Now, John 20, of course, is John's account of Christ rising from the dead. We just passed Easter on our own calendar, so we just did a study of Christ rising from the dead. But on Easter Sunday morning here at church, we took our text mostly from Matthew's account, and we jumped into the book of Acts for quite a bit of our study, if you recall as well. And I'll make reference to some of that tonight, too. It's really impossible to talk about the resurrection and not mention those things. What we didn't do on the Sunday morning of Easter is make much reference to John's account. And a few of us were just talking in the room here before the live stream started. And this is really, I think, one of the most magnificent things about the way the New Testament covers the resurrection of Christ. A lot of people, maybe just because, I don't even know if I should speculate on the reasons why, but people just view the Bible as like strictly this religious book that just tells this story of the Messiah, of Jesus Christ. You have to remember that Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, each one of those is somebody's account of Christ rising from the dead. Here comes some more people coming in, so. All right. And each one of them, then, each one of the writers, gives you a look at different sets of details surrounding all of that. Same story, same account, I should say, emphasizing, perhaps, though, different details. And that's one of the things that makes it so plausible. I get frustrated sometimes when I hear of people like talking about the account of Christ and his crucifixion and his resurrection and talking about looking for some sort of external corroboration or something like that. And there are things in ancient literature that speak of Jesus outside of the New Testament. But remember what the New Testament is. It's not just like this religious book that fell down out of heaven or something like that. These four Gospels, especially Matthew, Mark, Luke and John, these are eyewitness accounts of Christ's life and of his ministry and of his crucifixion and of his burial and of his resurrection. and of his ascension back into heaven. These are your corroboration. Each one of them corroborates the other. And the fact that you have these, they pick out different details, which right from the beginning here I'll be able to give you an example of, that just makes them so, even just to like a natural mind you would read them, and if we would honestly think about them, it just makes them so, Plausible is always the word that comes to my mind. And we know, we who have believed on the Lord Jesus Christ, we have His Spirit in us. It is the divine Word of God. It is God-breathed Scripture. We know that it's real and it's true. He has shown Himself to us. He's come into us and He's changed us. And so we know that. But just even to the person who just reads it, as if it's a testimonial of something. To read Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John, you have to come away concluding, if you're honest about it, these guys saw this stuff, this happened, right? And that's one of the wonderful things about these four accounts that we have. So tonight we take a look especially at John's account, though very quickly I'm going to bounce back to Matthew's to just give you an example of what we're talking about. So with that said, let me open us with prayer. And then we will, I won't read through the whole thing. We'll just, we're gonna cover it. We're gonna try to cover this entire chapter tonight, like we did last week, but we'll just take it like a section at a time. And the first section will just be the first verse. So, all right, let's bow before the Lord, everybody. Let's pray and let's open our study. Our Father in heaven, We thank you for this time now that we have to come to your word. Yes, they are eyewitness accounts written down by men that you ordained, but every word is yours. All scripture is God-breathed, given by inspiration of God. Fio nustas. And we praise you for your word. Not only is your word perfect, inerrant, but your word is entirely sufficient to teach what is needed to know to bring a person to salvation by your grace through faith. And critical, so important, Lord, in all of it, is that Jesus, our Lord and Savior, your only begotten son, rose from the dead. could not be more clear, actually rose from the dead and then ascended back to heaven and will come again one day. And as we study these scriptures here tonight, I ask Lord God that you would guide me as I speak and help all of us as we listen, that we might have just reaffirmed in the depths of our souls this magnificent, glorious truth which brings to us salvation. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus' name we pray, amen. All right, so John chapter 20, verse one says, now the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb early while it was still dark and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, right? So let's just stop there and talk about that a little bit because this is an example of what I was talking about in the introduction about how these four individual accounts pick out different details, but they're all cohesive with one another. It's one person, it's like one person saw, they all saw the same things, but one person saw and remembered this and wrote it down, another person saw and remembered this and wrote it down, and you get it, and it's all together, and it's marvelous and wonderful. So John very simply tells us it's the first day of the