John 20:24-29 | The Blessing of Belief

This sermon was recorded at Faith Evangelical Free Church in Grand Forks, North Dakota.

I will read from John chapter twenty, beginning in verse nineteen.

We'll read through verse twenty-nine, hearing from our risen Lord.

Again, that is John chapter twenty, beginning in verse nineteen.

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 twelve, 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.

Eight days later his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them.

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.

Put out your hand 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 believed.

Amen.

You may be seated.

Thomas Jefferson is famously known for not believing in the supernatural.

So much so that it is said that he removed all evidences of the supernatural from his personal Bible.

Chief among those supernatural elements in the scriptures is the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

He doubted the resurrection.

What about you?

What about you?

Do you doubt?

Ask anyone who the apostle Thomas was, and the likely response will be something about his doubting of the resurrection.

So much so that it has become a common term that someone who doubts is called doubting Thomas.

Thomas was completely vilified, and those who doubt have ever since faced a similar criticism.

Is that fair?

Is it fair to criticize, to cast blame on someone who doubts Scripture, who doubts Christ, who doubts the resurrection?

Is it fair to cast criticism on someone who has a moment of failure like Eve, and she listened to the voice of the serpent and gave in to sin and so was criticized?

Is this account about Thomas?

Is it about doubt?

Is it about uncertainty?

Are we to treat this passage of God's word as criticism of those who express doubt and uncertainty about things that are hard to believe?

This applies to each and every one of us because at some point in our life we will face doubt and uncertainty.

And we may even fail in temptation to believe and give in to false claims and to fail to trust in Christ.

Some of us struggle with those things more than others, but it's most likely that every single one of us in this room will face those kinds of doubts and uncertainties at some point in our life.

Does Jesus criticize you in those moments?

To answer those questions, we need to understand the apostle Thomas.

Who is he?

What kind of man is Thomas?

Is he a true disciple?

Is he a believer in Christ?

What kind of man do we see?

Gentlemen, I can't advance slides up there, so if you could correct that for me.

Who is Thomas?

When we think about Thomas, the reality is that we know very little about him.

There's not a whole lot of detail in the scriptures about Thomas.

In fact, he is mentioned in four lists of the disciples and apostles.

You know all those long lists that include all of their names.

He's listed in four of them.

Then he's listed in another one a little bit later here in John chapter 21, verse 2, in a shorter list.

John 21:2

So five times Thomas is mentioned in the New Testament just in a list of names.

The rest of the time that we see Thomas mentioned is only in the Gospel of John.

Not mentioned in any of the other Gospels outside of those lists.

Everything that we find is here in John's Gospel.

So let's go back then and look at some of those.

Let's look at John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

John chapter 11.

John 11 · chapter mention

This is a familiar account to most of you if you have spent any time in church.

It is the account of a dead man named Lazarus who came walking out of a tomb, alive, after Jesus called him to life.

And it's in this account that we see Thomas being a little pessimistic.

Being a little pessimistic.

So as this account goes, Lazarus has two sisters, Mary and Martha.

Lazarus comes down with some sort of illness, gets to the point of being deadly sick, and so they send a message to Jesus asking him to come to them quickly.

They were very close friends, so that Jesus might heal Lazarus.

And Jesus decides, no, I'm going to let him die.

Going to let him die because God is going to be glorified in this.

Then after a couple of days, Jesus decides to return to Bethany to raise Lazarus from the dead.

Now the disciples don't understand that, and so they say in John 11, verse 8, Rabbi, the Jews were just now seeking to stone you.

John 11:8

You really want to go back there?

They were just about to kill you, and you're choosing to go back.

There's some stress in their voices, some incredulity.

They cannot grasp why Jesus would be insistent on returning to the location of danger.

In fact, the danger was pretty severe.

Back in chapter 10, verse 31, immediately after claiming equality with God the Father, it says the Jewish leaders picked up stones, actually picked up stones to stone Jesus to death.

And now he wants to go back.

The disciples cannot understand that.

So in verse 16, we read so Thomas, called the twin, said to his fellow disciples, guys, let's just go.

Let's die with him.

What a pessimistic guy.

Does he not believe in the power of Jesus?

Does he not believe in who Jesus is?

Maybe on the opposite side, maybe he has some personal experience with the authorities, if you know what I mean.

