Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Welcome to the Least of These Podcasts. We reach out to those the world has forgotten. If you'd like to know more about us and how you can donate to help us fulfill our mission, go to hisloveministries.net. Thank you very much and God bless you. We're gonna be back in the book of John this morning and hopefully we'll finish up chapter 20 and then we just got one more chapter to go and we gotta figure out where we're gonna go from there. Praying for the Lord to lead me where he wants us to go, what book to go into next. And if y'all have some thoughts, y'all can give me a little input on that too, if you want to, and we'll see what the Lord has to say. Alrighty, John chapter 20, and we're gonna start in verse 24 today. Yeah, we're going to make it to verse 24 today. So remember the last time we were here, we've been talking about chapter 20, how Jesus was resurrected from the grave and Mary goes and looks and then she goes tells the disciples and the disciples They run back and John doesn't go in but Peter goes in and looks and he kind of glances and doesn't really He kind of wonders because everything's laid out perfectly. It's not disturbed like somebody robbed a grave and all the stuff's there all the linen the clothes that they wrapped him in and It's all there. And then John, he takes a long look and then he believes that Jesus is resurrected from the grave. They leave and they go back home and Mary, she keeps hanging around and she sees some angels and the Lord stops and speaks to her and she doesn't recognize him until he says, Mary. And then she says, Rabboni, teacher. And then he says, she must immediately grab him and start clinging to him. And he says, don't cling to me, I'm gonna ascend to the Father. And basically what he's telling them, and what we'll see is that relationship has changed. He's no longer the master that's gonna be with him all the time, every day, but he's gonna be the one that's there for the last. few times and he isn't always there but he comes and he goes and he comes and he goes and that's what we're going to see today. That he appears to them on the same day on the first day of the week and the doors are shut and apparently locked and the disciples are afraid and he appears and he shows them their hands on his side and says it is I and peace be to you. Finally they're not afraid but apparently as we'll see this time that they're upstairs again and they've got the door shut again. I don't know if they're still afraid or what, it doesn't say. He comes and he says basically the same thing, peace be to you, cuz they're still in danger. They're still in danger of the Jews because remember, Jesus is resurrected from the grave. They're his disciples and they wanna get rid of anybody associated with Jesus. Back in chapter 11, after Lazarus was raised from the dead, they didn't only want to kill Jesus, but they wanted to kill Lazarus too, because people were believing on Jesus because of that. Apparently here, let's read verses 24 through about 29. It says, now Thomas called a twin, one of the 12 was not with them when Jesus came. And 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 his nails and put my finger in. put my finger into the print of his nails, and put my hand in his side, I will not believe. Let's just stop right there. I'll talk about that first. Apparently, Jesus, the disciples have been going and telling Thomas, and they maybe told some other people that Jesus appeared to them. And from what it says here, they kept on telling Thomas. This way the Greek reads that they kept on telling and kept on telling. But Thomas, he wasn't with them when Jesus appeared the first time and he's missed out a lot because he wasn't there when they were there. Bible tells us in Hebrews chapter 10, verse 22 to 25, it says, don't forsake the assembling together as is the habit of some, but come together all the more so as you see the day approaching and encouraging one another and exhorting one another. and building one another up and Thomas wasn't there that first day and we don't know why he wasn't there but he missed out and so he probably lived in fear and unbelief a whole week unnecessarily had he been there had he been with the other disciples and so he comes and The disciples keep telling him, well, Jesus has come and we've seen him and all these things. And Thomas, he just, what does he say? He says, unless I see in his hands the print of his nails and put my finger in the print of the nails and put my hands in his side, I will not believe. And you know, Thomas has gotten that name Doubting Thomas. But you know what? This is the only time that Thomas doubts. I mean, when Jesus was ready to go and raise Lazarus, he said, let's go that we may die, you know, die with him. And I don't know exactly why he said that, but he was ready to go sound like and die at that point if he had to, to go and see about Lazarus. And this is the only time. And