week, right, so what we would call Sunday, And the reckoning of days among the Jews most commonly would be thought, at least with regards to the religious calendar for sure, would be thought of the first day of the week for them would have started at sunset. on what we would call Saturday night and run through all day on Sunday. And we're told here that on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb while it was still dark, so it was actually pre-dawn, and she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb. Now, just to read Matthew's account of that, which we read on Easter Sunday here at our church. Here's how Matthew recorded that. Now after the Sabbath, right? So the Sabbath would have been the seventh day, right? So after sometime after sunset on what we would call Saturday night, that's when the Sabbath would end. after the Sabbath, as the first day of the week began to dawn. So again, all of this is happening, the reference to dawn would refer to the part of the first day of the week, like right between the darkness of what we would call Saturday night and the dawn of what we would call Sunday morning. So just in this very important period of just maybe an hour or minutes even, It says, as the first day of the week began to dawn, Mary Magdalene, there's Mary Magdalene again, she's central to all of this, and the other Mary came to the tomb. And behold, there was a great earthquake, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. Now John doesn't record that. John, whether it's just for simplicity's sake, or maybe John was just writing probably so many decades later, or maybe John was getting his information from Mary Magdalene and this is how she remembers it. For whatever reason, that aspect of the story is not recorded by John. Doesn't mean it didn't happen, just not what John reports to us. They're actually perfectly cohesive with one another when you read them side by side. There's this earthquake, an angel comes down from heaven, came and rolled back the stone from the door and sat on it. The angels even described, his countenance was like lightning and his clothing as white as snow. And the guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men. But the angel answered and said to the women, which is only Mary Magdalene in John's account, but there were obviously other women there too, because Matthew records that, and the other women become part of John's story eventually here. Do not be afraid, for I know that you seek Jesus who was crucified. He is not here, for He is risen, as He said. Come, see the place where the Lord lay, and quickly go and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and indeed He is going before you into Galilee. There you will see Him. Behold, I have told you. So what John will eventually go on to report is that Jesus actually appeared to them that day where they were staying in Jerusalem. But Matthew's account just records what the angel said that day, that he would appear in Galilee, which of course he does. And that comes up in John's gospel eventually. If you're not following all this, that's perfectly understandable because I'm kind of saying it all very quickly. But it's a good thing to do, to sit down and just kind of read all four of the resurrection accounts. And I just find it so wonderful and marvelous that you get these four individual perspectives on the same historic event, which just so solidly buttresses the reliability of the account that you're getting. This happened. This happened. Amen. So they went out quickly from the tomb with fear," this is still Matthew's account, "...with fear and great joy, and ran to bring his disciples word. And as they went to tell his disciples, behold, Jesus met them, saying, Rejoice! So they came and held him by the feet and worshiped him. Then Jesus said to them, Do not be afraid. Go and tell my brethren to go to Galilee, and there they will see me." Right? So Matthew includes like the other women. John focuses on Mary Magdalene. John's account goes on to say, well, in verse 1, it said that she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb, which is true. John just didn't include the part about the angel actually rolling it away and the earthquake and everything else. Verse 2. in John's account, jumps right to, then she ran and came to Simon Peter, which kind of just jumps over some of the details that Matthew had shared, right? So you see how they fit almost like a puzzle together with one another, like so perfectly? It's beautiful. So she ran and came to Simon Peter and to the other disciple whom Jesus loved, which we explained last week was a way that John described himself, the humility. He would not even like name himself, you know, when referring to himself in the narrative by name. And he just simply wanted to be known by the love that Jesus had for him. which I said it last week, I'll say it again this week. In the modern world that's dominated by social media and other media, people are obsessed, even within the Christian church, with like making names for themselves. John is writing what eventually becomes the Bible, the most important piece of literature in the history of the world, and won't even name himself, you know, in it. So pretty remarkable, I think. An example. Quite a contrast, too. came to Simon Pieper and the other disciple whom Jesus loved, said to them, They have taken away the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid Him. Peter therefore went out, and the other disciple, and were going to the tomb. So they