John chapter 20. It's a blessed thing for the church to be able to confess the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ from the dead. The gospel records record several instances where a person saw Jesus after He rose from the dead. He first of all appeared to the women who had left the tomb, and then to Mary Magdalene.
He appeared to Cleopas and the unnamed disciple on the road to Emmaus. He then appeared to Peter sometime that same afternoon. He appeared to the twelve, the twelve obviously minus Judas, but as well minus Thomas on that day of resurrection in the upper room. He also invited His disciples to touch Him, and He ate broiled fish and honeycomb among them.
And then He appeared a week later again to His disciples, and this time Thomas was present. And here Jesus invites Thomas to touch his wounds, and that's the section of Scripture we're going to focus on this morning, the doubter turned confessor. In John chapter 20, I'll read verses 24 to 31. Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the 12, 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. Our Father in heaven, we thank you for the written word. We thank you for the Lord Jesus Christ and what a gracious and a glorious and a wonderful Savior He is. We know that He lived a life of perfect obedience to the Father, that He was crucified in the most shameful and horrific way, that He was buried and that on the third day He rose again.
And how we thank you that that tomb is in fact empty, that He is risen, and that He has ascended on high, and that His current session is marked by His continual intercession for the people of God. How we rejoice in these most blessed truths. And our Father, we know as well that He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead. And our heart's desire and earnest plea is that everyone here this morning would be prepared to meet Him on that day.
May we see what the Spirit has given in these Scripture verses. May we receive them by your Spirit and by power from on high. May you illumine our minds and our understanding, and may you give us grace to receive with joyful hearts the written word of the living and true God. For certainly this passage extols and magnifies the glory of Jesus Christ, and that is a most blessed place for anyone and everyone to be.
Do forgive us now for our sins and for our transgressions. Cleanse us in the blood of the Lamb, and it's in Jesus' name that we pray, amen. Well,
Introduction
in our studies in the Gospel of Matthew, I tried to encourage you to see and appreciate the two links between Matthew 1 and Matthew 28. Remember, in Matthew 1, Jesus is called Emmanuel, and that translated means God with us. And at the very end of Matthew's Gospel, Jesus promises, and lo, I will be with you always, even to the end of the age. So there's that sort of bookmark with Matthew's Gospel, that Jesus, God, is with us.
Well, John bookmarks his gospel as well. He gives us in the very first verse an ascription of the glory and the majesty of Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. And here at the end of John's gospel, chapter 21 functions as an epilogue.
So properly stated, John chapter 20 is the end of John's gospel. Not that chapter 21 is unimportant or it's uninspired. The book as a book comes to a close here in chapter 20. We have that same confession concerning the deity of our Lord.
And this time it comes from one of the chief doubters, the chief skeptic. In fact, we all know Thomas as Doubting Thomas. And yet he lays eyes on the risen Christ and he says what John says in John 1.1, my Lord and my God. You see, the New Testament authors are very filled with a specific purpose to get us to understand who Jesus Christ is.
In fact, John highlights his purpose at the end of John 20 in verses 30 and 31. So I want to look at that as well. this morning, but
Appearance to Disciples with Thomas
in the first place, let's look at the post-resurrection appearance to the disciples with Thomas. That's in verses 24 to 29, and then we'll look secondly at the purpose of the fourth gospel as a whole in verses 30 and 31. You need to appreciate at the outset, John doesn't simply want to inform you or instruct you concerning who Jesus is. John wants you to believe.
John wants you to taste and see that the Lord is good. John wants you to enter into eternal life. John wants you to know what it is to have your sins forgiven and to receive the righteousness of Jesus Christ, wherein you can stand before a thrice holy God and not only not be destroyed, but enter into eternal life. in the presence and fellowship of God Most High. John doesn't want to simply inform you, he wants you to believe.
And that's what he says specifically in his purpose statement in verses 30 and 31. So listen attentively. Listen to how Jesus deals with doubting Thomas. See and appreciate His great grace and His great mercy, and may you, with Thomas, confess that Jesus is, in fact, my Lord and my God.
Now, Thomas is an interesting character. We meet him previously in John's Gospel, and there he's not so much a skeptic, but he does seem to have a melancholic spirit. He does seem to be a more sorrowful sort of a soul. He promises to attend Jesus' crucifixion, or to attend with Jesus into Jerusalem, and die with Jesus even if necessary.
Of course, Thomas doesn't do that. In John 14, when Jesus is describing the way, Thomas asks a question specifically in verse 5, and that becomes the foil or the reason for which Jesus explains in John 14, 6, that I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. And the same way this functions, Thomas denies the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ.
His arrogance and his obstinate spirit serves as the basis upon which this confession of faith is made. So Thomas needs to be appreciated, not only because he was an apostle, but because of a couple of things that he said in the gospel records, it has given us glorious truth concerning our Lord Jesus. So the character of Thomas in verses 24 and 25,
Thomas's Absence and Character
notice that he was absent when the disciples met the previous week. Notice in verse 24, now Thomas called the twin, one of the twelve was not with them when Jesus came. Now the text doesn't specify Why? Perhaps he was sad that Jesus was now gone from them, perhaps he had some business to attend to, or perhaps he was fearful of the Jews and so he didn't want to be seen with these other disciples.
