So please turn with me in your Bibles to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. John 20, we'll begin reading in verse 1. Now the first day of the week Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

Then she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved and said to them, they have taken away the Lord out of the tomb and we do not know where they have laid him. Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb first. And he, stooping down and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself. Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first went in also, and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scriptures, that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own homes.

But Mary stood outside by the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white sitting, one at the head and the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid Him.

Now when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.

Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabboni, which is to say, Teacher. Jesus said to her, do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my Father. But go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and to your Father and to my God and your God.

Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and that He had spoken these things to her. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, Peace be with you. When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.

So Jesus said to them again, Peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, We have seen the Lord. So he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

And after eight days his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, Reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. And truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. Amen. Well, let us pray. Blessed Father and Holy God, we gather in the presence of the Father, Son, and Spirit today, and we praise and worship and glorify you.

We thank you for the written word. We acknowledge its profitability to us in all manner of life, in all areas of life. We pray this word would thoroughly furnish us unto every good work. And certainly the worship of God is a good work.

And as we see Christ as He is displayed so clearly in this passage as the one that is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000, may our hearts be drawn out in worship and in praise and in adoration to our great King, to our Savior who laid His life down for us and who rose again on the third day. As well, our Father, for those who are outside of Christ, those who are dead in their trespasses and sins, we pray that John's purpose would be realized, that sinners would believe that Jesus is the Son of God, and that believing they might have life in his name. Do that which is impossible with us, Lord God. Do that which is impossible with man.

God, save sinners by your grace and for your glory. Send forth the Holy Spirit to work in our hearts, to bless, to encourage, and to apply the word. We ask now that you would forgive us and cleanse us from all unrighteousness, that you would guide us as we study scripture, and we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord. Amen.

Introduction

Well, John the Apostle, in this gospel according to John, certainly has a specific purpose, and that purpose is to set forth Christ as the divine Savior and to call sinners to faith. In fact, John begins his gospel presentation with an assertion of the deity or the divinity of our Lord Jesus. In John chapter 1, in what's called the prologue to John's gospel, we read, in the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. That Word is identified in verse 14 as the Word who became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.

The Word, of course, is the second person of the Trinity, the Lord Jesus Christ. And so John starts his gospel presentation with a declaration concerning the divinity of Christ, and John ends his gospel presentation on that selfsame high note, that confession of Thomas, my Lord and my God. Chapter 20 is the end of the gospel. Chapter 21 is a bit of an epilogue, tells us some additional material to be sure, and it's absolutely crucial that we understand it.

But properly, I think that John 1, 1, and John 20, 28, and John 20, 30, and 31 certainly are the emphasis, or the declaration, or the main thrust that the apostle wants us to appreciate. Well, in this particular passage we see, of course, the resurrection. Peter and John at the empty tomb in verses 1 to 9. We see Jesus appear to Mary Magdalene in verses 10 to 18.

And then in verses 19 to 23, Jesus appears to His disciples And then in verses 24 to 29, Jesus appears again to the disciples, this time with Thomas. And that's our focus this morning, verses 24 to 31, the post-resurrection appearance to the disciples, including Thomas, and then the purpose of the fourth gospel as a whole. Now, Thomas is an interesting fellow. If I were to suggest or say, rather, what do you know about Thomas, you would probably or most likely say he was a doubter.

We refer to Thomas as Doubting Thomas, and that's not without warrant, but I'll submit later that it's a whole lot worse than just a simple doubt. But he was one of the twelve, but obviously, it seems to be, rather, he was given to a more melancholy spirit. He seems to be a sort of a The cup is half empty sort of a guy. In chapter 11 at verse 16, he expresses his willingness to die with Jesus.

Now that's certainly a good thing, but when we get to the passion narratives, it is conspicuous that he doesn't. die with Jesus. In John 14, he is perplexed about the way that Jesus is speaking concerning, and it's on the heels of that that Jesus makes that glorious declaration in John 14 6, I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. So his perplexity about the way gave room for Christ to make that excellent declaration concerning the way.

And I would suggest that here in verses 24 to 29, the same sort of thing is seen. His unbelief or his skepticism, or rather his refusal to believe in the resurrection, paves the way for this glorious declaration concerning who our Lord Jesus Christ is. So as I said, I want to take up 24 to 31 under the two main concerns, the post-resurrection appearance to the disciples with Thomas and then John's purpose for the fourth gospel in verses 30 to 31.

Thomas Absent and Obstinate

But note in the first place, with reference to Thomas. verses 24 and 25. Now Thomas called the twin. One of the twelve was not with them when Jesus came. Now we don't know why that was, and it is intriguing because Jesus keeps appearing to these men on the first day of the week.

Jesus continues to emphasize this redemptive transition or shift. The moral principle of the fourth commandment is always abiding. There ought to be one day out of seven that men cease from their labors and enter into the worship of our triune God. Now, in the old covenant, there was a positive commandment with reference to Saturday observance.

In the new covenant, that positive commandment is seen in Sunday observance, but the Sabbath is still perpetual. It's never been done away with. It has never been suspended. It has never been cast away by our Lord Jesus.

We see Christ uphold it. We see Christ assert His Lordship over it. And in this particular case, we see His appearance to the disciples on the first day of the week. He dignifies it.

He reveres it. He demonstrates by His example that His church ought to follow His footsteps. And that's precisely what we see in the book of Acts. In Acts 20, verse 7, they gather together on the first day of the week to break bread with one another, and Paul preaches the Word of God. 1 Corinthians 16, collections are laid aside for the first day of the week.

