[8:00 a.m.] Blessed Belief (John 20:19-31)

Our scripture reading from today comes from the Gospel of John

chapter 20, verses 19 through 13, 31 rather 19 through 31.

Thank you. On the evening of that day, the

first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples

were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them 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 Jesus said to them again, Peace be

with you. As the Father has sent me, Even

so I am sending 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 withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld.

Now Thomas, one of the 12 called the twin, was not with them when

Jesus came. So the other disciples told him,

We have seen the Lord, but he said to them, unless I see in

his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the

mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never

believe. 8 days later his disciples were inside again and

Thomas was with him. Although the doors were locked,

Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.

Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands,

and put out your hands and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and

my God, Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have

seen me? Blessed are those who have not

seen and yet have believed. Now Jesus did many other signs

in the presence of the disciples, which are not written

in this book, but these are written so that you may believe

that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by

believing you may have life in his name.

This is the word of the Lord. Thanks be to God you may be

seated. Last week, Robbie brought to us

a sermon about the resurrection itself, the the the place and

time, the event that took just before our verses from today.

And I think we're meant to actually understand this

particular passage by understanding where it sits in

the narrative of the Gospel of John.

I was reminded of my elementary education where we're learned or

taught to see how a narrative forms, right.

You have kind of the introduction with the prologue

in the Gospel of John. And you're, that's where you're

introduced into a story and what's happening and perhaps

even the, the tension, that great idea of that, what the,

what is the big problem that's meant to be solved as introduced

there. And then as the narrative climbs

along, you see this rising tension that's building up and

building up and building up until that moment of release

when the problem is solved, the climax of the story.

And then everything that happens after that is just sort of the

falling action of that story. We are at the climax of the

Gospel of John and yes, the resurrection is certainly that

point because we are very, it's very clear as the gospel of the

Gospel writer, John is writing this narrative that he is

pointing us to the resurrection, that time just slows down and

that holy we can like it does in any of the other gospels.

And yet many have actually argued that the tension is

actually still rising here until this moment of this encounter

with Jesus and Thomas in our passage today.

And then, you know, we had those verses that I come after that,

that sort of begin to resolve that tension.

And we'll go into the chapter 21 next week too, and we'll see

more of that resolution of that tension.

But why is it that this, the, the John would kind of write all

of this, this rising tension up to this point of this moment of

this interaction with Thomas? He even begins this portion of

talking about fear with the disciples.

And I think it's to point us to the fact that the, the height,

the climax of the story is God meeting us as his disciples in

our fear, in our doubts. It's that blessed belief of

eternal peace. So we're going to look at this

this this passage in three movements, fear, doubt, and

eternal peace picking up in verse 19.

This is the Sunday after the resurrection, verse 18, just

before Mary Magdalene had just seen Jesus after going to him,

running to the tomb. Remember, as Robbie showed us,

Peter and John were there as well.

They ran to the tomb, but they actually never saw the risen

Christ. They saw the evidences of his

resurrection. And the text just tells us from

that point on, they believed, even says that they, they, they

believed this new evidences and they, they actually the stone

being rolled away, the burial cloth folded, they believed they

went back to their homes. But see here we have from the

beginning of Jesus's coming to the disciples, Jesus did not

just leave them with belief. He pursued them with who he was.

He wanted to leave them not just with head knowledge of who he

was and the power of his resurrection.

He wanted to leave them with a transforming presence of

himself, the transforming presence himself, as he said to

Mary in that previous passage, not to cling to him, but be to

be commissioned by him. He said told Mary, right, He is

ascending. That was the word, the phrase he

used. He is ascending.

It's this period of time that we're waiting for his ascension,

but that he has work to do before his ascension is

complete. He actually commissioned Mary to

tell this to his disciples. Don't cling to me, for I am

ascending. Even though Peter and John

believe they had not yet seen Jesus in his person risen from

the dead, this is actually a very important facets of

apostleship. We're going to go inside a

little bit later when we talk about Thomas and his doubt.

But the apostles had to see the physical presence of our Lord

Jesus risen, and that's what they were commissioned to do as

apostle. That's the defining principle of

being an apostle that they saw the risen Christ face to face.

It's an it's the defining part of being an apostle as well as

writing much of our scripture as well.

But they said here from the very get go were were brought into

their fear for the fear of the Jews.

That's why the door was locked. And what are we to make of the

disciples fear? What are we to make of the

locked door? We have passed from the morning

of belief to this evening of waiting.

Mary told them they were to wait because Jesus was ascending and

they're locked behind the door. Jesus writes down the I'm sorry,

John writes down the reason for the locked door.

