find everything you need to know that God can’t possibly exist.

If God existed, why would God allow a mother to throw her newborn baby into a garbage container? Why would God allow a missionary and her child in a plane be mistaken for drug smugglers and be shot down over South America? Why would God allow diseases like cancer, MS, and Alzheimer's? Why?

Suffering and injustice cast a dark shadow of doubt over believing that God is a loving and just God. As detrimental as life’s suffering and injustices are to belief, the greatest detriment is, all too often, the lives of confessing Christians.

What is your sign, the sign that identifies you as a Christian?

Is your “new life in Christ” evident? Do you know what the signs of new life in Christ are? The signs are the fruits of the Holy Spirit

Are these attributes obvious in your living? Do you pray daily to be filled with the fruits of the Holy Spirit?

The scripture reading from Acts this morning, told us of the disciples’ passion for sharing the message of Christ, that they were willing to break the law and go to jail, that they were willing to subject themselves to the hatred and persecution from non believers.

Let me ask you, if someone threatened to arrest you if you came to church this morning, would you have come? If being a Christian became life threatening here in America, as it is elsewhere in this world, would you be tempted to stop practicing your faith publicly professing Christ? Would you be ashamed of being a Christian?

In one of the volumes of Chicken Soup for the Soul, there was a story about a little boy who was ashamed of his mother. They boy was very upset when he learned his mother was going to the teacher parent conference. He was upset and ashamed because the one side of his mother’s face was badly scarred. The little boy figured when the other kids saw his mother they would make fun of her and more painfully him.

At the conference, it was obvious to the little boy that the other parents liked his mother. Nevertheless he kept his distance hoping the other kids in the class would not realize that the woman with the scar was his mother.

He was within earshot of the conversation his mother was having with the teacher when he heard his teacher ask his mother, “How did you get the scar on your face?

The mother replied, “When my son was a baby, he was in a room that caught fire. Everyone was too afraid to go in because the fire was out of control. I went him. As I was running toward his crib I saw a beam falling from the ceiling. I placed myself over him to shield him. I was knocked unconscious. Fortunately, a fireman came in and saved both of us. My face was burned. This scar will be permanent, but to this day I have never regretted doing what I did.”

Upon hearing his mother tell her story, the boy ran toward his mother with tears in his eyes. He hugged her and felt an over whelming sense of the sacrifice that his mother had made for him. He held her hand tightly for the rest of the day.

I ask you, “How is this any different then what Jesus did for you and me.” He too has the scars to prove his love, the nail marks in His hands and feet, the spear whole in his side, the cuts in his head from the crown of thorns. These ugly scars are the result of His effort to save you and me.

The ugly scars led Thomas to say,

They led Peter and the disciples to experience God’s presence, to be empowered, to preach with boldness.

What will they lead you to do?

Will they lead you to having the kind of passion and determination to love and serve God, to save the life of another, as the mother had for her child; as the disciples had for the Jews; as Jesus had for you and me.

I pray that you and I will be overjoyed as the disciples, and being filled with the Holy Spirit. I pray that you and I will be signs of our Risen Lord and our new life in Him to all we come in contact with.