But the fact is he was not present with the disciples when Jesus manifest himself to them. Now again, I don't want to moralize here, and I don't want to hyper-spiritualize or allegorize, but it's most important that the disciples are with one another in the worship of the living and true God. In other words, Thomas absented himself from a time when Christ manifests himself to the point where such disciples said, Thomas, we have seen the Lord. Brethren, you don't want to miss out on things like that.
You don't want to miss out on the manifestation of Christ in the public worship of God. John Gill says, as it is of good consequence to attend the assemblies of Christ's disciples and followers, so it is of bad consequence to neglect or forsake them. In other words, be where the people of God are when they are worshiping the God who has saved them, the God who has delivered them, the God who has granted them grace and life. Now
Thomas's Obstinate Denial
notice that Thomas was an obstinate fellow. This is what we find here in verse 25. 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.
He dictates the terms by which he will believe. You need to understand that's wrong. You can't do that. If that's what you're doing today, you've got to stop.
You're not God. God doesn't have to jump through your hoops. God is the creator of the cosmos. God is the creator of you.
God sustains you. You have breath in your lungs because of God. You simply have no right as a creature, and a desperately sinful creature at that, to demand that God perform before you'll believe. And this is what Thomas does.
Unless I see, unless I touch, unless I behold, I will not believe. Now brethren, the way that Thomas denies this, or the way that Thomas says this, is as adamant as could be. He says, I will certainly not believe. There is no way I will believe unless these preconditions are met.
This is the wrong place to be. Thomas should submit not only to the Lord, the apostles, to the testimony of the Old Testament, everything. The disciple Thomas makes an emphatic denial of the resurrection. That's what he's doing here.
I will not believe. No way. I could tell you on the way to church this morning, I saw a unicorn running in my neighbor's front yard. You'd probably say, there's no way.
There's absolutely positively no way I would believe that. Why? Because I've never seen a unicorn running in my neighbor's yard. Unless you could pony up the proof, no pun intended, I will not believe.
You see, that's what Thomas is doing. It's a double negative, which in English produces a positive, but in Greek makes it doubly negative. It's an emphatic denial. In many respects, it's a gift to call him Doubting Thomas.
He's far more than a doubter at this particular instance. In fact, John 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, brethren, what Thomas does here is deny a threefold witness concerning the very resurrection of Jesus himself.
A Threefold Witness Rejected
He denies Psalm 16. Pastor Porter chose a proper psalm to read at the outset of today's worship. Psalm 16 is a psalm of the resurrection of our Lord Jesus. When Peter is preaching on the day of Pentecost in order to prove or affirm or corroborate the resurrection of Jesus, guess where he goes?
He goes to Psalm 16. You see, Thomas knew Psalm 16. Thomas knew that there was a resurrection from the dead, and it's not just Psalm 16. I would argue that Isaiah 53, Daniel 9, other prophetic testimonies concerning the mission of Messiah indicate resurrection, indicate triumph.
And Thomas, understanding that, nevertheless says, I will not believe. He also dismisses the testimony of Jesus. What did Jesus say on several occasions to his disciples when he was amongst them? I must go to Jerusalem, I must be tried by wicked man, I must be crucified, and I must be raised the third day.
Jesus had testified in their hearing repetitively that he would be raised from the dead. And Thomas, nevertheless, says, I will not believe. I will certainly not believe. There is no way I'm gonna believe.
Well, he rejects the Apostolic Testimony. I mean, these are the disciples of the Lord, the closest ones to Jesus. These are the apostles that Christ had picked to go out and preach the Word. And they tell Thomas, we have seen the Lord.
And he says, well, unless I see, unless I touch, unless I do, unless my preconditions are satisfied, then I will certainly not believe. You see, it's a gift to call Thomas doubting. He's far more than doubting at this particular time. He is obstinate.
He is stubborn. He's hard-necked. He's hard-hearted. He is resisting the various testimonies concerning the resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ.
Eyewitness testimony in the person of the disciples. Scripture testimony in the Old Testament. The rejection of the witness testimony of the Lord Jesus, who had said on several occasions that he would be raised from the dead. Thomas rejects, Thomas resists, Thomas is obstinate.
As Calvin says, this was astonishing and monstrous. Now,
The Grace of Christ Toward Thomas
notice the grace of Jesus Christ. in verses 26 and 27. Brethren, this is such a beautiful passage. If you're taking notes, I preached this last year. You could say, oh, he's preaching the same sermon again.
No, it's the same text. I think the sermon will be a little bit differently, a little bit different, but I think that we could stand to hear this on a lot more of a regular basis. How would you respond to Thomas if you knew what he had been saying? What do you mean you dismiss my word?
What do you mean you dismiss the testimony of the apostles? What do you mean you don't give heed to the Old Testament witness and testimony? What's the matter with you, Thomas? I mean, brethren, think about it for just a moment.
If you were in this particular situation, how would you deal with obstinate Thomas? Would you be gracious and merciful and kind to him? Maybe, but probably not. Notice how Jesus deals.
His pronouncement of peace in verse 26. Again, he's not just appearing to Thomas. So verse 26 says, 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.
Now, there are times when people say, peace to you. Think of the 60s in the United States of America. Everybody said, peace to you, peace, man, that sort of thing. But very often, it takes on the characteristic of a cheap wish.
It really doesn't mean anything. It really isn't valid. We really don't mean peace upon that person that we're wishing peace. It's kind of like when you say to somebody, how are you doing?
And you really don't care how they're doing. And if they started to tell you, you'd look at your watch and say, well, I didn't really want that kind of an answer. Not that I ever do that, but that's what people do. Or we say, fine, when life is miserable.