John in that glorious statement, Revelation 1.10 says he was in the spirit on the Lord's day, that day particularly belonging to the Lord, the Christian Sabbath, Sunday. And so Christ dignifies it. Christ shows his approbation of it. And by way of example, we are to follow these disciples and follow the early church in this first day observance.

But notice when these disciples gathered together, Thomas wasn't with them. Now we don't know why Thomas wasn't with them. We do understand that they were fearful of the Jews. Perhaps Thomas was a little bit more fearful and didn't even want to assemble with the disciples at that particular time.

Perhaps he was just grieved and depressed and down and discouraged. I mean, he had spent all this time with Jesus and now Jesus had been taken away. Maybe he's just, you know, blown away by this. I don't know.

Maybe he had some other business that demanded his attention. But the reality is he wasn't present with those believers on that first, first day of the week when they gathered together and Jesus came and appeared to them. And I think we learn something by that. There is blessing assembling with the people of God, right?

In other words, when the disciples gather together, there is a blessing attached to that. We know from the New Testament that God dwells in the midst of his people, in this new covenant era, in the church. We go to the book of Revelation in chapter one, and where do we find Jesus? That one who is ruler over the kings of the earth, that one is in the midst of the lampstands.

That means he walks among his churches. There is a special privilege and blessing that we have in the New Covenant in terms of our saving religion, which calls us out of the world, into the house of God, this one day out of the seven, to be with the people of God and to engage in that holy, blessed privilege of worship. So Thomas was absent, now he is present.

Thomas's Emphatic Denial

Notice that Thomas was obstinate. Look at what the disciples say in verse 25. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it? When we have seen the Lord, we typically want to tell people, don't we?

I mean, that's how it goes, right? If we're gripped under a particular worship service or we've been reading our Bibles and the Lord God in His kindness has shown us something out of Scripture, we might trot over to our wife or to our husband or to our children. We say something equivalent. We say, we have seen the Lord.

Not physically, it's not like He put in an appearance, but through His Word and by the power of His Holy Spirit. We have seen Him. He has manifested Himself to us by His written record, and we have seen and profited by that. Well, that's what they do, only He did physically appear to them.

He say, say to them, we have seen the Lord. Now, notice what Thomas' response to this is. Verse 25, he says, to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. We need to appreciate that the disciple here is dictating the terms by which he will believe.

We're not supposed to do that. If you were here this morning and you're not a believer in Jesus Christ, and you have something of Thomas' disposition, unless the Lord does such and such, I will not believe. You need to repent. You need to forsake that sin, and instead of putting God on trial and making Him perform, we need to bow to His authority, believe the word as it's written, and submit to the lordship of Jesus Christ.

Thomas is dictating the terms upon which he will believe. Unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side. For Thomas, faith wasn't enough. He had to feel, he had to touch, he had to see.

He had to be an empiricist and go about this handling of the material or the data. in order to give his approval to it. The second thing we ought to observe about Thomas here is that he makes an emphatic denial of the resurrection. He doesn't doubt. Again, we call him Doubting Thomas, but he says, essentially, at the end of verse 25, I will certainly not believe.

You know, if you use a double negative in English, you turn a statement into a positive. just to make sure everybody's awake, because everybody just went, what? You understand how that goes. You use two negative terms in a declaration or a statement in English, and you turn it into a positive. Well, in Greek, if you use two negative terms in a statement, it's really negative.

It's not a positive. It's really negative. And that is what Thomas does. I will not not believe.

The translation, I will not believe, is pretty strong as it stands, but probably something like, I will certainly not believe. Listen to Calvin on Thomas in this instance. Calvin says the stupidity of Thomas was astonishing and monstrous. For he was not satisfied with merely beholding Christ, but wished to have his hands also as witnesses of Christ's resurrection.

Thus he was not only obstinate, but also proud and contemptuous in his treatment of Christ. You see, I'll go one step further with reference to Thomas in this particular instance. His statement here evidences that he doesn't believe the testimony of the Old Testament. What passage did Pastor Porter read at the outset of worship?

Psalm 16. What passage is cited by the Apostle Peter on the Day of Pentecost to highlight and confirm that the Scriptures foretold the resurrection of our Lord Jesus? Thomas had Psalm 16. Thomas had Psalm 22.

Psalm 22 is a psalm of the cross, to be sure, but it transitions into a psalm of exaltation. That exaltation is associated with the resurrection. Thomas had Old Testament scripture. Thomas had the testimony of the written word.

And yet Thomas says, I will not believe. You see, I think at times this is where unbelievers find themselves. God has spoken. God has revealed himself.

God has given the word. And then they say foolish things like, well, unless you do thus and thus as well. Well, who do you think you are to demand extra from the living and the true God? Instead of appreciating the fact that the heavens declare the glory of God and the fact that He has written us a blessed word from Genesis to Revelation, He has given us all things to feed faith.

He has given us all things to believe. You get this idea at times that Christianity is devoid of evidence and it just takes this leap in faith. That's not what's going on here. There is objective data.

The historicity of the resurrection is there. We believe truth. We believe revealed facts. We believe the data.

And in this instance, Thomas says, I will not believe the Old Testament testimony. Do you know what else he doesn't believe? The testimony of Jesus. Because how many times did Jesus say he must go to Jerusalem?

He must be crucified. He must be raised the third day. We have seen it in our studies in Matthew. He does this in Matthew 16.