just think about the times that we've doubted. What if one time we doubted something? And then we got labeled doubting Marty or doubting whatever your name is for the rest of our life, you know. One man said it like this, you know, we always beat up on Peter, you know, because Peter, you know, they talk about Peter being doing all these wrong things, but the reason Peter did all the wrong things is because he was trying to do some great things. And when you look in the Bible, that he was always named first, and he was the greatest disciple up to the time Paul came. He got to preach that first sermon. And so Peter, you know, people beat up on Peter, but one day we're gonna meet up with Peter. I think we need to ease up on Peter a little bit. We need to do the same thing with Thomas, because here, really, The disciples were afraid. They didn't believe either, did they? And they were hiding up in the room. And so all Thomas really asked for was to see what the disciples had already seen. So that's all he asked for, but yet we beat up on Thomas. Because they weren't believing, they weren't trusting, they didn't see. And Jesus came and showed them, and so they got to see. So they could believe after that point, right? And so they kept telling him, we've seen the Lord. And so here it is a week later. on the next Sunday night, and remember all the appearances of Jesus, all the times they meet, as always on Sunday, and that sets up the day that we worship now, being the first day of the week, and we talked about that some last week, that now we get grace, and then we work, that it's through faith that we first trust in Christ, and then we work because we've been saved. We don't work and then rest. We get saved, then we rest. We rest in Jesus Christ because he is our peace, he is our rest. After eight days, verse 26, the disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. And 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 or reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. And Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Jesus shows up after eight days and his disciples were in. side again and Thomas was with him and it says the same thing that he was This time it doesn't say they were in there for the fear of the Jews But it says the doors were shut and all of a sudden what does Jesus do? He just appears, right? he appears through the doors and all of a sudden he's there and He just comes through the walls, comes through the doors, come through whatever he came through. He comes in and he just shows up out of nowhere again and what does he do? He stood in their midst and said to them, peace to you. So basically he comes in and he says the exact same thing, peace be to you. And he does the same thing that he did with the disciples a week ago. Maybe he did it that way because the disciples had already told him that's what happened and how it happened. And maybe that's going to help Thomas understand and grow his faith. And then he tells Thomas, what does he say? Reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. Even though he wasn't there, even though Thomas wasn't present when he said it, he does this and Thomas, you know, he's not doing this just to satisfy Thomas's curiosity. It's to bring him to faith that the resurrection was real. And it sounds like that Thomas, this is when he really truly believes and gets saved is what it sounds like. It sounds like his conversion is what it sounds like, because we'll see in a minute, because he calls him my Lord and my God. But here Jesus comes and his whole effort is to show people how to come to faith and believe in Christ. That's the whole point of this book, remember? Chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, and many other signs Jesus did. But these have been written about that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. Believe in, you might have life in his name. And so here we are, the whole thing, all the way through here, he says, unless I see, unless I see, and the disciples saw, and you know, this seeing is important here. Unless he sees, he can't believe. And you know, the thing, Thomas is just a skeptic at this point. You know, he's a show-me guy. I gotta see it, and unless I see it, I won't believe it. But anyway, the bottom line is, they're there, and all of a sudden, Jesus shows up, and you know what he does? Notice, we don't think about a lot of these things, but what does he do? He knows what Thomas said a week earlier, doesn't he? He knows what he says. He wasn't there, but he knows that Thomas has said, hey, unless I see. And the first thing he does is he comes in and he says, Thomas? Put your hand here, put your fingers here, put your hands on my side. And we don't know whether Thomas actually stuck his fingers in there or not. We don't know. One man says, maybe whatever Thomas did, you would have done. And I don't know what I would have done. I don't know. That would have been kind of weird if somebody said, stick