We just don't always mean what we say. And I think at times we're tempted to take Jesus in that same way and say, well, you know, this is just a typical greeting. This is just the way that things were done. This was just common courtesy.
No, when Jesus says, peace to you, Jesus means it. And the peace in view is the same sort of peace that he commends to them in the gospel at John 14. My peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give. In other words, not the kind that comes out of a bottle, not the kind that comes out of a syringe, not the kind that comes out of a sexual encounter, not that kind of fleeting peace, but what Christ gives is peace as a result of the cross.
Isn't this Paul's point in Romans chapter 5? Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have what with God? We have peace with God. Say what you want about Christian people, but this much is true, they have peace with God.
For those of you who are not Christian people, those of you who perhaps are still unbelievers, those of you who have not come to Jesus Christ, you are missing peace with God. Is there anything better? We're gonna look at Romans chapter eight tonight and the believer's security as a result of God's liberality. And what does Paul say in Romans 8, 31?
If God is for us, who can be against us? Isn't that beautiful? You got God, you got everything. You don't have God, you got nothing.
You see, brethren, Jesus wishes peace upon his disciples that is a peace that is blood bought.
Christ Answers Thomas's Demand
Now note his grace expressed to Thomas specifically. Verse 27, then he said to Thomas, just think for a moment. We hadn't been present when Thomas said this to the disciples. I can't imagine Jesus was within earshot when Thomas was denying that he had risen from the dead.
So Jesus was not present when Thomas made this demand, and yet Jesus answers this demand specifically. So that when we see predicated of Jesus that He is God, that He is the Son of God, we ought not to say, I wonder what that means? It means that He knows what men are saying, even when He's not present with that. He answers Thomas' statement very specifically, very particularly, and it answers to the demand made by Thomas.
Notice as well that he removes all grounds of unbelief. See, that's grace, isn't it? That's mercy. Calvin calls him, you know, monstrous, and it's astonishing.
I've said that calling Thomas a doubter is quite, you know, letting him off easy. He was an obstinate man. But what does Christ do? Christ answers the specific demand.
Now, that's not validating, go ahead and make demands. It's not confirming or affirming that it's okay for you to make conditions upon which God has to perform, but it is showing rather how gracious and how merciful and how kind our God really is. It's like that scene in 1 Kings, when Ahab steals Naboth's vineyard. It's a terrible situation, isn't it?
At the very end of the chapter, though, there is this appearance of repentance on the part of Ahab. I say appearance because it's difficult to believe that it was legit and that Ahab's going to sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of God. But even at that humbling of himself, God says to Elijah, did you see that? He humbled himself before me.
You see, God is gracious and God is merciful. I don't know all of your backgrounds, I don't know from whence you've come, but very often in churches we don't get this view of God as he is the father of the prodigal. The father of the prodigal, when the son was a long way off, ran to meet the prodigal. Not to throw rocks at him and not to kick him and not to discipline him, but to fall on him and to kiss him and to order the slaying of the fatted calf and the placement of a ring on his finger.
That's the God of Scripture. That's the God of this passage. He accommodates Himself. He submits, or rather, condescends Himself, even to a doubter like Thomas.
Reach your finger here, and look at my hands, and reach your hand here, and put it into my side, and here it is, do not be unbelieving, but believing. Jesus is merciful, Jesus is gracious. Again, I do not tell you to go out and test God, I do not tell you to make demands of God, but I do show you that Christ, even when a man does that, is gracious and merciful. See, that's the take-home message.
Don't say, okay, now I'm loaded for bear, I'm gonna go and I'm gonna make these demands of God, he's gotta jump through my hoops, and when he does that, then I'll believe. No, no, no, don't do that. but do see here the grace and the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ. And may I just say as well, all of the books of Kings and all of the books of 1 and 2 Samuel, so full of grace, so full of kindness, so full of God's mercy. Those persons who say the Old Testament is just filled with wrath and barbarity and bloodshed are persons who evidence the fact that they've never read the Old Testament.
The longsuffering of God, the kindness of God, the mercy of God, the goodness of God, the grace of God comes through page after page after page in the way that God deals with His people. The fact that there was a prophetic ministry is an act of God's grace. Men in Israel at that time, men in Judah at that time, were rejecting God, they were rebellious against God, and yet God nevertheless dispatches prophets to call them to repentance and faith. That's grace, that's kindness, that's mercy, and that's the God that we serve.
And he's revealed himself in this particular passage by chiding Thomas, but as well, answering to Thomas in a way that is most wonderful. Now note,
Thomas's Confession and Its Meaning
Now, if any of you are familiar with Jehovah's Witnesses, they have a little book on how to answer people that object to them. So if you get a hold of that book, it's like having the opposite team's playbook. It really is, and I think they have to give it to you if you ask for it. It's called Reasoning from the Scriptures.
And they tell you in that book how to counter somebody who goes to John 20, 28 to prove the deity of Jesus. And that's one of their chief doctrines that they oppose vehemently is the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ. And they suggest that it's sort of like an exclamation that Thomas does here. You know, if you're pounding nails and you happen to hit your thumb and you say, my word, or my whatever.
That's how, one of the ways they would explain this. It was an exclamation. It wasn't directed to Jesus, it was just kind of that. Wow, you know, that's sort of an exclamation.
But it's directed to Jesus. Thomas says, my Lord, my God. He's talking specifically to Jesus. As well, some suggest that it's just blasphemy.