He does it in Matthew 17. He does it in Matthew 20. And so what Thomas is saying, I will not believe, based on Old Testament testimony, based on the word of the Lord Jesus Christ, and even the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, What happens in John 11? John 11, Jesus goes to the grave of Lazarus, and he says to that dead man, dead man, come forth.

They saw this. They saw his power. They witnessed his ability. And yet Thomas says, I will not believe.

So he rejects the testimony of the Old Testament. He rejects the testimony of the living Lord Jesus. And he rejects apostolic testimony because they just said, we have seen the Lord. If I said to you, I just saw the place that had the best pizza in the world, you might say, well, I won't affirm that until I've tasted it.

That's fine. It's a whole different claim altogether. But if a disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ, consistent with Old Testament testimony, consistent with the work and the word of the Lord Jesus, comes to you and says, we have seen the Lord, then you continue to demand, you continue to ask, you continue to insist that this Lord Jesus present you evidence, or you will certainly not believe. It's high treason.

So it's not a case of simple doubting. Simple doubting, again, maybe goes back to the idea, is that better pizza than that? Well, I'm not sure. Thomas is resisting, Thomas is rejecting, and

The Grace of Christ to Thomas

I think that underscores in the second place the grace of Jesus Christ all the more. How would you have dealt with Thomas? If I would have been the Lord, I might have said something like, Thomas, you're seeking an evidential approach to things. You ought to embrace the presuppositionalism of the best of the Reformed theologians.

I might have done that. Might have handed him a Van Till or a Gordon Clark book and said, you need to learn something about evidences and proofs and presuppositions and assumptions and that sort of thing. That might have been my tact, or I might have just said, well, forget it then. You reject apostolic testimony, you reject my word and work, and you reject the Old Testament.

I'll have nothing to do with you. But note how gracious Christ is in verses 26 and 27. After eight days, again, by Jewish reckoning, this would have been the first day of the week again. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside, Thomas with them.

Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst and said, peace to you." Now that's a gracious statement by our Lord. He doesn't say, I know there's dissension in the ranks. I know there's one in here that's unbelieving. I know there's here one that says he will certainly...

No, he conveys this pronouncement of peace. I think at times we take Jesus' pronouncement of peace the way the hippies sort of gave it in the 60s. You know, peace, man. It didn't mean anything.

The guy that you meet and he's got long hair and he hasn't showered for three weeks and he's got no job and no car and no nothing and he says peace, man. I mean, I guess there might be something objective in there that we can hold on to, but that's not the way this peace wish was. Jesus says in John 14, 27, In other words, what the world offers by way of peace is fading. It's fleeting.

It is like the wind. It's here for a moment and then it's gone. But the peace of Jesus Christ abides. The peace of Jesus Christ sustains.

The peace of Jesus Christ moves you through this lower world with the proper attitude and disposition. That's a beautiful thing that we oftentimes neglect with reference to our stake in Christ's gospel. How many times do New Testament epistles begin with this pronouncement, grace and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ? You know what follows Paul's great declaration concerning justification by faith in chapters three and four of Romans?

It's chapter five, verse one. Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what? We have peace with God. Do you know what brings peace here this morning?

It's not a good bank account. It's not a good job. It's not, you know, well-adjusted children. Not to say all those things are terrible and go get rid of them, but peace comes through the knowledge of God through Christ our Lord.

Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what? We have peace. We have peace with God. It's a beautiful thing, isn't it?

And Christ pronounces that here to his disciples. And then notice, very specifically, his grace expressed to Thomas. He says in verse 27, to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands, and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.

The Lord knew what was happening when he was not physically present with the disciples. The Lord knew what Thomas had objected to when he was not physically present with them. And the Lord answers very specifically to Thomas' request. The language matches precisely what Thomas utters to the disciples.

Christ comes now and says, do this. It's an amazing thing, isn't it? I wonder at that particular time what's happening among the disciples. How did he know?

Did somebody call him? Did somebody tell him? In essence, the Lord Christ removes all grounds of unbelief. Again, Calvin refers to him as stupid and monstrous and contemptuous of the living Christ.

I have suggested that the moniker doubting doesn't even begin to touch the surface of what Thomas' problems are. He says, I will certainly not believe, and here Christ says, Touch, handle, feed your faith. It's a beautiful revelation of who our beloved Savior is.

Thomas's Confession: My Lord and My God

Now, that brings us thirdly to consider this confession of faith in verse 28. Notice, verse 28, Thomas answered and said to him, that's very important, the to him. I said, why is that important? Because it wasn't blasphemy.

Some suggest that what Thomas is doing here is something like, you know, pagans or worldlings, or unfortunately at times those who profess faith in Christ, if they hit their thumb with a hammer, they might say, oh God. Sort of like that is what they think that Thomas was doing. That would be blasphemous. For a Jew to use the name of God in a context that was not worship, that was not prayer, that was not theological discussion, would have been treason and blasphemous.

As well, it wasn't just an exclamation like, my word. You know, Christians at times, they hit their same thumb with the hammer, and instead of saying, my God, because they know that's frowned upon, they'll say, my word. Like some sort of an exclamation to express their surprise or their grief or their pain or their sorrow. And some suggest that's what's happening here, that he's not really directing this to Christ, that it's more just this exclamation.

That little dative, to him, is very important. He says it. to him. He says it to Christ. It's not an exclamation.