Maybe he knows what they can be like.

Maybe he understands if Jesus goes back.

I know by experience what he's going to endure.

We don't know those answers, but it's possible.

But here, at the very least, he is, he's a little bit of pessimism coming out.

Some might say that he was just being a realist.

I know some of you men, especially, might tend towards that, saying, he's just looking at the way things are.

They tried to kill him.

He's just looking at it in the realistic way of thinking.

That might be a stretch because Thomas demonstrates no sense of positivity.

He believes with certainty if they go to Bethany, Jesus will die.

Therefore, let's go and let's die with him.

But in that, in that pessimism, then we see that he is showing some commendable boldness.

While apparently pessimistic about the outcome, Thomas is quite bold.

He is bold enough to follow Jesus back to that location, even if it meant death for him and the fellow disciples.

He had witnessed personally the desire of the Jews to stone Jesus.

The reality of the possibility of death was fresh in his mind.

And yet he chose to go and encouraged others to go with him.

Who of us would face death for Jesus today?

And then choose to face death for Jesus again tomorrow and encourage others to go with us.

Thomas may have been on the pessimistic side, but he was not a weak man.

He would boldly follow Jesus.

He would take up his cross and follow him, knowing that following Jesus could very well mean his death.

So he would go where Jesus went, he would go where Jesus wanted him to go.

But in all of that, he also demonstrates a little bit later in chapter 14 that he is a very practical individual.

Yes, he will follow Jesus, but he wants to know what that looks like.

He wants to know the steps to take to follow Jesus.

Again, this is a familiar passage to many.

It's where Jesus states one of his I am statements.

I am the way, the truth, and the life.

No one comes to the Father except through me, Jesus said.

But right before that, before Jesus makes that statement, he says to his disciples, listen, I'm going away.

You can't come with me, but you'll follow later.

And then he makes those statements that many of us treasure.

He says, If I go, then I'm going to go and prepare a place for you.

And if I go, then prepare a place for you, then I'm going to come again and I'm going to take you to be with me so you can be with me in that place that I'm preparing for you.

And he says, and you know the way.

And Thomas says, Jesus, I don't know the way.

How do we get there?

Thomas, Thomas is one of those individuals today that would want to take out his phone and say, Jesus, give me the GPS coordinates.

That's how Thomas is.

He is thinking very practically, step by step, how do I get where Jesus wants me to go?

See, he's not thinking the way Jesus is thinking.

And so Jesus turns to Thomas and he says, Thomas, I'm the way.

I'm the way.

You don't need the coordinates.

You need me.

But note that Jesus doesn't chide Thomas for his practicality.

He actually answers Thomas's question.

Thomas asks, Jesus, how do we know where to go?

And Jesus says, I'm the way.

Thomas, I'm the way.

So far, Thomas has been practical and pessimistic with some strong boldness that will follow Jesus anywhere.

But when we get to chapter 20, then, in the passage that we read earlier, we see something different about Thomas.

We see that he is naturally skeptical.

Beginning in verse 24, it says Thomas was not with the other disciples when Jesus came.

So they said to him, Listen, Thomas, we have seen the risen Lord.

But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, not only that, but place my finger there and put my hand into his side.

I will never believe.

I will never believe.

This is a continuation of the previous section in verses 19 through 23.

See, Jesus had first appeared to the other ten disciples.

At this point in time, Judas is gone.

He's not part of the group.

So that leaves eleven disciples.

Thomas is not among them, so ten disciples are together, beginning in verse 19.

Verse 19, it tells us that this is on the evening of that day.

What day?

On the day Jesus left the tomb.

On the day of the resurrection, on Sunday morning, resurrection Sunday morning, the tomb was empty.

John chapter 20 begins with Mary Magdalene going to the tomb while it's still dark.

John 20 · chapter mention

She is followed by Peter and John.

Peter and John then leave the tomb, leaving Mary standing there.

Mary has an encounter beginning in verse 11 with two angels, and then shortly after that with the risen Lord himself.

That night, all of the disciples, except for Thomas, apparently, are gathered together in a locked room.

But for some reason, Thomas is absent from that initial gathering.

As a result, Thomas missed the revelation the other disciples received.

That's a small picture of what we miss when we don't gather with the saints to celebrate and to worship Christ.

The reality is that resurrection would have been hard for anyone to believe.