You know, the way people do that, they use God or they use Jesus or they use my Lord in a blasphemous sort of way. Well, it'd be very hard to convince anyone that a pious, devout, first century Jew would blaspheme in such a carnal and callous manner. Again, it's probably not unheard of, but it's certainly, certainly not the norm. As well, some suggest that he is saying that Jesus is my Lord and my little g-God.
Again, Jehovah's Witnesses fit this in with their wicked translation of John 1.1. In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was a God, little g-God. That's blasphemy. It's not the work of scholarship, it's the work of God-hating rebels.
It is the work of those who deny the glory of Jesus Christ. I think John Owen speaks well to those who deny the glory of Jesus Christ. He says, but many men, so far as I can observe, are fallen into such a dislike of the Christ of God that everything concerning His person, spirit, grace is an abomination unto them. It is not a want of understanding to comprehend doctrines, but hatred unto the things themselves whereby such persons are seduced." It's not just a minor, minuscule thing.
To deny the deity of our Lord Jesus Christ is to deny God, to deny the gospel. It is to deny there's any hope whatsoever for the forgiveness of sins. Thomas makes a lofty confession of faith to our Lord Jesus. He says, my Lord and my God.
Owen Elsewhere calls this a gracious discovery of Christ. Again, it comes on the heels of a gospel record that is filled with references to the deity of Jesus. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word 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.
We see Jesus assert His equality with the Father to the point where the Jews actually want to destroy Him in John chapter 8. They pick up stones to stone Him with. Why? Because He made Himself equal with God.
So this is the capstone on an otherwise record of consistent testimony concerning the glory of the Lord Jesus Christ. There's no reason not to take it the way it's written. It is an ascription of who Jesus is, in the mouth of one of his greatest doubters or one of the greatest skeptics. In fact, George Beasley Murray says it comes about that the most outrageous doubter of the resurrection of Jesus utters the greatest confession of the Lord who rose from the dead.
His utterance does not simply acknowledge the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, but expresses its ultimate meaning, i.e. as revelation of who Jesus is. You see, it's not just the fact that the tomb is empty, but it's what that communicates. He was declared to be the Son of God with power by the resurrection from the dead. You see, Thomas sees now.
Thomas has a clear field of vision, not just carnally, not just through the eyes, but by faith he's laid hold. Now, this confession in the mouth of Thomas is not what's called abstract theology. It's not just something to be batted around and played with and thought about over there. What's he say?
He says, my Lord and my God. Ask any Christian you know, what's one of the most blessed things that you're able to say concerning God? That He's mine. that we can sing hymn number 432, I am his and he is mine. Jesus, what a friend for sinners.
Can you say my Lord and my God today? Can you own Him as your Lord and God? See, this is what grace through faith produces. It produces a people who get to employ that personal pronoun, who get to look at Jesus and say, He is mine and I am His.
And there's every reason why I should want Him. I'm still trying to figure out why He should want me. other than the sovereign grace of Almighty God, wherein He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and blameless. He didn't choose us because we were holy and blameless. He chose us unto holiness and blamelessness.
But that is the most blessed thing, to be able to confess with Thomas here, my Lord and my God. Or consider the Apostle Paul in Galatians chapter two. Let me just read it because my head is not on Galatians 2.20. I don't want to mess it up.
I find the older I get, the more tempted I am to mess up texts, and I don't want to mess up texts. Galatians 2.20, I have been crucified with Christ. It is no longer I who live, but Christ lives in me. And the life that I now live in the flesh, I live by faith in what? and the Son of God who loved me and who gave Himself for me.
Paul's not being proud. Paul understands the application of redemptive benefit. Paul understands the beauty of personal pronouns in the Christian religion. Paul understands what is the pinnacle and the apex of our blessed experience, that Christ is ours, that He gave Himself for us, that He delivered Himself for us, that He secured our salvation.
The Creed confesses He came down for us men and for our salvation. It's not out there. It's not abstract. It's not far removed.
Brethren, this is the blessedness of your confession of faith. Enjoy it. Utilize it. Praise God as a result of it.
And if you are not a believer here this morning, come to Jesus. Believe on Him. Confess with Thomas, my Lord and my God. Why will you die in your sins?
Why will you continue to perish? This was the language of the prophet Ezekiel. God says to the nation, why? Why, why, why will you perish?
Why will you die in your sins? Turn ye unto me, the Lord God says, and I will heal your backsliding. Don't continue in penitent. Don't continue in your unbelief.
Don't continue to resist and reject sermons. The beauty and glory of the gospel is the reality that God made Christ, who knew no sin, to be sin for us that we might become the righteousness of God in Him. The glory of the gospel is that whosoever believeth in Him shall not perish but have everlasting life. Isn't that glorious?
Isn't that wonderful? I mean, it's okay to smile if you can say, my Lord and my God. At times like these, you think people are going to do backflips out of their pews, because we've been saved. We have a Lord.
We have a God who not only loves us, but He delivered Himself for us. He gave Himself for us. Now
Christ Receives the Confession
notice Jesus' response. Christ receives this ascription without rebuke. Thomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God. Notice that Jesus doesn't correct him for blasphemy.
Jesus doesn't correct him for saying an exclamatory word that happened to utilize the name of the Lord and God. Jesus doesn't reprove him. Jesus doesn't stop him. Jesus rather accepts what he says.
