Which is better, to see the risen Christ with your eyes or to hear about Him from witnesses? Stay tuned, Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition is next. Welcome to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind with author and teacher Dr. R.C. Sproul. Dr. Sproul is also the Senior Minister of Preaching and Teaching at St. Andrews, a Reformed congregation in Sanford, Florida. Who of us would not have wanted to be there when Jesus first appeared to his disciples after he rose from the grave? Thomas, also known as Doubting Thomas, did not accept the testimony of the other disciples. He wanted to see for himself before he believed. Surprisingly for Thomas, Jesus gave him what he wanted. Is seeing actually better than hearing? Does Thomas have better grounds for believing than we do? Today on Renewing Your Mind, we'll continue our way through the Gospel of John. In today's message, Dr. Sproul will explain the equal validity between seeing the risen Christ and hearing about Him. Here's Dr. Sproul with today's message, Doubting Thomas. Our lesson this morning comes from the 20th chapter, beginning at verse 19, reading through verse 31, which is the end of the chapter. Then the same day at evening, being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in the midst and said to them, peace be with you." When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. And if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. Now Thomas called the twin. One of the 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 the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. 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. Reach your hand here, put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. 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. 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. He who has ears to hear the word of God, let them hear." Obviously, even the disciples who believed the accounts and the eyewitness episodes that they enjoyed of the risen Christ still had difficulty coming to a full measure of understanding of its significance. They were a bit slow to grasp what was taking place, and I know that from the way John describes his situation. Here it is, Sunday evening, where most of them had already seen the risen Christ. They had the reports, but they're still in the upper room with the doors locked for fear of the Jews. You would think that the advent of Christ and His resurrected form would dispel all fears from them, but they were still huddled together there in the upper room. And it's into this situation that Jesus came, we are told, and stood in their midst. And he said to them, peace be with you. Now let me just comment briefly on that. That's the standard greeting of one Jew to another. You know it even to this day where one Jew will say to his friend, shalom, aleichem, aleichem, shalom. Peace be unto you and unto you peace. But if we look at the context of this greeting here, we see that John takes the pains in his account to mention these words of Jesus twice. Down there in verse 21, Jesus says to them again, peace be to you. And so that's a signal for most of the scholars who look closely at the text of John to come to the conclusion that John records this greeting not to waste space with the obvious, because it was customary, as I say, as customary as our saying hello and goodbye when we see somebody, for one Jew to greet another one by saying shalom. But here it's repeated twice, and it calls to mind instantly The final words that Jesus had uttered during His time with the disciples in the upper room on the night before His execution when He pronounced His last will and testament to them, saying, Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you. Not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your hearts be troubled. So before his death, he had promised the full reality of the bequest of his peace upon these people. Now, as he is raised from the dead, he enters into their midst, they're standing there, again in astonishment, and he says, peace be unto you, and he says, look. He shows them his hands. He shows them the wound in his side. as if to say, I did what I said I was going to do and I have won that peace for you. And here's how I did it, through my death, through my humiliation. And so he says the second time, peace to you as the Father has sent me I also send you. Here again, we see John's recapitulation of what the synoptic gospel writers give us in terms of the Great Commission, where Christ commissions His disciples to go into all of the earth, to every tribe, to every tongue, to every nation, proclaiming to them the work of Jesus. In this context, in John's gospel, it happens when Jesus appears to them and He says, I remind you, the Father sent me here. and just as the Father has sent me, so I send you." And when he did that, when he said that, he does something extremely unusual, and I have to confess, problematic in terms of understanding. We are told that Jesus breathes on them, and says, receive ye the Holy Spirit. What's that all about? Especially in light of the focus that the New Testament record gives on the redemptive historical significance of the