It's not some sort of a blasphemy. It is a confession of his faith specifically directed to the Lord Jesus Christ, my Lord and my God. The confession was not an acknowledgment that he was a god, some sort of little g-god, some sort of additional god in the pantheon of gods. Again, this is a monotheistic Jew.

He wouldn't see sort of the main God and these lowercase g gods. No, he's confessing Jesus the way that John presents him in John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God and the Word was God. He became flesh and he dwelt among us and we beheld his glory.

The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. Thomas acknowledges that this Christ is his Lord. In other words, he is my master. He is my commander.

He is the one that demands my allegiance, and he will have it. See, I think we need to confess this confession more often, if not in public worship or if not in prayer, in our lives. Could persons look at us and see that we serve the Master Christ? Could persons look at us and see that we serve a different master than what this world serves?

Going back to the observation earlier with reference to the first day of the week, how many professing Christians confess the perpetuity of the Sabbath? Not everybody. It's a doctrine confined to the Reformed confessions, most typically. Why is that?

If the authoritative God of heaven and earth tells you to cease and desist from your normal activities for one day out of the seven, Who are we to whine, grumble, and complain, and say, well, that's burdensome, and that's a heartache, and a hardship? Do you realize the nature of the complaint against the Sabbath commandment? We're complaining against God because He calls us to rest. That's like when you're a father or a mother, and you have kids that are five, and you tell them to go take a nap, and they complain, and they whine, and they murmur, and they grumble, and they don't want to take a nap.

And then they hit 25, or 35, and 45, and they say, why did I ever complain? I would love to have a nap, especially when they hit 55. Oh, you know, naps, they crave that, right? Do you realize the Christian complaint against Sabbatarianism is that God the Lord commands us to rest?

How terrible, how vicious, how harsh. Is he our Lord? Mark 2. Jesus is the Lord of the Sabbath.

Now this is one test case concerning our allegiance to the Lord. What about when he tells us concerning the object of worship? You shall have no other gods before me. You say, yeah, but me.

You may not voice this, you may not express this, because no one's typically that honest, but does your life indicate a division between the God of heaven and earth and your own desires, your own wants, your own needs or perceived needs? You see, there's always this rival contender to the God of heaven and earth, and it's not necessarily Moloch, it's not necessarily Asherah, it's not necessarily Mammon, it's not necessarily the sticks and stones of the heathen out there, it could be our own hearts. Vying for attention, narcissism, and self-devotion, blasphemy, Sabbath-breaking, insubordination. You young people who confess saving faith in Jesus Christ, who call Him, My Lord.

Are you wretched to your parents? Are you insubordinate to your parents? Are you the kind of kids that your parents would, you know, bash their heads up against the wall because you won't get it? Don't be that way.

If you confess my Lord and my God, you ought to be the most loyal subject. Same with the workplace. Those who confess my Lord and my God ought to be the best workers. They ought to be the most diligent servants, the most diligent employees.

Isn't this Paul's emphasis in Ephesians 6? Don't render eye service as unto men, but service as unto God. It's your profession of my Lord and my God. is to be fleshed out, murdered. Do we confess the lordship of Jesus Christ and murder people in our hearts?

You know, I suppose and I assume none of you are out there with swords or knives or guns killing people. But the prohibition goes further than that. The spirituality of God's law is everywhere maintained. You're not supposed to hate your brother in your heart with no cause.

You're not supposed to call him fool or rock up. You're not supposed to say evil things about other people. I know it's bizarre, but God the Lord says, don't do that. Adultery, are we expressing our commitment to the Lordship of Jesus Christ and harboring a porn addiction engaged in the actual act of adultery? doing those things which are forbidden in the seventh word of God, and yet at the same time, word of the law, and at the same time say, my Lord and my God, eighth commandment, are we stealing, are we thieves?

Well, I don't go to Walmart and steal things, but I'm not the best employee. You're a thief. Your employer, get it or not, believe it or not, isn't paying you to sit and chat. He's not paying you to be on Facebook.

Ninth commandment, are we clear with our words? Do we speak the truth? Jesus is my Lord, but I'm a dishonest person. Persons can't trust me for my word. and covetousness.

We confess the lordship of Jesus, but our hearts are so full of covetousness about someone else's wife, or somebody else's car, or somebody else's house, or somebody else's whatever. Brethren, if we confess with Thomas, my Lord, we are confessing something significant in terms of our relationship to this Lord. We follow him, we obey him, we do what he calls us to do. When we falter, when we stumble, when we sin, we confess it, we forsake it, and we move on in the pursuit of those things that are pleasing to him.

But Thomas' confession doesn't end with my Lord, he calls him my God.

The Deity of Christ Confessed

This is a piece of very high Christology in the early church. John Owen calls it a gracious discovery of Christ. And again, this is John 1-1, John 20-28. What do you think John wants you to get?

He wants you to get that this Jesus is the eternally begotten Son. God from God, light from light, true God from true God, begotten, not made, one in being with the substance of the Father and the Holy Spirit, who for us men and for our salvation came down from heaven. He took on our humanity so that he could indeed obey the law, so that he could die as a sacrifice and a substitute at the cross. so that he could be raised the third day and ascend back on high, leave captivity captive and give gifts to men. This one is indeed God.

But Thomas' confession doesn't stop there. He acknowledges that Christ is Lord. He acknowledges that Christ is God. But he acknowledges this not in the abstract.

Well, I happen to know, based on the information that has been presented in your earthly ministry, based on Old Testament testimony and the apostolic witness, that you are indeed God and you are indeed Lord. That's not the language of Thomas. Thomas says, my Lord and my God. Isn't that a beautiful thing?