Before we jump all over Thomas for his doubt, we have to remember that others struggled as well, including that fly.

If you look at chapter 20 and verse 8, it says, then the other disciple, that is John, who had reached the tomb first, also went in and he saw and believed.

Interesting.

Peter and John ran to the tomb together.

John is the one of whom it is said he believed.

Peter isn't included there.

It wouldn't have been that hard for John to have said they believed.

Instead, he says, the disciple that Jesus loved believed, not Peter.

Other disciples also struggled.

An Easter afternoon, on the road to Emmaus, Jesus caught up with two disciples who were walking along that road talking about Jesus.

And he said to them, O foolish ones, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken.

Mark 16, Jesus rebuked the disciples for their unbelief and their hardness of heart, because they had not believed those who saw him after he had risen.

Resurrections were exceedingly rare, even in biblical history, even among the prophets.

So it's not unusual to have doubts about a resurrection.

And besides, no one ever raised himself.

But the resurrection would not have been impossible to believe.

The Hebrew scriptures record a resurrection in 2 Kings chapter 4, where the prophet Elisha raised the Shunammite's son from the dead.

2 Kings 4 · chapter mention

And surely these disciples would have known what Hebrews 11 records for us, that women received back their dead by resurrection.

And how could the disciples ever forget Lazarus?

They aren't that far distant from Lazarus.

They were there around the tomb where Lazarus ought to have been, pardon me, rotting.

And they saw him walk out of a tomb.

How could they doubt?

How could they question that?

And yet all of the disciples doubted.

Luke 24 tells us Jesus says, Why are you troubled and why do doubts arise in your hearts?

Spoken by Jesus when he was standing in their presence.

While he was in their presence, they doubted.

They questioned, Am I really seeing what I'm seeing?

But the ten, apart from Thomas, had already had the opportunity to see Jesus, to hear him, and perhaps even touch him to relieve their doubts.

Thomas missed out on all of that.

To make matters worse, he had to hear about it from them later.

Can you imagine what that was like?

Hey Thomas, we saw Jesus.

Yeah, right.

No, we really did.

No.

No.

People don't just rise from the dead.

Especially crucified ones.

So we see a two-part confession then by Thomas.

The first part is very negative.

Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails.

And place my finger in the mark.

And place my hand into his side, I will never believe.

Strong, strong statement.

Thomas uses a word here for placing my hand into his side.

He uses a word that means to thrust.

He says, I'm not content with simply touching a crucified hand.

I want to take my fist and thrust it into his side.

That's what will convince me.

I want to thrust my hand right into his side.

And unless that happens, I will never believe.

And there's another strong, strong statement of skepticism.

He says, I will not ever believe.

In Greek, you can use a double negative, and it's okay.

It amplifies it.

I will never, ever, ever believe unless I can thrust my hand into his side.

That was an expression of doubt that all of the disciples had, but it was given voice through Thomas.

For many, it took seeing Jesus to believe.

Like them, Thomas believed the evidence must be indisputable.

A week went by.

In ancient times, when counting days, you counted the present day.

So if you count eight days from today, including today, you get to next Sunday.

A week after the resurrection.

They're gathered together.

Everything is identical.

They're gathered in a room.

The doors are locked.

Jesus comes and stands among them and says the exact same thing.

Thomas's confession in verse 28.

Everything is identical.

Same situation, same greeting.

Jesus would graciously give Thomas exactly what the other disciples had already received.

Let's make sure we understand that as grace.

Jesus was under no obligation to reveal himself to Thomas, to in some way reverse his doubts.

Jesus didn't have to make up for what Thomas missed out on.

If we miss out on something great in our worship times together because we weren't at church, the Lord is not required to make up for what we miss.

But sometimes the Lord does step in to relieve our doubts, to grant us encouragement.

For example, remember the time.

When Jesus and his disciples were floating on the Sea of Galilee and there was a terrible storm, and these experienced fishermen, these sailors, were afraid that they were going to die.

They could not keep their boat from swamping in the middle of the storm.

And what's Jesus doing?

He's sleeping.

But what does he do?

He gets up and he calms the storm.

One night he comes walking on the water.

What does he do?

He says, Don't be afraid, it's just me.

He gives them encouragement, he calms their doubts.

Sometimes Jesus does that.