your finger here. But if it's God, so stick your finger here, maybe you just do it because he told you to. I don't know. And so we don't really know. He kind of leaves it up to our imagination, whether he did or didn't, and we don't know. Here's the important thing that I think right here is that Jesus knew exactly what he thought. He knew his doubts. He knew everything. And you know what? Doesn't Jesus know our doubts? Doesn't he know our every thought? The Bible says that he knows our thoughts before we even think them. He knows the little things that go on in our life, the areas where we sin, the areas where we fail. He knows areas where we're strong. He knows it all, doesn't he? And that's like when he saw Nathanael in the beginning of the book, under the tree, and he knew what Nathanael was doing, and he knew what he was meditating in scripture and all that. And so he knows what we think. And so Jesus is God, and it shows here that he knows what Thomas was thinking and what Thomas was saying, even though he wasn't there. So Thomas blurts out this confession, and we don't know exactly, like I said, what he did. But here he is, he's convinced now. All of a sudden he's convinced, and in verse 28 he says, And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Now think about this, for a Jew to call another human being my Lord and my God was normally blasphemy. You can go back to John chapter 10 and verse 33. And the Jews answered him saying, for a good work we do not stone you, but for blasphemy, and because you being a man, make yourself God. That's what they told Jesus. My Lord and my God. And so he uses both Old Testament titles of deity for Jesus. He's my Lord and my God. He's Yahweh, he's Elohim, he's the Lord. the King of kings, the Lord of lords is what he is. And, and he says it and that's this kind of just blurts it out. I mean, I don't know what I'd have done, but you know, it doesn't say maybe fell on his knees too. I don't know what he did, but it says he cries out my Lord and my God. And so this is kind of the last confession of faith in the Bible. displays his faith in the resurrection. This also reveals to us who Jesus Christ is. The most unyielding skeptic has given us the most profound confession. Thomas is Mr. gotta show me and now he's totally and thoroughly convinced of Jesus. that Jesus is God. Just to kind of review, we haven't even really talked about this. I've talked about the seven witnesses. You know, we talked about the seven IM statements, the seven witnesses and the seven miracles, but I don't think I've ever really named those seven witnesses. But in chapter one, John the Baptist says this is the chosen one, literally the son of God. He also calls him the lamb of God that takes away the sin of the world, right? And Nathanael, the guy I was talking about, he's under the fig tree and he's meditating on that ladder, which is Jesus, the ladder, Jacob's ladder going up and down from heaven. And Jesus tells him that and he says, you are the son of God, the king of Israel. Peter in chapter six, he says, you know, Jesus says, are you gonna leave me too? Because everybody else has left after all this hard teaching he gives them. And he says, you're the holy one of God. To whom will we go? You have the words of life. And Martha, when Lazarus is being resurrected. She says, you are the Christ, the Son of God. And of course, Thomas says, my Lord, my God. And then John the Apostle in chapter 20, verse 30 and 31, we know that, says Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God. And lastly, Jesus over in John chapter 10, verse 36, and a couple of other places where he says, of course, every time he says, I am the bread of life, I am this, he's saying he's God, but he says, I am the Son of God. And remember that word son doesn't mean less than. In the old days, if you said you're the son of so and so, you said whatever my father is, I am. Father was a carpenter, the son was a carpenter. Whatever the father was, the son was. And so people wanna take that term son of God and they wanna say, well, that makes him less of God, but it's not. He's saying I'm equal with God every time he says he's the son of man, the son of God. He said whatever man is, I'm man. Whatever God is, I'm God. I'm all God and I'm all man. Don't ask me to explain that, but the Bible says that God put on human flesh. God is a spirit. John chapter four, and he put on human flesh. And so nobody's previously addressed Jesus like this. It's a mark of a leap of faith. And at that moment, he comes to see that Jesus indeed is risen from the grave. And mere men don't rise from the grave. And this one that had died, and we know that he died. It was definitely, you can't, Be have all done to you that Jesus had done to him and not die What does Jesus say to Thomas? verse 29 Jesus said to him Thomas Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. He says here, blessed. And we like to say that, blessed. I don't know, we use old King