That's what faith does. It expresses not just in truth that these things happen, but it lays hold of that truth by God's grace to be sure. It accepts, it receives, it rests upon this holy Lord Jesus Christ. It's not a confession in the abstract.

It's not a confession of particular data. It's not a confession of just simple truth, but it is an owning of that truth for oneself. It is to believe the gospel. That's what's expressed here by Thomas.

Can you, do you, this morning, say with Thomas, my Lord and my God? Or are you Thomas prior to this gracious discovery saying, unless, unless, unless, Be very careful of putting conditions upon a God who has revealed Himself in nature and who has revealed Himself in His Word. Be very careful of that argument that says, well, if He'd just grant me some evidence, well, then I would believe in Him. What more evidence do you want than to look out upon the world today?

The heavens declare the glory of God. What more evidence could you possibly demand than the written record of Genesis to Revelation that has one consistent testimony that God is in Christ reconciling the world unto himself? Don't make demands, rather confess Jesus as my Lord and my God. Young people and children, you'll never be empowered to actually subordinate yourself to your parents' authority, apart from the gospel of grace.

You'll always resist. You'll always reject, you'll always have that hardened, hardened attitude that may actually promote in you a hatred of your parents someday. And what a wicked blot on creation. Somebody that has been given a birth to by a couple of decent human beings turns against those human beings.

I really believe that is one of the primary failings in our culture, is the fifth commandment. Boy, oh boy, it's just a mess, isn't it? I mean, thankful you kids are all here. You're nice and you're happy.

You're not standing up this morning and not that you have to throw tomatoes. Jesse Van Wert thought that was a bit of an awkward thing. Who would bring a tomato to work or to church to throw at the pastor? And I said, well, in Whitfield's time when he would preach, they'd throw tomatoes at him and dead cats.

So, you know, if you're gonna throw anything, I'd prefer tomatoes than dead cats. But you're all here and that's good, but your heart's here. And there's some in this church that pray for the young people and the children on a regular basis. I know your parents pray for you probably very consistently, probably every day.

And on the outside, everything looks good. On the outside, everything looks happy. On the outside, everything looks positive and healthy. On the outside, you're here.

But on the inside, are you? Have you confessed my Lord and my God? Have you confessed who Jesus Christ is? Are you a Thomas?

Unless he satisfies this demand for such and such, I will not believe. That is a terrible course of action to pursue. You young people and children, I will call upon you, hopefully until my dying breath, to believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, to confess Christ as my Lord and my God. Do not die Christ-less.

Do not die grace-less. Do not die faith-less, because hell is eternal. Notice what goes on. Jesus receives this, doesn't he?

There's instances in scripture where persons want to give religious devotion or worship to other persons, and those persons say, don't do that. They discourage that religious worship from being given. You see it in the book of Acts in chapter 10. You see it again in chapter 14, Paul and Barnabas at Lystra.

Remember, those pagans wanted to bow down before Paul and Barnabas, and they wanted to offer up sacrifices. What do Paul and Barnabas do? They don't say, yeah, just bring those sacrifices over here. Just bow down.

They don't do that. They say, get up. We're men of like passions with you. What's the implication?

The God whom we serve is not a God of like passions. He is not creature. He is creator. Bow to Him.

Worship Him. Sacrifice to Him. And of course you see it in the book of Revelation when John tries to worship the angel. What does the angel do?

He deflects it. He defers. He doesn't say, do that. But here Christ accepts this confession of His Lordship and His deity.

What does that mean? It means Christ is Lord and God. He accepts it from the mouth of this disciple, and

The Last Beatitude

that brings us finally to consider, with reference to this section, the Lord's last beatitude in verse 29. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Notice, he doesn't say, you crossed a point, you're no longer possible, you have believed. Again, Jesus deals graciously, doesn't he?

Very kindly. I'd probably be upset if I said that was the best pizza in the world, and you'd say, I will certainly not believe it unless I taste it. Well, why not? I said it.

It was me, and I know pizza. We can be very petty, can't we? Our Lord is not petty. Our Lord is Lord and God, and our Lord pronounces upon Him this statement, "'Because you have seen Me, you have believed.' But then the beatitude follows, "'Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" That refers to everybody after the apostolic church, everybody who would indeed hear the gospel and believe it. not demand evidence, not demand signs, not demand performances, not demand some more sort of impressive feats by the triune God.

No, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. For those struggling with what it is to believe, Jesus says, you're blessed. You're blessed if you believe these truths, the truths concerning His Lordship and His Godhead. This is a blessed thing.

This is a glorious thing. He's not putting Thomas' faith in a lower category. The apostles certainly did operate on what they saw, but it was as well faith. They believe what Scripture says concerning Christ and what Christ demonstrated.

The Lord speaks here concerning man's response to the preaching of the gospel when he would be no longer physically present on earth. Calvin says, here Christ commends faith on this ground, that it acquiesces in the bare word and does not depend on carnal views or human reason. The bare word, you hear the gospel and you believe. You hear the gospel and you believe.

You don't hear the gospel and demand more. You don't hear the gospel and demand this, and demand that, or he's gotta satisfy this, and if he'd just get my sick mother out of the home, then I would come to Jesus. When did we ever, as creatures, think we could be in the bartering trade with the God of heaven and earth? When did we ever think it was okay and legit to put conditions on God?