You compare like instances throughout the New Testament, and you'll see that when men are worshipped by others, the men resist it and they reject it. Now, Jesus, of course, is a man, but he is God and man. He is one person, two natures. He is, in fact, theanthropic.
That simply means God-man. But when Paul and Silas are bowed down to, what do they say? We're men of like passions. Don't do that.
When the angel is bowed down to by the seer in the book of Revelation, what does he do? No, don't do that. When the creature is bowed down to, he rejects it, he resists it, he says no. But when Jesus Christ is bowed down to, he receives it.
Why? Because he's worthy. In the language of the bridegroom, in the Song of Solomon, he is altogether lovely, chief among ten thousand. Of course he is worthy of such praise.
Of course he is worthy of such adoration. Of course he is worthy of all the blessings and the honor that the creature has to give to him. This is fit and appropriate and right and true. This is what Christ heard before He entered into this world.
You know, Isaiah chapter 6, we read a meditation this morning in our prayer meeting from Spurgeon on that text, and he points out rightly, John points out rightly, that what Isaiah saw when he saw that vision in Isaiah 6 was Christ. Christ was being praised by the angelic hosts. Holy, holy, holy is the Lord of hosts. The whole earth is filled with His glory.
So that when Christ comes into this world and persons do bow, persons do confess, persons do honor His person and His work, He doesn't reject it. He doesn't resist it. He receives it because it is fit. It is the legitimate response of the creature to confess the lordship and the godhood of Jesus Christ.
Now
The Beatitude for Those Who Have Not Seen
notice, then Jesus gives him this last beatitude. A beatitude is one of those blessed are you sayings, and that's what Jesus does here in verse 29. Notice that he affirms Thomas' faith, verse 29. Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed.
He affirms it. He's not suggesting that Thomas is a God-hating wretch and that his monstrosities are going to land him in hell. He is dealing with him as a saved sinner. He is dealing with him as a man who has believed gospel truth, as a confessor, a chief confessor of the Christian faith, a doubter-turned-confessor, and Christ acknowledges the presence of his faith.
The notice that he goes on to pronounce this beatitude, he says, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now, the Lord is not putting Thomas' faith in a lower category. He's not suggesting that somehow Thomas, because he asked to see or had to see, is somehow a second-class citizen. He's making a pronouncement that is very uniquely fitted to the particular context that persons beyond Thomas are going to need to hear.
There's no accident that this particular account is the last one prior to John's purpose statement. The themes are overlapping, right? We have this confessor confessing that Jesus is Lord and God, we have Jesus commending faith, and then John ends the letter, ends the gospel by saying, you know, my purpose is that you'll believe. We'd be fools not to see the connection and the way that John tailored the narrative to serve his purposes.
The purpose specifically that you stop rejecting and resisting and that you believe. See, everybody in this narrative is telling you this morning to believe. Everybody in your life should be telling you to believe if you have heretofore believed. Every preacher and every pulpit and every church on this Lord's day ought to be telling everybody to believe.
That's the purpose for which we exist. What does Jesus say in Mark 16? Go preach the gospel to every creature. And to some creatures, not to creatures with ease on their back, not to sensible creatures or prepared creatures, but to creatures, preach the gospel to them.
That's what Jesus says. Now notice, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. The Lord speaks concerning man's response to the preaching of the gospel when he would no longer be physically present on earth. It's a beatitude that transcends the present.
In other words, these apostles are going to go out and preach the gospel to every creature. History or tradition tells us that Thomas went to India. Isn't that appropriate? Isn't that appropriate?
Jesus says in John 14, 6, to Thomas, I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me. Thomas goes to a polytheistic culture to press the crown rights of Jesus Christ and the exclusivity of him as God alone. It really is beautiful, the way that the Lord works in this.
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. In other words, what Calvin just said is you need to believe. The bare word. You are not in a position to ask for proofs.
That's the thing, you know, when we try to prove God, there's an abundance of proof. The problem isn't a lack of proof. The problem is a sinful repression or suppression of that truth. That's what Paul says in Romans chapter 1.
God is manifest. God has made himself known through the created order and in the fact that we are image bearers of the living and true God. There is not a shred of evidence lacking in this regard. Paul addresses the problem thus.
It's they suppress the truth in unrighteousness. They hold it down. They dig holes and they bury it. You ever see dogs, kids, they like to dig a hole and put their bone in it and then they bury that.
That's what sinners do with the knowledge of God. They're like dogs digging up holes, burying their bones and then covering it. See, the dog does it probably to save the food for later, to save the bone for later. Man's more wicked than that.
Not that dogs are wicked doing that. I'm trying to stress the point here that man has a diabolical end. It's not the preservation of a bone, it's the rejection of God Himself. Calvin says what we need is to ascent to the Word preached.
Believe, believe what the Bible says. So that's Thomas.
Purpose of the Fourth Gospel
Let's look finally quickly at this purpose of the fourth gospel. Notice in verse 30, John says, truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. The entirety of the gospel, could be the post-resurrection signs, might just be best. Say whatever Jesus did, did all these things.
He was a man who went about doing good, as Peter says in Acts chapter 10. He did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not written in this book. Now note his purpose. 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.
You see how this serves or how this jives with or goes along with the beatitude of Jesus at the end of verse 29? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. You get this pronouncement of blessing upon you, and then you're given this purpose, and John is saying, I want you to believe. Whatever you may have heard about faith in the past, whatever you have heard about, you know, misery in the past, whatever you have heard about predestination in the past, all that stuff may be true, but right now, the time is to believe.