both ran together, and the other disciple outran Peter and came to the tomb, and he, stooping down, and looking in, saw the linen cloths lying there, yet he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb." Right? So John got there first, but Peter went in first. Went into the tomb, and he saw the linen cloths lying there, and the handkerchief that had been around his head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded together in a place by itself, right? Then the other disciple who came to the tomb first, went in also and he saw and believed. For as yet they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead. Then the disciples went away again to their own home. So just a couple of comments about that passage. First of all, let me just say this. Over the years, a number of things have been said about the cloths that Peter and John found when Peter went in first and then about this handkerchief that had been around his head and was folded up by itself and and was set off to the side and lots of like interpretations or theories about what that meant or why that was like that have been put forth. There's a very popular thing that people have said about the symbol of the handkerchief being folded up and set off to the side as being in accordance with some known Jewish tradition or something like that. But most of that, I have to tell you, has been proven not to be true. So take those things with a grain of salt. When you read them, the Bible simply doesn't say why it is. But there is one thing. We want to stick within the realm of what we actually can read and know. And for something that has been wrapped around someone's head, the head of a dead person's body, to now have been folded up and placed off to the side by itself, that does demand that you conclude what? That it was done on purpose. It didn't just like get that way by itself, right? So who folded it and put it there? Bible doesn't say. But the fact of the matter is, it would lend credibility, I think, to the idea that Jesus rose from the dead And it wasn't like people just stole his body away. I mean, it would seem that there wasn't any great pressure. We were told that the soldiers fell down like dead men. And it may be that Jesus himself just folded the thing up and set it off to the side as kind of a sign that there wasn't any foul play at work here. It was very intentional and deliberate and took his time. got up and left the grave, okay? And no stone necessarily, by the way, needed to be rolled back for Jesus to come out. You'll see later in this very account in the Gospel of John that he shows up right in the middle of their house without the doors being opened. Jesus is divine, you know, supernatural power. There's no stone that can hold Jesus anywhere. I would contend, as I have many times, including this past Easter, that the stone was rolled away so the disciples could go in and see that he wasn't there. You never actually read in any of the four gospel accounts, and then Jesus got up and walked out of the opening in the tomb. No, you don't see that. You see the tomb being opened and then people going in to see that he was gone, right? So you try to stick with what's actually written on the page. I want to say something that'll be a little bit of a repeat of what we did on Easter, but it bears the repetition. Verse 9, they did not know the scripture that he must rise again from the dead and When I think of that, I immediately think of what? I think of the Psalm 16, Psalm 1610. And we made something of this on Easter Sunday morning. But Psalm 1610 says, you will not leave my soul in Sheol, nor will you allow your Holy One to seek corruption, right? That was a Psalm of David. and it says two things. You will not leave my soul in Sheol. Sheol means basically dead, the place of the dead or the state of being dead. In other words, you will not leave my soul dead, nor will you allow your Holy One, Holy One there is Messiah, you will not allow your Holy One to see corruption. And the corruption that that's a reference to is the decay of the body. So the person about whom David is writing was going to rise from the dead and was going to rise from the dead quickly. So Jesus rising from the dead and rising from the dead on the third day is a fulfillment of Psalm 1610 because David's body was still in its tomb for centuries and centuries and centuries later, right? So Peter makes the point In Acts chapter 2, I won't read the whole thing because we just did this, but in Acts chapter 2, when Peter preaches at Pentecost, he makes that point for his audience when declaring to the audience there that Jesus had risen from the dead. He quotes from Psalm 16 and then says, Let me speak to you freely of the patriarch David, that he is both dead and buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Therefore, here's the key, being a prophet, and knowing that God had sworn with an oath to him that of the fruit of his body, according to the flesh, he would raise up the Christ to sit on his throne, he foreseeing this, spoke concerning the resurrection of Christ, that his soul was not left in Hades, which is the Greek equivalent of Sheol, the Hebrew Sheol, the place of the dead, nor did his flesh see corruption. So that's what Peter does at Pentecost. And the reason I'm pointing this out was, When they went to the tomb and Jesus wasn't there, we're told in John's text that they did not understand yet that the scripture said that he must rise again from the dead. But by the time Pentecost comes and Peter