Lord, if you deliver me from this potential drowning incident, then I'll go to church. Now, maybe you don't do that and praise God that you don't, but there's a lot of people out there that sound like mercenaries. They'll try God if he performs. You'll hear him say, well, I tried prayer and it didn't work.

Never conceiving of the thought that sometimes no is an answer. Could you imagine if you were bound by your children to always answer yes? Daddy, can I have 50 cents? Yes.

Can I have $50? Yes. Can I have $5,000? Yes.

We put those demands on God, don't we? We don't like no answers. Why? If I tell my kid no on 50 cents, he hopefully ought to knuckle under, grin and bear it, and go live with no 50 cents.

But if we don't get what we want from God, I tried prayer and it just didn't work. Since when is it working in terms of your perception, the condition upon which prayers are to be offered? Now, there's church cultures and preachers that sort of cater to this mindset. Try prayer because it works.

Try prayer because God always gives good gifts to his children. He also gives cancer to his children. He also sometimes takes his children's children away. We've become Job's wife, haven't we?

Curse God and die. We've forgotten about Job's beautiful confession, naked I came into this world and naked I shall return. The Lord gave, the Lord took away, blessed be the name of the Lord. We need more Job-like faith and less Job's wife-like faith, less faith like hers.

When did we assume as the creature that it was okay to enter into trade agreements with God? Unless, unless, unless, then I won't believe. You see, Jesus says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. There's that passage in Luke's gospel in the thief on the cross.

Calvin calls that the greatest expression of faith in all of the Bible. Why would Calvin say that? The apostles saw Jesus do mighty things, didn't they? They saw Him heal, they saw Him raise, they saw Him feed, they saw Him do incredible things.

Face it, in terms of our carnality, wouldn't it be easier to believe on a Savior who just multiplied enough fish and enough loaves to feed a whole mass of humanity? Sure, He deserves our faith. What did the thief on the cross see? broken, bloodied, and battered. His faith looked beyond the blood, the gore, the battering that Christ had received, and he confesses, Lord, Lord, remember me.

It's an expression that there's mercy to be had in this Christ. Remember me when you come in your kingdom. That's faith, brethren. It's not being dazzled and then siding with the Savior.

If you are struggling this morning as to whether or not to come to Christ, if you're struggling this morning hearing this preaching and saying, you know, I want to have Jesus save me from my sins, but I don't know if I, you know, want all the implications associated with that. But as I've heard, it sounds good, and there is forgiveness, and there is a righteousness. There's also trial and hardship. These gospel preachers or these health-wealth gospel preachers that stand up there and say, you know, come to Jesus and life will just only ever be good.

Your wife will have big hair, you'll have big cars, you'll have big summer homes, you'll have big bank accounts. They're lying. Absolutely, positively lying. Sometimes you come to the Lord Jesus Christ and what happens?

You've got heartache, hardship, misery and pain. Not the same sort of heartache and pain and misery that you had prior to Christ, but there's trouble and trial and difficulty in this Christian life. So I'm not gonna sit up there and say, okay kids, come to Jesus and there'll be endless candy in the jar at home. Come to Jesus and all your troubles will be gone.

It's not the old World War II song, pack up your trials and your old kit bag and smile, smile, smile. Some want to handle scripture that way, they want to narcegete it that way, but that ain't reality. Jesus Christ himself said in the upper room, in this world you will have tribulation, but be of good cheer, I've overcome the world. So even in the midst of the heartache, the hardship, the trial, the sorrow, and the difficulty, we have confessed by the grace of God, my Lord and my God, and we have that peace that He pronounces to His people, even in the midst of the trials, in the midst of the sorrows, and in the midst of the hardship.

That's positive blessing. And in this, the Lord confirms how John's gospel is going to end. Notice, the last statement there in verse 29, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

The Purpose of the Fourth Gospel

Let's look finally quickly at the purpose of the fourth gospel, verses 30 and 31. And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. That could be all the signs that he ever did or the post-resurrection signs. I don't think it matters a whole lot.

John's point is Jesus is incredible. John's point is, is he did many other signs which are not written in this book. Later on, he's going to say in verse 25 of chapter 21, and there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. Do you ever just kind of in your mind's eye picture one of the apostles writing his epistles or writing his gospel narratives?

That's the last thing John writes. Not ever, but here in John's gospel. His mind and heart are full of the Savior. His mind and heart are full of the one who's altogether lovely and chief among 10,000.

There are also many other signs that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written. He's so glorious. You walk into my study, you'll see a lot of books. Now, some say that's a huge library.

It's not. I mean, it's a great library, and I praise God for the quality. I mean, just beautiful. It's wonderful.

But in terms of quantity, there's pastors, theologians who have, you know, massive libraries full of books about this book. Isn't that incredible? Yes, because our God is incredible, because His Christ is incredible, and that's what He is saying to us. I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.

And then in verse 30 of chapter 20, these are written. Verse 31, that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name. The emphasis here is on faith, that you may believe. That certainly coincides with what we just saw in this Thomas account, isn't it?

Jesus says, you have believed, Thomas, but blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. John comes down now to give us the very purpose in his writing. And what does he iterate or reiterate or what does he highlight? What does he say is essential?

These are written that you may believe. Matthew Poole defines faith this way, is properly an assent given to a proposition upon the testimony of revelation. Our confession in the chapter on saving faith says, by this saving faith. I think this is very important.

I would just like to say, if you haven't been listening up to this point, listen, because this is a question that comes up. What does it mean to believe? It really is an easy response. It means to believe.