That's what John says. Notice the emphasis on faith. I think John wants to evangelize unbelievers, but certainly John's gospel is calculated to strengthen and to fortify believers. But he says here that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ.
Isn't that beautiful? That's what God calls on us. That's the response to the gospel. Notice what he doesn't say, that you believe and work. that you believe and obey, that you believe and do, to believe and sell everything you own, shave your head, wear orange robes, go shake tambourines down at the airport.
That's not what John says. Salvation is by grace alone through what? Faith alone. Now, certainly the faith that saves or justifies is always accompanied by all other saving graces.
Those who are justified freely by His grace will then pursue those things that God has said in His Word for us to live by. The way that we get to heaven, brethren, is not by our doing. It's not by our works. This is the great Protestant emphasis on justification by faith alone.
It's not by faith plus works. It's faith alone. And that's what John says. These things or these are written that you may believe.
Matthew Poole says, faith is properly innocent given to a proposition upon the testimony of revelation. In other words, God said it, believe it. Our confession of faith says much the same thing. By this saving faith, a Christian believes to be true whatsoever is revealed in the Word for the authority of God Himself.
In other words, what the Bible says about Joshua, the son of Nun, what the Bible says about Moses, what the Bible says about Isaiah, what the Bible says about Ezekiel and about Jeremiah, what it says about Paul, what it says about Peter, what it says about James, what it says about John. All those who believe, believe all that. But our confession goes on. It moves from sort of the outward or the external or the perimeters in terms of the word, and then highlights the primary or principal acts of saving faith.
But the principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ. In other words, you do need to believe everything the Bible says about Moses, but that's not what saves you. The principal acts of saving faith have immediate relation to Christ. And now the confession does what the Bible does and uses figurative expressions to illustrate or to explain further what faith is.
Have you ever wondered that? Well, what's faith? I know at the most fundamental level it means to believe, yeah. It means to believe the Bible.
If there's got to be something more, believe the Bible. But I have to do something. Believe the Bible. Believe what it says concerning Jesus. than the confession.
As I said, accurately reflecting scripture usage uses these figures to sort of illustrate for us what faith is. Accepting, receiving, and resting upon Him alone for justification, sanctification, and eternal life by virtue of the covenant of grace. See, what does it mean to believe? Well, John chapter three, look to Jesus Christ.
What does it mean to believe? John chapter six, eat his flesh, drink his blood. Not physically, but rather that is a figure showing us what it means to believe in Christ. In other words, we feed on him.
He is our sustenance. He is the one that gives us life. He is the one that keeps us whole. So, you see, the Bible uses these figures of speech to illustrate for us, in a real practical, concrete sort of way, what it means to believe, to receive Christ, to rest upon Christ.
See, John the Apostle was able to lay his head upon the bosom of the Savior. We do that by faith, don't we? We rest upon Jesus Christ by faith. That's what the confession says.
That's what the scriptures say. These are figures of speech to tell us and educate us. Something about, dare I say it, the simplicity of faith. We sometimes make it so hard.
What's it mean to believe on Jesus? Well, we're gonna have to take you through a three-part course. You don't need a three-part course to know how to eat a burrito and drink a glass of juice. You eat it and you drink it.
Same with bread and wine. You eat it, you drink it. It's something quite simple. Now, faith is one of those interesting things.
On the one hand, it's the most difficult thing in the whole wide world, but on the other hand, it's the most simple thing in the whole wide world. It's a grace given by God. We can't make God give faith, but it's simple. Believe what the Bible says concerning Jesus.
He lived, He died, He was raised, and He saves all those who come to Him in faith. Notice the object that John presents, that you believe, and he mentions Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. This whole idea of Christ, this is the Messiah prophesied in the Old Testament, and John Gill says, and takes in all his offices of prophet, priest and king to which he was anointed." In other words, you need to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the one revealed to us in the Old Testament, the Messiah there, the anointed one, the one who comes under God's direction to do what God the Father gave him to do. Then he goes on to say, not only the Christ, but he's the Son of God.
Now that's an interesting statement. Didn't Thomas just confess him as my Lord and my God? How can he be both God and Son of God? The doctrine of the Blessed Trinity.
The three persons each have the divine essence, yet they are distinguished from one another by personal properties and relative, or relative properties and personal relations. The Father sends the Son. Father begets the Son. The Son is begotten by the Father.
But they are one God, the same in substance, equal in power and glory, distinguished from one another through these properties. The Son of God is God Most High. Now notice, what's the end game, the end result? And that believing, you may have life in his name.
See end of verse 31. What should we infer from that? If you do not believe, you don't have life in his name. That's a desperate condition to be in.
It's a terrible place to be. Jesus in John chapter eight speaks of spiritual bondage. Whoever commits sin is a what? He's a slave to sin.
It's an amazing thing how that's more obvious with certain sins than with others. It's more obvious, say, when you drive downtown and you see persons that look like they've been addicted to drugs for some period of time. It's pretty obvious to see that those persons are slaves to sin. It's pretty obvious to see the slave master driving that subject right into the ground.
But with reference to our slavery, with reference to our sins, with reference to those things that don't land us on the street looking, you know, that sort of a way, it's more difficult to ascertain. But if you're not a believer here this morning, you're a slave to sin. If you're not a believer here this morning, you are dead in your trespasses and sins. If you are not a believer here this morning, you do not possess eternal life.