James, old English. Blessed does more than describe somebody that's happy. it also declares them acceptable to God, right? I mean, blessed, he says, blessed are those who mourn and weep over their sin. Blessed are you when you're persecuted for my sake. And so what does Jesus do? He pronounces a blessing upon those who don't get to see and yet have faith in Jesus Christ. He's saying it's a good thing you believe, Thomas, as a result of sin, as a result of this sign, but blessed are you. If you believe and you don't get to see the proof of the thing, you won't prove it. That's what we call faith, right? And so we see God and his grace coming down to Thomas's level, but also tell us that not all of us are going to get to see. You just have to believe, that's what it comes down to. Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Faith is the substance of things hoped for. the realization of things not seen. In other words, we have confidence that it's true, even though we haven't seen it, right? We believe, because we trust. And, you know, most believers didn't get to see. It was a very few people that did write that actually got to see him, but we have his scripture. We have his word. He's got us in mind. Blessed are us who have not seen, but yet believed. And so this is really the climax of the book because it presents Jesus Christ as the risen Lord. He's victorious over sin and sorrow and doubt and death. And it presents that faith accepts not only the truth of what Jesus said, but also the actuality of who he is, the Son of God. Thomas is an example of how faith comes to maturity, and so how it changes our entire life. I mean, faith changes you, doesn't it? If it doesn't, you didn't get it. Well, I was trying to remember, you know, some people, you know, it's like you go get the placebo, you know, and you didn't get the real thing. Some people think they got the real thing. But if you got the real thing, you're going to be changed. The Bible says if anyone is in Christ, they're a new creation. The old things are passed away. All things have become new. When we think about this, and many people tried to say that the body was stolen and all these things, but Jesus appears and it's impossible to cover something like this up. To think that these guys that were scared for their lives, they were hiding up there, gonna go steal the body and do all that stuff. But you know what? If there had been a body to produce, they would have produced it, right? It was only one body to produce, and that was the one that went around to all the believers. And you know, I've said that before, and I don't know if you caught that, but when you read the Gospels, after Jesus was resurrected, He did not appear to anybody but those who were already His disciples, those that were following Him, those who were already believers or followers, who had trusted in Him and believed in Him up to that point. I don't know whether it was true Saving faith up to that point and it became saving faith afterwards But you know the Bible says you got to believe that Jesus is God that he's Lord and that God has raised him from the dead. Maybe that's the final part of the puzzle, that somewhere along the line you believe that, right? And so nobody can produce a body, and there's been many people, we've talked about some of these people, Lee Strobel's one of those guys, we talked about one of these guys that taught lawyer classes a while back, and both of these guys have been non-believers. And they went in and they treated it like They examined every bit of evidence, everything that was said, everything that was done, and when they got through, they came to the conclusion that Jesus is God and this all happened. There's no other way, no other point that you can come to. You have to come to this conclusion. And so Peter says in 1 Peter 1 verse 8, whom not having seen you love, though now you do not see him, yet believing, You rejoice with joy, inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. And so even though you haven't seen him, you believe. We've seen 35 miracles up to this point, somewhere in that vicinity. And, you know, they hadn't seen the Christ. Here's the flow of the book. They're looking for the body. Christ appears, their fear turns to joy. Doubting people are convinced. Their doubt is taken away. Thomas really believes. And then Jesus says, when you go out, proclaim forgiveness of sins. You know, we talked about that last week when he breathed on them and says, as the Father sends me, so I send you. That's our job. That's what it's all about, to tell others about Jesus. And then lastly, he says there in verse 30 and 31, and we'll finish up with this. He says, 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 might have life in his name. And so John says these signs, Jesus did a whole lot more of them, but I wrote about these that you might believe. You know, Jesus said, you know, it's kind of weird, because he says, even if somebody came