We've made it very complicated over history and whatnot, but when we ask the question, what does it mean to believe? It doesn't mean to not believe. It means to believe what scripture says. God created the world.

I believe that. God brought the children of Israel out of Egypt in what has been historically termed the Exodus. I believe that. God planted his people, Old Covenant Israel, in the land of Canaan.

He gave them a mandate to engage in holy war, to go in and utterly dispossess the land of the Canaanites. I believe that. He told them to do that and to do it sufficiently in a manner that was consistent with his word. They didn't do it.

They left Canaanites in the land. They themselves became like Canaanites and started worshiping other deities, so God brought judgment upon them via Assyria and Babylon. I believe that. Good!

You should believe that because it's the written record of God's revelation that everyone everywhere ought to believe. And our confession says that. By this saving faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word for the authority of God Himself. It then highlights that they see the Bible as the book of books, highlights some other particulars in terms of what they see.

It says, but the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ, accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace. In other words, my Lord and my God. And that is precisely the content that John specifies in terms of his purpose. Notice in verse 31, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ. the Davidic Messiah promised in the Old Testament, the prophet and the priest and the king, that one who is indeed anointed by God for the service of his covenant to execute the demands in terms of obedience to the law, sufferings on the cross, resurrection on the third day to secure their salvation.

We need to believe in Jesus the Christ. And then he goes on, the Son of God, the Son of God. The second person in the Holy Trinity being very an eternal God, the brightness of the Father's glory of one substance and equal with Him. You see, we need to believe those things concerning Jesus.

So saving faith is an affirmation, a belief in the truth of Scripture. God did create, God did liberate, God did chasten, God did all those things in Old Covenant Israel. But as the Confession says, but saving faith or the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ. So I would suggest that all of us listen to Thomas this morning and hear that confession, because that is the confession unto eternal life.

That's what John says in verse 31. And that believing you may have life in his name. If you do not believe, you will not have life in his name. But it's that faith, it's that look, it's that look and live.

That whole idea from John 3, where God, or Jesus rather, highlights the serpent in the wilderness that was put up on that pole, or that brazen serpent on the pole, and the Israelites were told to look and to live. Jesus uses that analogously to His being lifted up. So what's the point? Look and live.

My Lord and my God, confess Jesus thus.

Application and Conclusion

Well, in conclusion, the historical reality of the resurrection, seen here by Thomas, seen here by the other disciples, is conspicuous in the New Testament. The testimony and the words of Jesus Christ. The testimony and the words of Jesus Christ. Matthew 16, 17, and 20.

I must go to Jerusalem. I must be crucified. I must be raised the third day. The fact that Jesus appears first to a woman in the New Testament records.

I will argue just with these few things concerning the historical reality of the resurrection, the gospel narratives have everything other than a group of guys collaborating together to present a story they're hoping people latch on to. I think people look at the Bible that way. I remember being in high school, I went to a papist school, I had a papist friend, and we'd have spent, you know, sleepovers, and we'd think, you know, what if the Bible was just some guys on some drug trip, and they wrote this book, and they buried it, and people found it later, and they just said, wow, this is our religion. That's not what the Bible is.

I would suggest that if guys did bury a book, they would collaborate to make sure they smoothed out any difficulties that might be there. You don't have that smoothing out in the gospel records. The Mishnah, the early part of the Talmud says that the witness or testimony of a woman was not valid. Why would the gospel writers put in the fact that Jesus appeared first to a woman?

Because they're not trying to hide anything. They're not trying to collaborate. They're not trying to satisfy some demand for evidence based on Talmudic principles. As well, consider that there was a lot of unbelief connected with the fact among the disciples.

Even in Matthew 28, some believed and some doubted. If you were one of the gospel writers and you were collaborating with other gospel writers, we'd probably say, don't put it in that people doubt it. Just like if we were writing the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, we want to hold our excellent hero David in high esteem, we'd probably excise 2 Samuel 11 and 12. We don't want to put in there that he committed murder and adultery, because that just doesn't look good for our hero.

Truth has nothing to hide. You look at the gospel narratives and you see no collaboration in terms of a bunch of guys trying to pull the wool over people's eyes. Notice as well the nature of his appearances. He appears to individuals, a pair of disciples, small groups, large assemblies, to women and to men, public and private, different times of the day, and both in Jerusalem and Galilee.

This is not a mass hallucination. This wasn't a first century situation akin to UFO sightings on the desert by Air Force bases at three in the morning. This was not some hallucination. Consider the threat both to the Roman Empire and to Judaism in terms of the claims of a risen Messiah.

They never found a body, they never produced a body, they never ever were able to refute the claim that Christ did indeed rise. They couldn't silence this morning's confession. He is risen. Indeed, he is risen.

He is not here. Try as they might, they post guards. They foresee that these men might try and steal the body to perpetuate this myth. They couldn't stop it because it was a reality.

It was a fact. He is risen. And then as well, consider the apostolic testimony and the consistent report of the church throughout the centuries concerning the resurrection. This is one of our foundational truths.

You can be wrong on a whole host of things that the Bible teaches. I'm not suggesting you be wrong on those things, but you can't deny the resurrection. You can't be wrong on the reality that He is risen. You cannot be wrong on the reality that the tomb is empty, that our Savior lives, that He's enthroned at the right hand of the majesty of God on high, and all those who by His grace confess Him, my Lord and my God, He saves to the uttermost.