For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have everlasting life. Now, the converse is true as well, that whoever does not believe in him shall not see life, but the wrath of God abides on him, John 3.36. You see, you're in a desperate position this morning apart from Jesus Christ. But the good news is, is that John says, I wrote the entirety of my book, the gospel that bears my name as its author, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit.
I took pains to do this in a situation where it could have cost me a whole lot. In fact, it does cost John because he ends up on a little rock in the Aegean Sea for the testimony of God, or for the Word of God and the testimony of Jesus Christ. It did cost him to get there, to produce this. So his purpose is that you believe. not resist, not reject, not argue it away, and not say, well, you know, you don't know my situation.
I don't have to. I know enough to know that God is holy. You're not. You're a sinner.
You're a rebel. You have violated the law. You have transgressed every one of the Ten Commandments. You have not conformed to those particular words as well, and you stand under the judgment of God Most High.
But Christ, in the word, offers himself to sinners. So come to me, he says, in Matthew chapter 11, all you who are weary and heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Don't continue to resist or reject or refuse, but rather come. Receive him, rest upon him, accept him, not in some, you know, altar college way with every eye bow or every eye closed and every head bowed and we accept Jesus into our heart.
That acceptance there is a figurative way of saying faith. Accept the mercy of God in Jesus Christ as proffered in the gospel for the salvation of sinners. Don't resist, don't reject, don't refuse.
Application and Concluding Exhortations
Thus the exposition. A couple of concluding thoughts and then we'll close. First, and we rehearsed some of this a few weeks ago or a couple of months ago when we were in Matthew's gospel, so I will not here, but the historical reality of the resurrection, it did happen. The tomb is empty.
The statement, He is risen, is accurate. And that right there tells us everything testified to us by our Lord Jesus Christ, by His apostles, by the prophets in the Old Testament, is worth believing. In other words, with our confession of faith. We ought to believe everything the scripture says.
The principal acts of saving faith have relation to Christ, to his life, to his death, and to his resurrection. Now, secondly, beware of placing conditions upon God. These are the sorts of conditions that I think we hear at times. Some say, well, if God would provide me a certain amount of evidence, then I would believe.
That's the Thomas mistake, isn't it? Or the Thomas obstinance. Unless I see, unless I touch. Unless I'm empirically satisfied with the evidence, then I will not believe.
That's pretty much life as we know it outside of the church, isn't it? Well, I didn't see it. He didn't make it an appearance to me. It's like Greg Bonson said in the great debate against Gordon Stein.
The student, at the very end, they have a Q&A section. The student asks, Dr. Stein, what would it take to convince you that God does exist? Stein was the atheist.
Stein was the skeptic. And Stein said, well, if he, A, put in a personal appearance, We have our skeptic meetings on Tuesday afternoon. If he shows up at one of those, then I would believe, or B, if this lectern or pulpit or whatever it was they were using, you know, just started to lift in the air and there was no evidence of any wires or cords or machines or motors or anything that was making it lift up in the air. Those would be things that I would take to believe in the existence of God.
And Greg Bonson rightly responded and said, no, you would not. No, you would not. There is no shortage of evidence. There is no lack of evidence.
The problem is your worldview, Dr. Stein. You need to be born again. You exclude at the outset the very possibility of God, and that then controls how you interpret the evidence.
You see, be cautious and beware that you as creature, sinful creature, have no right to demand that God perform before you believe. A second thing I think we hear at times is that the folly of demanding temporal blessings. You know, unless God blesses me with a good wife and kids, I'm not going to believe. Unless God satisfies some basic requirements that I think I have coming to me, then I'm not going to believe.
Kind of this idea that God has to convince you of his goodness before you'll actually side with him. And by the way, God, you can convince me of your goodness with a nice car, a nice house, a nice wife, and wonderful, well-behaved children. And when you do that, then I'll throw in my lot with you. That should be pretty apparent how wicked that is, right?
We're not supposed to use God to get stuff that we want on the condition that then we'll side with him. We'll do you the favor, God, if you please bring us swag first. No, no, don't do that. Thirdly, the idea of the folly of demanding comprehensive understanding.
You meet this sometimes. Well, I don't understand why the children of Israel, at the behest of Yahweh, went in and utterly destroyed, or at least commanded to utterly destroy all the Canaanites in the land. I just don't understand that. Until I can understand that, I'm not gonna believe.
I just can't fully understand, I can't understand, I can't even get my mind wrapped around the doctrine of the Trinity. Once God makes that clear to me, then I'll believe. Again, who are we, creatures, sinful creatures, that have the right to say we want to exhaust God before we'll believe on God? We need to know everything before we'll believe on the Lord?
One of the beauties of our religion is that degree of not knowing certain things. I wouldn't want a God I could figure out. I wouldn't want a God I could domesticate. I wouldn't want a God I could fully explain.
Now I'm not saying he's not explainable, he's not understandable, he has revealed himself in about 31,000 propositions called the Old and the New Testaments. There's a lot of data, it's a lot of things for us to consider and to contemplate, but is it one of the blessed things to be able to say, man, I just don't know. If I could exhaust God, then I could tame God, I could control God, I could domesticate God. In other words, it might be more interesting to own a lion than a kitty cat.
You see, brethren, you'll never, the best intellects in the Christian church have never exhausted all there is to know about God. It's one of the beauties of Christianity. It's one of the glories of our religion. The thought that when we enter into His presence, it'll be breathtaking experience after breathtaking experience.