is preaching, Peter understands that the scripture says that Messiah must rise from the dead, right? It's one of those mysteries, something that was unknown or not fully understood until Christ came and fulfilled it, right? So when Christ rose from the dead, then they began to learn things about what the Bible said about, ah, yes, so that's what that means. And there you see at Pentecost, Peter preaching it boldly. You follow that? That's glorious and marvelous, I think. And Paul did too. I won't read that now, but Paul in, we made the point on Easter Sunday that in Acts chapter 13, Paul himself preached and quoted the same psalm and made the same point as Peter. All right, so let's press forward. By the way, before we go forward, I always say that and I stop myself. In Luke chapter 24, in Luke's account of the resurrection, you can look for it, look at it for yourself. But in Luke 24, verses 19 through 27, it records Jesus walking on the road to Emmaus with those two brothers, right? And Jesus asks them, why are you sad? And their answer is, well, everything that's happened, you know, we thought that this Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah, but he died. And now we've heard a report that he's not in his grave anymore. And that's why they're sad. And then it says, Jesus gives them a very gentle, loving rebuke. And then it says in that passage that he opened the scriptures to them. And so he began to teach them on the road from the scriptures that Messiah needed to suffer and die, and that Messiah would be buried, and that Messiah would rise from the dead. And, you know, their testimony is, after they get to Emmaus, and Jesus becomes known to them in the breaking of bread, and then Jesus suddenly disappears, they say, didn't our hearts burn within us when he shared these things with us on the road? So there were a lot of things that the Old Testament prophesied about Messiah, his death, his burial, and his resurrection, that weren't understood until they happened, and Jesus began to teach them, and now the Holy Spirit teaches us. So we know these things with confidence, right? Glory to God. Now, verse 11, we go back to Mary Magdalene. But Mary stood outside the tomb weeping, and as she wept, she stooped down and looked into the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting. similar to Matthew and Mark's account as well and Luke's, one at the head, the other at the feet, where the body of Jesus had lain. Then they said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, Because they have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Now, when she had said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, and did not know that it was Jesus. Jesus said to the woman, woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? And she still doesn't know that it's Jesus that's talking to her. She, supposing him to be the gardener, said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him and I will take him away. Jesus said to her, Mary. And that's like the moment, you know, when Jesus says her name, Mary. She turned and said to him, Rabbi, which is to say teacher. And of course, obviously there's an embrace because Jesus says to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brethren and say to them, I am ascending to my father and to your father and to my God and to your God. What a marvelous thing that Jesus, you know, the history of Mary Magdalene, the gospel of Mark, in chapter 16, records that Jesus had cast seven demons out of her, right? So Mary Magdalene is someone that, and we don't have the time to study it all now, but Mary Magdalene is someone who just loved Jesus, as we know. I mean, Jesus had really just touched her life and saved her, and she was like fully devoted to him. Obviously, John writing his gospel many decades after this happened, and John having these details about Mary Magdalene post-resurrection that the other Gospels do not, would seem to indicate that Mary Magdalene was very much part of the picture. You don't really read about her in the Book of Acts, but the fact that she's still things that she would know are being conveyed in John's gospel would seem to indicate that she was still on the scene for quite some time and was a faithful servant of the Lord. So it's just amazing and beautiful to see all of this. And look at the message that Jesus dispatches her to go back to the rest of them with a message. And look at the message First of all, he says, don't cling to me. I don't think that meant anything like you can't touch me or anything like that. I think the idea of don't cling to me is like don't hold on to me, because he wasn't planning on staying. The story wasn't just that he rose from the dead and now he's going to fulfill everything and that's it. No, he was going to leave. He was going to leave not by crucifixion now, now he's going to leave by ascending back to his father. So he's telling Mary, don't get used to this, right? Don't hold on to me, this is not the end yet. But go and tell my brethren, I need you to go and tell them what? I am ascending to my father, and look at this, and your father. Isn't that great? I'm ascending, not just I'm ascending to my Father, I'm ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Isn't that great? Christ's Father is our Father when we're in Him. The God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ is the God and Father of you and I if we are in Him by faith. Amen? Glorious and wonderful. Glorious and wonderful. He is a God and Father who we have