back from the grave, they wouldn't believe. But he says, yeah, we have these signs that you might believe. The very things that people are looking for, sometimes they won't believe, and sometimes they do. But Jesus is doing these. And the sign shows us something, doesn't it? Every time Jesus does a miracle, he's pointing to something. Like the blind man in chapter 9, a long time ago, we were talking about him. What's the point? Jesus has power over creation. He has power over misfortune. But what's the point? Point is that all of us are blind. All of us need new eyes, new eyes to see. And Jesus says, I'm the light of the world. I'm the one that gives you new sight. I create new hearts. I create new eyes. I create new people. Jesus' message is the sign of the blind man is not that I can just give you new eyes. And while He cured somebody, but it's that He can save us. That we're all spiritually blind and we all need to be cured. So John says, look at these signs, they're written. And just to sum them up real quick, remember Jesus changed water into wine and that was His power over life and He's the source of life. And there the disciples believed. He healed the official's son, and that showed Jesus' power over distance. The officials in his household believed. He healed the paralytic. That would show Jesus' power over time. And the paralytic, we don't think he believed because of the way he treated Jesus, but we know that the Jews didn't believe. When he fed the 5,000, that was Jesus' power over quantity and to show he's the bread of life. And some people in the crowd believed. He walked on the water, that showed Jesus' power over nature. And the disciples believed at that point. Healing a man blind, we said that was power over creation and misfortune. And the blind man believed, and of course the Pharisees said, this man's a sinner, right? And then he raised Lazarus, and that was his power over death. Mary, Martha, and many of the Jews believed, but the Jewish authorities didn't believe again. And so he presents Jesus as the Christ. He's the divine Messiah. If we know him, it not only affects this, that affects our whole life. So let's talk about a couple of lessons and we'll finish up. First of all, one of the lessons is that the graveside can bring incredible grief in life, but the faith of the believer moves beyond the grave. You know, we're separated from people. The disciples are separated from Jesus. And that's what death is, is being separated from people. But you know what? they're in a better place, right? If they know Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. Grief's tough. It's not meant to be simple, but the believer in Christ has hope that the world doesn't have, because we'll see those people again. Second thing, suffering is universal, but misery is optional. Suffering is universal, but misery is optional. There's a guy that is a quadriplegic named Charles Wedemeyer. He's 100% dependent on other people. He used to be a very successful coach. Now he's 100% dependent on other people. And somehow he manages to convey what he wants to say to his wife. And he says to her, suffering is universal. But misery is optional. And you know what? We have to decide, are we gonna let the suffering and the tough things in life make us miserable and everybody else around us? Are we gonna trust in Jesus and keep our eyes fixed on him and say, sometimes this old earth, it's a tough place to be, a rotten place to be sometimes. And like Jesus said, you know that his world is not our home. And if we know Jesus, We're wishing for a better place, that mansion over the hilltop, right? We're wishing for that place. The third thing is God's peace comes only through Jesus Christ. If you want peace in this life, if you want the joy, the peace, the abundant life, it only comes through Jesus Christ, right? And I read a couple of these verses last week or the week before. I'll just read you one of them. Isaiah 26, verse three, you will keep him in perfect peace. whose mind has stayed on you. That's a good one. That's a real simple one. You can remember that one. It's real short. I will keep him in perfect peace whose mind has stayed on you. God is the you. Jesus knows everything. He knew everything about what Thomas was thinking. He knows everything we think. He knows our fears. He knows our doubts. He knows where we struggle. Give it all to Jesus. because he knows all about us. What's that song? Jesus knows all about our struggles. Tell him all about your troubles. And he will, what is that? Have a little talk with Jesus. That's what the song is. Have a little talk with Jesus. Tell him all about your troubles. You know, and then Thomas's declaration of faith that marks the climax of the book. It's our example. Romans 10, nine and 10 says if you believe, in your heart, that means with your whole being that Jesus is God, and that God has raised him from the dead, and now shall be saved for you with, you confess with the mouth unto