day of Pentecost. And Jesus had told them that the Spirit would not fall until He left them. It would come after His departure, and so He had announced that the coming of the Spirit in power would be after He ascended to His Father in heaven. Here He is, He hasn't ascended, the day of Pentecost hasn't come yet, and yet He breathes on them and says, receive the Holy Spirit. Well, as I say, there have been all kinds of attempts to try to explain how that fits in with Pentecost, and rather than give you a detailed list of all the alternatives, let me cut to the chase and tell you what I think John is getting at in recording this and what Jesus has in mind. Classically, the prophets of the Old Testament not only preached the Word that they were given with their mouths, with their lips, but they also communicated through the use of the device that was called the object lesson, where they would act out certain dimensions of the promises of God that were yet to be fulfilled. And I believe that's what Jesus was doing here. This wasn't a surprise Pentecost. but rather I believe it was our Lord symbolically giving the object lesson to His disciples about what was actually going to take place in the very near future on the day of Pentecost. And it's significant because Jesus ties together their reception of the Holy Ghost with the symbolic gesture of his exhaling. Remember back in John chapter 3 with Jesus' discussion with Nicodemus when he says, unless a man is born of the Spirit, he cannot see the kingdom of God, he cannot enter the kingdom of God. Nicodemus being puzzled by that said, how can this be? Does a man climb into his mother's womb a second time? What a crass thought that was. And Jesus said, The wind blows where it will. You hear the sound of it, but you can't see where it comes from or where it's going. So is everyone who is born of the Spirit. Now, in that discussion, Jesus played with the language, because the word for wind is the same word for breath, and it's also the same word for spirit. And so he says to Nicodemus, as the pneuma blows, you can hear the sound, but you can't see where it's going or where it's going. So is everyone who was born of the pneuma. Same was true in the Old Testament language. And so here Jesus is equating the giving of the Holy Spirit with His own breathing. This is an astonishing claim. This is one of the reasons why the church says that the Holy Ghost proceeds not only from the Father, but from the Son. That the breath of a man, the breath of the human nature of Jesus is not powerful enough to bestow the Holy Spirit on anybody. But the breath of God incarnate is enough to bestow the Holy Ghost. And so in this symbolic action, he gives them a foretaste of that manifest moment that will take place at Pentecost. Now we move to the story of doubting Thomas. Thomas called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples said to him, we've seen the Lord. And so he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, put my finger into the print of the nails, put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Thomas says, thanks for your testimony. I can see you're all excited and carried away with what you think you've seen, your hallucinations and all the rest. You're talking with ghosts and spirits or whatever. But I'm from Missouri. And the only thing that will satisfy me is irrefutable empirical evidence. Unless I see it visually, hear it, touch it with a tactile reality, I will not believe. Then we read simply that after eight days, the disciples again were inside and Thomas was with them this time. and Jesus came, the doors are still shut, stood in the midst and said, peace to you. Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand here, put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving. Now, we don't know what elapsed in that eight days between the time that Thomas vocalized his unbelief and the time that Christ returns now and appears and shows him his hands and his side. Maybe the other disciples had spoken with Jesus and said, Jesus, we're all with you except Thomas, he's not going to believe unless he sees with his own eyes. Maybe that's how Jesus knew. Or maybe Jesus didn't have to hear a report from the rest of them. Knowing men's hearts, maybe he already knew the state of Thomas' unbelief, just as he knows this very moment the state of your faith or lack of it. And so, in any case, he appears now, presumably exclusively for the benefit of Thomas. And he said, okay, Thomas, here's what you want. Go ahead. Put your finger into my wounds. Look, my side hasn't even been healed yet. Put your hand into the side where I was pierced by the sword." You know, the Bible doesn't say that Thomas ever did touch Him. Apparently, he didn't have to. When he saw the living Christ standing there in the flesh, challenging him to touch him, Thomas gives us the highest confession of faith in Jesus that we read anywhere in Scripture. Because in a posture of worship, a posture of reverence, a posture of adoration, he cries out, My Lord and my God. Not just Messiah, not just teacher, rabbi, but the confession of faith of Thomas marks the confession of faith of the Christian church for two thousand years. My