a relationship with. We can pray to Him. We can trust in Him. We can take our burdens to Him. We can learn of Him. We can be taught by Him. We can cry out to Him for comfort and healing and peace. And we submit everything to His will, knowing that His will is always perfect. Jesus said, my Father is their Father. You go and tell them that. My God is their God. You go and tell them that. And John writes it down, and those words continue to reverberate for the last 2,000 years for anyone who will come to faith in Jesus Christ. The Father of Jesus Christ becomes the Father of all of those who are His. The God and Father of Jesus Christ becomes the God and Father of all of those who are in Him by faith. Hallelujah. Now you know what Abraham meant way back in the day when God said to Abraham, I should say, what Abraham heard. What? God said, I am your exceedingly great reward. We have Him. It doesn't mean that everything in life goes our way. Life is filled with troubles and hardships, but we have Him. Isn't that enough? Isn't that the best? Yeah. Praise the Lord. I hope that's true for you. Mary Magdalene came and told the disciples that she had seen the Lord and the things that he had spoken to her. Then, watch this. That same day at evening, being the first day of the week, so we're still, now we're towards the end of the day. We're in that kind of sundown-ish kind of part of the day at the end of what we would call Sunday. When the doors were shut, it makes the point that the doors were shut, right? Meaning Jesus didn't come knocking on the door and asking people to open the door for him. On 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. Wow. So they're assembled, they're being secret about it and quiet about it because they're afraid and then wham, Jesus is there right in the midst of them. Hallelujah. And he said, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side, you know, the scars from the nails and the spear. And the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Now watch this. A few things very important happen here now. Three things. Verse 21. So Jesus said to them again, peace to you. And watch this. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. So Jesus was sent by the Father. And now these guys, who are what? These are his disciples, right? They're going to be sent. The Greek word where it says, Jesus says, as the father sent me, the word sent there is apostello, apostello, which is where we get the word, what? Apostle, right? So here's their moment where like they were disciples and now they're apostles, right? Because he's going to send them. That's what the word apostle means. And I also send you. The second use of the word send there is the word pempo because that's another word that would describe just dispatching someone. So just as the father apostello me, I'm going to pempo you. When they fully become known as apostles is when. when the Holy Spirit comes at Pentecost and fills them, right? And that's when they begin to fulfill Christ's prophecy of you're going to preach the gospel here in Jerusalem and in all Judea and in Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth. I'm going to apostello you everywhere. Praise the Lord. That's the first thing he says. Then the second thing that happens in verse 22, when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. This is something that gets wrapped up in a little bit of mystery and confuses people. I don't think you should let it hang you up. The Holy Spirit didn't descend on them in the fullness of his power until after he ascended back to heaven, And another, about a week and a half, like ten days passed, they were waiting in Jerusalem, and the book of Acts is very clear, the Holy Spirit descended on them, they were filled with the Spirit, they actually visibly saw tongues of fire that sat on them, and they spoke with tongues, and people heard the noise of all these languages being spoke, and a great crowd that was gathered for Pentecost came together, and Peter preached that sermon in Acts chapter 2. But what is this then? I think this is what you call like, it's hard to find the right word, but it's kind of like a foreshadowing or a taste. It's like a something. He's giving them an experience. He's giving them like a tangible relational contact with the Holy Spirit, if you will, by breathing on them. That is something that after his ascension, in that interim period of days, which would only be like 10 more days, after his ascension, they would be waiting and praying together, and I think that's the purpose for all of this. This is sort of, you can say, like a small down payment, if you will, a small deposit on what was going to come in fullness at Pentecost, which was the fullness of the Holy Spirit. He breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit, which got them ready for what was going to come very soon. And then verse 23, if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they are retained. What is that? That's the work they were going to do as apostles in preaching the Gospel. They would go in the power of the Holy Spirit, which they were just given a sense of, right? When the Holy Spirit fully came, they were going to preach Christ crucified for sins, buried, risen from the dead, calling people to repentance and faith in Christ. And when somebody came to faith in Christ, in awe of the authority of Jesus Christ, they could declare boldly to them, you are saved from your sins. Hallelujah. And when someone rejected Christ, they could boldly declare, you