salvation, but you believe with the heart, with your whole being, unto righteousness. Sometimes we believe, if we not believe, then what proof do we really want? I mean, we've heard of all these proofs, you know, chapter nine, epileptic demonized son the disciples couldn't cast out the demon and and Jesus rebukes them for that but the man he says do you believe and he said Lord I believe help thou my unbelief you know and I pray that a lot because I know I have a tendency we all do to not believe so I say Lord I believe help my unbelief help me not to be a unbeliever help me to believe you help me to trust in you Do you do that? I mean, that's what we all need to do. Lord, help me to believe in you, trust in you, no matter what. You know, and it's not that I think I can, I think I can. We've been sold that lie, the little train that could. We can't. We can do all things through Christ who strengthened us. That means we can go through everything. But we can't manufacture that. We can't do everything our own. That's the world's philosophy. I think I can, I think I can. I say I know I can, I know I can. But I know I can do all things through Christ Jesus who strengthens me. And so ultimately your faith is not in the outcome, but your faith is in the one who controls the outcome. See, you gotta remember who you're trusting in. You gotta remember who you're believing in. You gotta remember who you're following. And the one that you're following and trusting in and believing in is Jesus Christ, right? He'll never leave you, never forsake you, and he'll never disappoint you. So if you hadn't trusted in him, trust in him today. Cry out and say, Lord Jesus, save me. And if you know him, just help him. Just ask him, say, Lord, I believe. Help thou my unbelief. I don't always trust like I ought to. Help me to trust you more, believe in you more, and follow you closer. Be like Peter, make a few mistakes if you have to, but that's just because you followed too close. And you get up as close as you can and you're trying to do everything God wants you to do. I think it was even one of those guys like Eisenhower, one of those guys said that you're gonna make mistakes when you try to do something good. When you try to do what's right, you're gonna make mistakes. Somebody said it's better to soil with the eagles than stay on the ground with the turkeys or something, the buzzards, something like that. Anyway, well let's pray and then we'll sing number 39. Father, we thank you for your grace and your mercy and love. We thank you that when we're unbelieving, that you are there for us. You said when we're faithful, when we're unfaithful, you're not unfaithful to us. So Lord, help us to trust in you and know that you're always there for us. that if you did the greater thing, died on the cross for our sins and died in our place, won't you do these lesser things and be there for us in our times of trouble? Help us to trust in you and to follow you and just stick close to you like Peter did, Lord. And know that we'll make some mistakes, but Lord, help us to trust you no matter what, no matter where we are, no matter what we go through. Help us to follow you closely and keep our eyes fixed on Jesus, the author and the finisher of our faith. We thank you for that, in Jesus' name, amen. Hi, I'm Marty McKenzie with His Love Ministries. Please help us reach out to those the world has forgotten. Everyone we minister to is locked up in some way, shape, or form. Those in the nursing home facilities are locked up in bodies that do not work, in a wheelchair, or in a bed. We minister to children and youth who are locked up because of behavioral problems. Some have told us we want to have a real family because their parents have lost or given up custody of them. Other kids are locked up because they've committed crimes. We also minister to those locked up at the jails and the prisons, to those locked up in addictions to drugs, alcohol, depression, and suicidal thoughts, to those locked up in a variety of other things that keep them from becoming who Jesus wants them to be. He came to give us abundant life, joy, and set us free. And these people that we minister to are not free. Our desire is to show them whatever their background, no matter what they've done, to see how much God loves them. We seek to help them receive forgiveness and freedom from their sin in Jesus Christ. We minister in the local area of Savannah, Georgia and surrounding Effingham and Chatham area. We have recently expanded our ministry to the Lexington, Columbia, South Carolina area. We do over 2,000 services every year. We hope and pray that you will support us in some way so we can continue our mission. Go to HisLoveMinistries.net and click on the Donate Now button or send it via regular mail to Post Office Box 1881, Lexington, South Carolina, 29071. We hope and pray that you will do that. Thank you and God bless you. And you shall know the truth and the truth shall set you free. John 8 32.