He saves to the uttermost, in the language of Hebrews 7, all those who come unto God through him, for he ever lives to make intercession for them. Consider the blessed truth in our passage concerning the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. There are actually persons out there that deny that Jesus is God. How do they do that in light of a John 20-28?

How do they do that in light of the fact that Jesus approved it, Jesus received it, Jesus commended the apostle himself for that confession? Calvin says, and indeed, he who, after having received those striking proofs, which are to be found in the gospel, does not perceive Christ to be God, does not deserve to look even at the sun and the earth, for he is blind amidst the brightness of noon day. And then there are those who say, well, you know, Thomas confesses him as God in verse 28, but John says we're to believe that he is the Son of God. How can he be both God and Son of God?

The blessed doctrine of the Trinity, the glorious truth that there is one God, in essence, in substance, three persons, Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. He can be this because the Son is distinguished from the Father by the peculiar relative property of begottenness and His personal relation to the Father as Son. In other words, the idea of the only begotten Son, that language distinguishes between the Father and the Son. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God.

He's both with God and He was God. And that's what our text is ascribing to us now. He is God, and he's with God, because of the one glorious God in three blessed persons, Christ does have the whole divine essence, yet the essence is undivided. The certainty of the doctrine of the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is everywhere upheld in Scripture, and I love what Ryle says here.

And I think we need to get this because there's a lot of goings on with reference to this doctrine of the deity of Christ. There's a lot of goings on with reference to the doctrine of the Trinity. Ryle says, let us settle it firmly in our minds that the divinity of Christ is one of the grand foundation truths of Christianity, and let us be willing to go to the stake rather than let it go. Praise God, that's the kind of commitment and conviction the church had at least when Ryle wrote.

Had a recent discussion with one of the young brothers about Christology and about doctrine and the fact that so many people professing faith in Jesus Christ couldn't give a basic explanation of the doctrine of the Trinity and who Jesus is. I suggested that there's one of two reasons why. In the first place, some churches don't preach doctrine. They don't teach doctrine.

They don't teach things like the Trinity or who Jesus Christ is. They have extravaganzas. That's what really matters today. Serving the goddess Ishtar with an extravaganza instead of teaching on the doctrine of the hypostatic union.

What are we more drawn to? Eggs, baby, than doctrine. You see, here's the second problem. You do have churches that preach and teach doctrine, but sheep don't always show up.

You can't make people hear the doctrine. You can't make people hear the truth. There seems to be a lackadaisical spirit with reference to sound theology in our day. That's troublesome.

That's problematic. Let's recover something of what Ryle bids us here. Let us be willing to go to the stake rather than let it go. I'd rather die on this confession than ever relinquish the truth that Jesus is my Lord and my God.

That's the attitude that we ought to possess, the attitude that we ought to express, the attitude that we ought to have. And finally, beware of the wretched folly of placing conditions upon Christ. The folly of demanding evidence should be obvious. Unless he this, unless he that, unless I can do this, then I will certainly not believe.

As well, there's a folly of demanding temporal blessings. Till you change my circumstances, I'm not going to believe. Till you increase my bank account, I'm not going to believe. Till you give me health, I'm not going to believe.

Till you perform, I'm not going to believe. That's terrible! Come to Christ! The folly of demanding comprehensive understanding should be obvious.

It's another problem I think people have. Well, unless God can answer all these questions, I'm just not going to believe. Or you pastors, or you theologians, or you churchmen, you just can't sufficiently answer all my questions. I don't know that that's required of any of us to answer all your questions.

It's certainly wrong for the creature to assert this to the Creator and say, unless you answer all my questions, I will certainly not believe. Or there's those who engage in that universal blessing. Unless you bless all those poor tribesmen out in the deepest, darkest places in Africa, unless the whole world is ameliorated from their downtroddenness and poverty, then I will certainly not believe. If any of you are holding on to such conceptions, let them go, forsake them, relinquish them, and look and live.

Jesus Christ is Lord, Jesus Christ is God, and Jesus Christ saves to the uttermost all those who draw nigh to His Father through Him. Believe. Believe. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Well, let us pray.

Closing Prayer

Father, we thank you for your Word and we thank you for this confession in the mouth of the biggest skeptic that we've seen in Gospel records. We thank you that he went from skeptic, he went from doubter, he went from an obstinate man to confessing the Lordship and the deity of Jesus Christ. Give us grace to likewise confess such things. Give us grace, Lord God, to live in light of this confession, to be willing to go to the stake for this confession, and to seek, by your grace, to understand the truth concerning who you are, concerning the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.

Go with us now and bless this day and help us to rejoice in the fact that He is indeed risen, and that the tomb is empty, and that the right hand of God Most High knows the presence of Jesus Christ, that one alone in whom there is forgiveness, even the forgiveness of sins. We pray in His most blessed name. Amen.

Scripture References

• Psalm 16; 22
• Matthew 16:21; 17:22-23; 20:18-19; 28:17
• Mark 2:28
• Luke 23:42-43
• John 1:1; 1:14; 3:14-15; 11:16; 11:43-44; 14:1; 14:6; 14:27; 20:1-9; 20:10-18; 20:19-23; 20:24-31; 20:28; 20:29; 20:30-31; 21:25
• Acts 10:25-26; 14:13-15; 20:7
• Romans 3:1; 5:1
• 1 Corinthians 16:2
• Ephesians 6:5-8
• 2 Samuel 11:1
• Hebrews 7:25
• Revelation 1:10; 1:13; 19:10