It will be that constant admiration, that constant wowing in the presence of the Most High. So don't think that you have to explain or know everything before you'll believe what is absolutely certain and true, that Christ was crucified for sinners, was raised the third day, and everyone who believes in Him will be saved. Those are some common objections or ways that we try to put God into a box and make him perform before we'll believe. And I want to end on the high note where Thomas's confession ended, the beauty of that confession of faith, the clarity of the text.
There's no way around John 20, 28, is there? Well, I guess if you're a Russellite, you can say, well, it was an exclamation, it was blasphemy, or he was pronouncing, you know, praise to a little g God. That's just not grammatically correct. You know, you hear about political correctness, there's grammatical correctness.
There's certain ways, grammar, revealed by the Holy Spirit in the Scripture on how we're supposed to understand text. And you don't need to know the Greek to know that this is translated properly. My Lord and my God. John Calvin, commenting on the clarity of the text, said, You don't deserve that.
If you reject the deity of Jesus Christ, you don't even get that, because you're blind. as well the propriety of the text. He is called God in verse 28, the Son of God in verse 31. The Son is distinguished from the Father by the peculiar relative property of begottenness and his personal relation to the Father as Son. The Son, however, has the whole divine essence.
Again, you might say, well, I just don't get that. Come to the confession study. Read a book. I marvel, I just can't understand the Trinity.
Pick up a book. I don't know how to do this task in my kitchen, so I'm going to watch YouTube videos. I don't know how to do this at work, so I'm going to ask my boss. And yet, how many Christians have no inkling whatsoever with reference to the Trinity, but haven't ever attended a theology study, haven't ever attended anything that the church sponsors, haven't asked the elders of the church to say, what are some good guides, because not everything on YouTube or Sermon Audio is necessarily a good guide.
Who are some good guides that can steer me in the right direction so that I can understand one of the most cardinal doctrines of the Christian faith? Why are we so lazy when Jesus defines the knowledge of God as eternal life in John 17 3? Why won't we use our heads? Why will we never go beyond a kindergarten understanding of the doctrine of the Trinity?
There's no excuse. If you feel bad or guilty right now, there might be a good reason why. Perhaps it's because you're lazy. Perhaps it's because you don't read.
Perhaps it's because you never come to theology or confession study. You don't avail yourself of the means that are available so that you can move beyond kindergarten and start living like a mature believer in Jesus Christ that is able to articulate, at least at a basic level, the doctrine of the Trinity to shut the mouths of the Russellites that you bump into on Yale Road. Why should they best true believers in an argument on the doctrine of the Trinity? How is that possible?
Because for 20 years, they've been perfecting their arguments against the doctrine, and for 20 years, for some reason, true believers haven't read Birkhoff on the Trinity, which I don't know is how many pages. It's a big, fat book, but the section on the Trinity ain't. The Confession of Faith is one chapter. Again, you may not get your mind wrapped around every jot and diddle and every particular, but you'll know the language that's been employed in the history of the church, and it will open up, hopefully, some vistas for further research.
There's no reason why we shouldn't have an understanding of these things. And then the certainty of the text. Ryle said this, let us settle it firmly in our minds that the divinity of Christ, that means that He's God, is one of the grand foundation truths of Christianity and let us be willing to go to the stake rather than let it go. Let us be willing to go to the stake.
That means to be burned to death. That means to be stoned to death. It could mean to be shot to death, to be beheaded to death. You could obviously be dead.
It means to die for this confession of faith in Jesus Christ. I don't know a whole lot about Leah, but we just prayed for Leah in Nigeria who was taken captive by Boko Haram. Many others of these girls that were taken captive by Boko Haram were let go. Leah has not been let go because she's a believer in Jesus.
They won't let her go if she doesn't renounce her faith in Jesus Christ and confess his law. She hasn't done it. When Leah's parents were talked to, they're sad because their daughter isn't with them, but her father's pleased that she will not renounce Jesus Christ. You see, when, with the bride, you see the bridegroom, I said bridegroom earlier, that was incorrect, when you see Jesus as altogether lovely and chief among 10,000, you'll go to the stake for him.
You'll take Islamic oppression for Him. You'll take prison for Him. You'll take whatever it is, because you know that in the midst of that, Christ is your Lord. Christ is your Savior.
Christ is your friend, and Christ is ever present with His people. So don't continue to resist, reject, and refuse, but rather come, believe on Christ, and you shall be saved. Well, let us pray.
Closing Prayer
Our Father, we thank You for Your Word and the clarity of this particular section of Scripture. May it be the confession of all our hearts with reference to Jesus Christ that He is our Lord and our God. We pray that you'd pour out grace upon hearers today, here and elsewhere. We pray that the knowledge of the gospel would go forth and that sinners would come to know Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior.
We do pray for Leah and for her family, that you would grant them grace and comfort in the midst of this hardship, in the midst of this suffering and distress, and keep her faith solid and strong, and may she never renounce the Lord Jesus. And may this speak volumes to others, those in the Western world, us in particular, that Christ is altogether lovely and chief among 10,000. He is that pearl of great price. May we ever own Him, may we ever confess Him, may we ever believe and love and adore Him.
And may you go with us now and help us to have a blessed Lord's Day. Bring us together tonight as we gather for the supper. May you feed us and may you strengthen us and may you help us by your word and spirit. And we pray these things through Jesus Christ, our Lord.
Amen. We'll close with a brief time of meditation and then be dismissed.