Inspired by the Holy Spirit for the fear of the Jews.

I believe to simply tell us that the disciples fears in our fears

are met with a person of Jesus. There's a miracle here that we

don't have quite all the details about how Jesus got behind the

locked door. Did the locked door miraculously

become unlocked? Did he pass through?

We don't have those details from the text, but Jesus did

miraculously appear in his resurrected body to show us the

amazing love of God that meets us exactly where our fears have

us. He knew Jesus knew who he wanted

to be his disciples, and he knew their fear and that miraculous

love is what made them meet together.

The disciples fears are political, but also related to a

legitimate fear of their own death.

They had just seen Jesus killed for his message.

They knew that the Jews had done this, and if they were to preach

the Kingdom of his resurrected power, they knew that they would

be targets of that ire as well and, and, and perhaps put to

death as well. We are probably not fearing the

loss of our lives. Some may be, but most likely

we're not fearing that loss of our lives, particularly as we

contemplate the implications of believing in the resurrection.

But we do still have fears of what it would mean for us to

truly respond the way that we see God leading to leading us to

in light of the resurrection. We probably would not lose our

lives or even fear losing our lives, but we probably do fear

losing some comfort. What if we lived radically

generous lives, Radically generous lives, because we

understood that Jesus's death and resurrection called us to

join him in the renewal of all things, including the reaching

of unreached people groups, people who have no access to the

gospel or no vibrant gospel outreach in their language or

culture. And yes, these people groups

still do exist today. What if we stopped ourselves

from fearing of the comfort that we may lose of engaging with

that idea in prayer and giving and perhaps even going to saying

that it could be God calling us to do that.

To move to a spot on the other side of the world.

To sell our properties, To say goodbye to lucrative careers,

say goodbye to relationships that are precious to us, that

means so much to us. And to do something that would

make zero sense to the rest of the world living around us.

All because we are compelled by Jesus death and resurrection to

do so. God may not be calling you to do

that, but even as I postulate how we could respond in faith to

His death and resurrection, I want you to be honest with your

heart about what makes you fearful.

How would you feel if Jesus were calling you to do that?

And would you follow Him in that way?

We may not fear losing our lives, but we may fear losing

the approval of those we want it from.

As we contemplate the resurrection.

God is asking you to give testimony to His death and

resurrection to those around you.

Your neighbors that live on your block, your Co workers, those

who you do business transactions with, your classmates, your

friends, your regular connections that you see in your

day-to-day interactions around you here in Dallas.

How are you feeling as you think about giving testimony to the

seeing the risen Christ to meeting him?

You might be worried about your reputation.

You might be worried, as I think I listed all those

relationships, about the time it would take, what would it would

take from you to actually give a fruitful and effective witness

to who Jesus was. You might fear what it can mean

for your reputation. We're just meant to see the fear

of the disciples were meant to relate to it.

The disciples locked the door to Jesus resurrection power in our

lives. And yet the compelling love of

Christ. God meets us where we are at.

If God is commissioning you to do something, if He is calling

you to something in response to His death and resurrection, He

will meet you in your deepest fears in that place and in that

places where He commissions us to do the work we see here and

immediately to response to that fear.

Jesus's first words to the disciples in this particular

text. Peace be with you.

It's a phrase that's repeated 3 times in short space here in

this in this section of the gospel.

It's a very simple greeting. Actually, it would have been

something that just would have been a very common greeting of

the time. Peace be with you.

But these disciples would have known immediately what Jesus was

referring to. He's taking them back to the

upper room discourse. Remember John chapter 14?

John 14 · chapter mention

I'm going to read to you verses 25 through through 29.

This is John 14. These things I have spoken to

you, why I'm still with you. But the Helper, the Holy Spirit,

whom the Father will send in my name, He will teach you all

things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said

to you. Verse 27, Peace I leave with

you. My peace I give to you.

Not as the world gives do I give to you.

Let not your hearts be troubled, neither let them be afraid.

You heard me say, I am going away and I will come to you.

If you loved me, you would have rejoiced because I'm going to

the Father, for the Father is greater than I.

And now I have told you before it takes place that when it does

take place, you may believe. Amazing how slow, how patience,

how gracious our King Jesus is with us.

He taught the disciples these things before this moment and

that phrase. Peace be with you was meant to

elicit all that He had taught them in the upper room.

You see, if God is calling us to something deeper, if God is

calling our hearts and compelling us to live lives,

maybe even radical lives, He does so through His peace,

through this quiet internal calling in our hearts that He

then confirms an external calling through His church.

And I remember He does not give us peace as the world gives.

He gives us peace based on other worldly terms, knowing that our

eternal life is meant and hidden in Him.