Lord, my sovereign one. using the title that is reserved for Almighty God in the Old Testament, the title Adonai, that God and God alone is given. In its New Testament sense, Thomas cries, Lord, my Lord. Beyond that, an unambiguous confession of the deity of Christ. My Lord, And my God, we remember on the occasion when Paul and Silas manifest supernatural powers, that those around them fell on their faces and began to worship Paul and Silas, at which point Paul sternly rebuked them and said, don't do that. We're human beings. We're men of flesh and blood just as you are. And so the apostles stopped instantly any attempt of people to worship them as gods. The same response is given biblically when angels become manifest and people are so awed by their supernatural endowments that they fall down and worship the angels and the angels have to rebuke people because it is an act of idolatry to worship anything or anyone less than God. But when Thomas confesses the deity of Christ, there's not a hint of rebuke from the lips of Jesus. Jesus doesn't say like Paul, stop that! I'm just a creature. Not only does he receive worship from Thomas, but he pronounces his benediction upon it. Listen to what he said, I don't want you to miss this. Thomas, because you've seen me, you have believed, and there's nothing wrong with that. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Jesus puts His benediction on all who receive Him as Lord and as God. And he even gives the added benediction to those who believe without the benefit of having had or experienced eyewitness testimony. Again, Thomas, you believe because you saw me with your own eyes. But blessed are those who have not seen, yet have believed. What's that all about? When Jesus said, blessed are they who believe, who have not seen, what He is saying is, God delights in that. God is pleased that there are people who believe in Christ who have never seen Him. Why would that be? I mean, as one who's been a professor of philosophy most of his adult life, I've been deeply concerned about the whole question of epistemology. How do we know what we know? How can you know anything for sure? And we look at the various methods by which we know truth. We look at rational deduction, which gives us formal truth. We look at empirical investigation, which gives us the physical evidence by which science makes decisions about reality. But then there's also the testimony of others, the record of the past, that witness that is given to us from the pages of history. I believe that George Washington was the first president of the United States, but I never met him. Never even seen a photograph, haven't seen him on television. But I'm trusting that the historical record is reliable enough to convince me of at least that information that he was the first president of the United States. Now, the question is, what's the highest form, the highest possible method of knowing anything? And I submit to you that the highest source of truth that you can possibly have is the Word of God. Higher than empirical evidence, higher than rational inference is the testimony of the Word of God. Jesus is not saying hearsay is better evidence than eyewitness testimony. But what he is saying is the testimony that my Father has given to me through the words, remember the men on the road to Emmaus when Jesus rebuked them for their unbelief and He began with the prophets and He said how God had prepared history for this moment, how slow of heart you are to believe all of the things that God has unfolded to you. If you believe in Christ today one way or the other, you do because of the testimony of sacred Scripture, which I trust more. than any epistemological source known to human science or investigation. We often hear the word joy used as a synonym for happiness, a momentary good feeling based on circumstances and contingencies. But what happens when circumstances have changed and the feelings have faded? What is biblical joy? Where do you get it? And how do you keep it? To help us understand the nature and source of true biblical joy, Dr. Sproul has put together a series simply entitled Joy. Today, we're offering this five-part series on CD for your gift to the ministry of any amount. Call this toll-free number to reserve your copy 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind and the word offer dot com. That web address is for this week's special offer only. In this series, Dr. Sproul discusses the biblical concept of joy, explaining that God provides a time for mourning, but it's not the worldly kind that leaves you bitter and without hope. Call us today to reserve your copy of this CD series, Joy, for a gift of any amount. Call 1-800-435-4343. Again, that's 1-800-435-4343. Or visit rymoffer.com. That's R-Y-M as in renewing your mind and the word offer.com. That will bring a close to this weekend edition of Renewing Your Mind. Thank you for being with us. Be sure to join us again next weekend as Dr. Sproul continues to take us through the Gospel of John. Until then, join us on Facebook.com slash Ligonier. You're listening to Renewing Your Mind Weekend Edition, the listener-supported radio outreach of Ligonier Ministries in Orlando, Florida. you