We cannot demand that to happen because demanding that God provide proof for our doubts is idolatry.

It makes us greater than God.

It puts us in a position of controlling God or seeking to twist his arm.

But sometimes God is gracious.

And in this situation with Thomas, Jesus himself took the initiative to reveal himself to Thomas.

Who knows what would have happened with Thomas had Jesus not done what he did?

Thomas said, this is what I need.

And Jesus revealed himself and said, Thomas, here you go.

Jesus took the initiative with the ten disciples, beginning in verse 19.

And now again he does it with Thomas present.

And in this situation with Thomas, Jesus confronts, he challenges Thomas's unbelief.

He says, Thomas, here you go.

Put your nail in the scar.

Thrust your hand into my side.

It's amazing.

There are two demonstrations of God's sovereignty, of Jesus' sovereignty.

One is he's there immediately, instantly, inside of a locked room.

The other demonstration of his sovereignty is that Jesus knew exactly what Thomas had said when Jesus wasn't present.

Jesus uses the exact same words that Thomas has used.

He says, Thomas, here you go.

Thrust away.

Thrust away.

Jesus graciously offered to Thomas the indisputable proof Thomas needed in order to believe.

But the issue here is not doubt, it is faith.

Jesus says to Thomas, Stop your disbelieving and believe in the resurrection of your Lord.

Apparently Thomas had let his realism or his pessimism overshadow his faith.

That's so common with us, isn't it?

For honest, we'll admit it's very common.

We let life and its hardships, its struggles, its realities.

We let all of those things that are cares and concerns and stresses in life come in and block out the light of life like a dark cloud blocks out the sun.

Jesus says, stop believing that the sun is gone and believe that it's there.

It's the belief in his resurrection.

Jesus says, stop disbelieving and believe I'm alive.

And so Thomas says, My Lord and my God.

You know, there's no evidence whatsoever that Thomas took Jesus up on his offer.

There's no evidence whatsoever that Thomas actually touched Jesus hand or thrust his wrist.

Instead, what is indicated to us here is that simply seeing and hearing the voice of his shepherd who laid down his life for him was sufficient for Thomas.

And he belts out this amazing expression of confession in Christ.

Very similar to what Peter said in Matthew 16: you are the Christ, the Son of the living God.

You know, Thomas's skepticism and pessimism apparently didn't run very deep because he was drawn out of that place to one of faith instantly.

My Lord and my God.

That's a personal, personal confession.

My Lord.

My God.

Very common, common title.

It's a declaration of deity.

Familiar to all of the Jewish people.

Psalm 35, verse 23, the psalmist says, Awake and rouse yourself for my vindication for my cause, my God and my Lord.

Psalms 35:23

And the Shema in Deuteronomy 6, hear, O Israel, the Lord our God, the Lord is one.

Do you get what Thomas was saying?

You're the God of Israel.

Why is that important?

It's important because of the Roman world.

The Roman historian Suetonius tells us that the Emperor Domitian claimed the title for himself, Dominus et Deus Nastor.

Our Lord and our God.

So who is Lord and who is God?

Caesar?

Or Jesus?

Whose tomb is empty?

Jesus is the word made flesh proven by the resurrection.

Puritan writer J.C.

Ryle says it is the language of amazement, of delight, of repentance, of faith and adoration, all combined into one sentence.

How do you respond to the revelation of a risen Lord?

What is your confession?

Or is there one?

Thomas tended toward pessimism and realism with a dose of skepticism and boldness.

But after Jesus revealed himself to Thomas, we begin to see Thomas more as a transition.

He's one of these people, he's sort of in the middle between people who saw and believed and people who didn't see and believed.

Because no longer do we see people seeing Jesus, but we see people expressing faith without seeing.

You know, we tend to say, sure, Thomas believed and made a great confession.

He saw the risen Lord, because seeing is believing, right?

Isn't that what everyone says?

He had an advantage.

But if we look carefully in verse 29, Jesus says, no, the blessing is really on those who believe without seeing.

Those who believe in the resurrected Lord without visual, physical proof are more blessed than those who need that.

Who is that?

Who is the blessed?

Who are the blessed?

It's you.

And it's me.

If you have come to believe that Jesus is the risen Lord who died on the cross for your sin.

You are more blessed by God than Thomas.

If you believe without seeing.

Verse 30.

Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book.

But these are written so that you may believe.

Believe what?

That Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name.

Those who come to Christ, understanding that this crucified man died, was buried, and rose again, are now blessed, are now joy-filled and given a unique privilege because your faith is greater than that of the disciples, because we haven't seen him.

And that is now the essence of following Christ.

That is the essence of our faith.

Isn't that what the Apostle Paul said?

He told the Corinthian church, we walk by faith, not sight.

That's what the author to Hebrews said in Hebrews 11.

Faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

He doesn't say, oh, the faith is something that we really hope might happen but might not.

No, he says it's the assurance.

We know.

We're convinced.

We have assurance through our faith.

On resurrection morning, Jesus, or sorry, resurrection night, Jesus told the ten that he was sending them out.

A week later, they were still in the same place.

Jesus' appearance to them apparently hadn't made that much of a difference yet.

Here's the irony.

Thomas, the one, the one history has blasted for doubting, the one who wasn't there for the original commissioning and who struggled with unbelief, became one of the very first disciples to obey Jesus' command to go.

The church history tradition is very, very strong about Thomas.

In fact, it may be stronger than any other disciple.

And according to church tradition, Thomas left Palestine and traveled as far as the southern point of India, establishing disciples all along the way.

In fact, there is still a small group of Christians in southern India called the Nasrani or the St.

Thomas Christians.

Still today, Thomas is called the apostle to India.

Thomas ceased his unbelief and then became a witness for the resurrection.

Do you struggle with the unseeable?

Confess your sin and confess Christ.

Because sin hinders our view of the resurrected Lord.

Then begin to cry out like the man in Mark 9 who said to Jesus, I believe.

Help my unbelief.

Remind yourself that God has revealed Himself to you in His Word.

Jesus appeared to over 500 disciples, demonstrating beyond question, the tomb is empty and he is alive.

We don't need to say with Thomas, unless I unless I see him and put my hand there.

We can see the word of God and rest in him even when doubts arise.

Jesus says to us, Stop disbelieving and believe.

Know that you are granted the great privilege of believing without seeing.

That is a great gift given to you by the power of the Holy Spirit.

And we begin to see as we put all of this together that Thomas is a great example to us of how pessimism and skepticism and doubt can be moved to a place of strong and credible faith and even boldness for Christ.

If you have doubts, if you struggle, don't stay there.

Follow Thomas.

Follow Thomas, the one who is changed.

We're all challenged from time to time, finding the words of the serpent echoing back and forth in our minds.

Has God really said?

Did God really say that?

Yes.

He has said.

He has really said that he sent his son to die in your place.

He really has said, and he really did die, and he was buried, and he lives today because he rose from the dead.

The great love of God for you is not only that he did all that he did, but that he grants the faith to believe it.

Please come to faith in him this very moment if you never have.

And those who confess this truth, who say with Thomas, my Lord and my God, have now a means of refreshing that faith through a simple memorial act.

We eat bread together.

We take a piece of bread that represents Jesus' broken body.

We take a little cup and we drink a bit of juice that reminds us and represents the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for the forgiveness of our sins.

And in that act, in that memorial, we we sort of join Thomas in the act of faith, in the place of faith, in the resurrected Lord, saying, as we eat that bread and we drink that cup, my Lord and my God.

And so we then all stand together with those who believe without seeing.

Let's pray together.

Lord Jesus, grant us the faith to believe.

Enable us to say, our Lord and our God.

Help our unbelief.

Lord, encourage us when we fail to confess our sin and to be renewed in our faith.

Take away the clouds of doubt that surround us, that swirl, that keep us from seeing the light of the risen Christ.

Enable us to see the great love of God for us.

And not simply coming and dying for us, but to demonstrate it in such a way that we can believe it.

Thank you for giving us people who saw you.

Thank you for giving us people like Thomas who struggled to believe, but who can show us it's possible to believe and to be bold.

Enable us as we gather together as your people to be reminded of you, of what you've done, that we will be drawn together as brothers and sisters before the throne of God, and to be able to see, not with physical eyes, but with eyes of faith, our risen Lord.

Amen.

That concludes this sermon from Faith Evangelical Free Church.

Our mission is to declare the Word of God and disciple believers into mature, devoted followers of Jesus.

You can learn more by visiting our website at faithfree.com.