And after peace be with you. In verse 20, He then identifies

who he is by his wounds. Now this is not just the

identity of who Jesus is, Jesus Christ who died for their sins,

wounded on the cross, but his wounds are also a symbol of his

victory, the source of the peace that those disciples have come

from, both his identification and his victory.

This is the wounded God man. And immediately into verses 21

through 23, we have again the repetition, peace be with you.

And we have this otherworldly commissioning that Jesus gives

to his disciples as the Father has sent me.

Even so, I am sending you in this moment of fear, what we'll

see in this moment of talents. Jesus as as our brother, as our

older brother, is allowing us to be identified with him.

His identity and his victory is not just him, but he is bringing

us into the Godhead. As the Father is sending me, so

I am sending you. He is reaching down and showing

them their mission and lifting them up in that mission by

identifying them with Christ. And so I see here from the

beginning that our identity in Christ and our mission in Christ

can't be separated. If you are in Christ, you have

been engrafted into this sending.

You might reject it, you might not want it, but that is part of

the deal. We see Jesus identity and his

victory and he's bringing us into it.

And verse 23, or rather verse 22 first, well, I can't pass over

this. When he had said this, he

breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

Now this is not to say that the Holy Spirit hadn't always been

present amongst them. We know that to be true based on

Jesus's other teachings. But there's a special moment

here where Jesus is saying something special is happening

here. It's a foretaste of what's to

happen at Pentecost in the book of Acts, but I also believe it

marks these disciples as Christ's apostles, those who saw

him in person. Remember, that is an important

part, the apostleship that we need to see.

They they saw Jesus face to face and then in verse 23, their

authority to forgive sins or to retain them, that is to withhold

forgiveness. That's not to say that there's

some sort of special power with the apostles that only that they

are allowed to forgive sins or that it comes through them.

But he is saying that this ministry of forgiveness, the

forgiveness of sins that can only come to the cleansing blood

of Christ. That message is passed down

through Jesus's people, first to the apostles, but then as the

apostles spread that testimony to the church.

This would have brought us back to John 17 verses 17 through 21.

John 17:17–21

Jesus said St. This is his prayer, His high

priestly prayer. Sanctify them in the truth.

Your word is truth. As you sent me into the world,

so I have sent them into the world, and for their sake I

consecrate myself that they also may be sanctified in truth.

I do not ask for these only, but also for those who believe in me

through their word, that they may all be one, just as You,

Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, so

that the world may believe that you have sent me.

Jesus continues to just enlighten the disciples and

illuminate through His simplicity here in John 20 of

what He's already taught them in the upper room.

And now let's move to this, this series of doubts, how we used to

understand this interaction with Thomas and and Jesus.

And I think the big question here is this intellectual

disbelief or is Thomas's doubt more likely should be classified

as a conditional faith? You know, intellectual how

distinguishment is to intellectual disbelief might

just be it's hard to arise to that level of faith.

Thomas is not quite sure how to handle these kind of questions

that are coming at him or sort of a conditional faith.

Is Thomas sort of drawing the line in the sand and saying

you're calling me to believe, but I just can't do it unless

Jesus, you allow me to do this thing for you?

Just a quick background on Thomas.

He's known as the twin sometimes called Didymus.

He had these kind of moments of bold faith.

And you remember back in Chapter 11, he had a moment of bold

faith of going with Jesus when he went to back to Judea to

raise Lazarus from the dead. And he actually had a phrase in

verse 16 from Chapter 11 where he said, let's go and we'll die

with Jesus if we have to. And then we kind of have the

foreshadowing of Thomas's doubts.

We have that in Chapter 11 and verse 14.

You might not remember this, but when Jesus said I am the way and

the truth and the life, he's actually responding to a

question of doubt from Thomas from that interaction.

So we have this kind of this picture of someone who's kind of

had this both bold faith, but also this moment of doubt of

disbelief. I, I believe it's actually more

in the conditional faith category than there's some level

of intellectual doubts. And I think it's because of the

way that Jesus treats Thomas. You see in this interaction with

with Thomas that Jesus knows Thomas doubt, even though Thomas

didn't say his doubt in front of Jesus because remember he said

this in the interaction with the disciples.

The disciples told him all that was going on.

Again, we don't know all the pictures as to why Thomas is

feeling this way. He could have maybe felt really

disappointed that he was left out.

We also don't know why Thomas wasn't with the disciples in the

1st place. All the other disciples were

there except for Judas, and we know why that wasn't there.

But we don't actually know why Thomas wasn't there in that, in

Jesus's first appearance. But what we do know is that

Christ saw Thomas. We do know that Christ knew that

Thomas was meant to be a part of the apostles.

And so we see Christ's pursuit of his people even in the face

of their doubts. The door was locked again or

meant to see the repetition here of the fear.

Jesus miraculously appears again and said peace be with you

again. He didn't know Thomas didn't

tell him about his doubt, but Jesus knew.

Jesus knew exactly what Thomas needed to hear.

Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and

place it in my side. Do not disbelieve but believe.

Jesus is coming to Thomas is what pierced his hearts.

The text doesn't actually tell us that Thomas needed to touch

or that Thomas actually touched. In the end, Jesus has his

declaration. Peace be with you.

He told him what to do. But it doesn't actually tell us

that Thomas touched. Kind of feels more like this

melting away and submission to God's pursuit of him, My Lord

and my God. This is reminiscent of the

Psalms and how they proclaim my Lord and my God.

Some have been postulated that maybe this is the My Lord what

representing the humanity of Jesus and my God representing

the divinity of Jesus, submitting to the wounded God,

man before him. And Jesus answered kind of ends

this whole response with have you believed because you have

seen me? Blessed are those who have not

seen and yet have believed. So Jesus appeared before Thomas

because he knew that he was meant to be his apostles, and

all the apostles had to see the risen Christ, even Paul when he

went from Saul to Paul. Remember that miraculous episode

from the book of Acts? That was so that Paul would

become an apostle because he saw the risen Christ.

So the apostles had to see the risen Christ, and that is what

Jesus didn't, his love and his pursuit of Thomas in the face of

his doubts. But verse 29, the peace of God

through our blessed belief, have you believed because you have

seen me? Blessed are those who have not

seen and yet believed. This is meant to encourage us

because we are those who have had that blessed belief.

We are part of the lineage of the apostles and we have

believed in him and because of our belief, we have received the

forgiveness of sins. We have been in grafted in just

as the apostles were. And we are part of being in

Christ and in his mission. So I have, I have 5 very quick

applications for us today. We'll go and then we'll head to

the words table and and they're going to connect us and connect

our hearts to the words table. My first one is to read the

apostles. If our belief is meant to stem

from their testimony they're seeing of Jesus, we have to know

what it is that they say. Jesus went through great lengths

to show us who it was that were his and the apostles and who

were to write scripture. So we should read it, read God's

Word, and as we would receive the Holy Spirit in the sense of

allowing the Holy Spirit to eliminate to us Christ's words

for us. The word that is how God is, is

continuing this blessed belief that we have.

We're meant to see his patience for us.

If God has opened your eyes and faith to who Jesus is, it has

been through His patience with you.

I know He has been greatly patient with me, stepping in

through those closed doors that I want to put for him, and yet

gently calling my name and renewing my eyes that I would

respond to Him in faith. We are meant to look at Jesus's

wounds. He is not just another good

teacher, He is the wounded God man.

If God had just sent a man who was a good teacher, it wouldn't

work. If he had just sent a God who

could not identify with our sins and not pay the price of our

sins, God's justice would not work.

Only a wounded God man would work.

That's the only thing that would blast through our fears, renew

our doubts, and allow us to surrender to the wounded

kingship of Christ. Only through God, man dying for

us will we be able to say with Thomas, my Lord and my God.

And now as we prepare our hearts to come to the table, I think we

need to follow Thomas's example and drop our conditions.

In the end, Thomas didn't touch. He said strong words.

He said I would never believe unless I touched it.

But in the end, Jesus pursuit of him melted his heart and melted

that conditional part of his faith and he just confesses.

So as you come to the table, I would ask you to ponder with

your Savior if you would say something like, I will come to

you, Lord, if I will follow you dot dot dot.

If, however, you would fill in that blank, I would say even

though you are in Christ, you might be filling that.

That blank might be serving a functional savior for you.

But let me remind you that that Savior, it wouldn't die for you.

And actually, in a lot of ways, if you would fill in that blank

with something else, it might demand that you would die for

it. Comforts, approval, power,

control. Jesus is the only Savior that

would die for you and would call you to himself.

Crown him the Lord of love. Behold His hands inside, rich

wounds yet visible above, and beauty glorified.

No angels in the sky can fully bear that sight, But downward

bends their burning eye. That mystery is so bright.

Let us pray. God, we thank you for this time

and Your Word, how it has LED us and guided us.

We now ask as we come to the table, that your voice would be

heard by your people, calling you into this ancient active

institution that you've given your disciples.

May we spend our time well, be honest with you in our hearts,

and God would you apply your word to it as we join you this

day. We pray all this in the My name

of Jesus, Amen.