are still in your sins. That is the power that exists in them in preaching the gospel, right? That's still true today. When we preach the gospel to people, if they repent and believe, we can comfort them with the promise of God's salvation. If people reject Christ, they should be warned that their sins remain, right? So this is a little more. Do you remember the upper room discourse that we took so much time to go over? What was he doing in the upper room discourse? He was preparing them for his absence that they were going to go out and minister. Well, now here's a little bit more of that, but now it's post-resurrection, preparing them for the fact that he was going to ascend and the Holy Spirit was going to come. I'm going to send you. You're going to go in the power of the Holy Spirit and you're going to preach the gospel and those who believe are saved and those who reject still have their sins. You follow? Now Thomas wasn't there, verse 24 tells us. Called the twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, we have seen the Lord. And he said to them, and you could speculate about why he reacted this way, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And then after eight days, so over a week goes by. Now, when Thomas said that, Jesus, when they told and then Thomas responded that way, he hadn't seen Jesus yet, Jesus was not present, right? There's no record of any other appearance of Jesus in between his first appearance and this one that happens eight days later, right? So Jesus appeared to everyone except Thomas, said and did what he did, Then he's gone. Then Thomas comes in, says, I'm not going to believe it unless I see it and feel it myself. Then eight days go by. The disciples again are inside. Thomas is with them. We're told again that the doors are shut. This Jesus just passing through things and defying physical laws is amazing, right? It points to his divinity, obviously. says the same thing, peace to you. Then look at verse 27, I love this. Then he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands. Eight days before that, Thomas said, I'm not going to believe unless I do that. And Jesus wasn't there, right? Now, I don't remember things that I said eight days ago. And I was there when I said them, right? So here's Jesus, who's not even there, comes into the room, appears there, peace to you, and then, bam, straight to Thomas. Just goes right to him and says, reach your finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand here and put it into my side. And then he tells him, don't be unbelieving, but believing. And isn't that the theme of the entire Gospel of John? Don't be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas's response is what? Beautiful. My Lord and my God. Thomas answered and said, my Lord and my God. And that's a statement too about what? Don't let this one pass by. The Gospel of John starts with a very powerful assertion and affirmation of the deity of Jesus Christ. In the beginning was the Word, the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us and we beheld His glory. The glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth. The Gospel of John starts by asserting and affirming that Jesus Christ is God, and then here through the words of Thomas, it's not just my Lord, it's my Lord and my God. It's got to be maddening for the Lord to think of how many people on earth profess to believe in Jesus, but deny His divinity and His deity. These guys, they got it. They understood, right? Right in that moment. He could have just said, My Lord. It would have been true. But He said, My Lord. And my God, the disciples right from the get-go recognized that Jesus was God in the flesh. Amen? Jesus answered him, Thomas, very famous statement here, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believed. Right? Because we are saved by grace through faith. We don't see him physically like Thomas did, but we are every bit as saved when we believe the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ. And what do we have that Thomas did not? The Bible. the Bible. We have these written accounts of Christ and all the writing of the New Testament that shows us so carefully the fulfillment of everything that God planned as outlaid in the Old Testament to redeem men. We have the living Word of God, we have the ministry of the Holy Spirit in us, teaching us, And we have the knowledge, the experience of the effect of His work in our own minds, in our own hearts, as the transformative power of the Holy Spirit in us when we believe. But we've not seen Him. But blessed are they who do not see and yet believe. We will see Him. We will see Him, right? We're all going to see Him. Hallelujah? One of the blessed hopes of the Christian is His glorious appearing, right? And then these verses to end the chapter, and wow, when we first started out on the road of the Gospel of John, I made reference to these verses and now we actually get to them. I've referred to these verses many times. This is John now stopping the narrative, telling the story, if you will, of what happened, and he inserts his own comment here. And truly, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book. Lots of other things. Lots of other signs. Lots of other miracles. Jesus did so much. Later in chapter 21, He's going to say, if everything was written down, all of the books of the world couldn't contain it. We'll come to that. But these, verse 31, are written. This is it. This is the purpose. Here's the purpose statement of the Gospel of John. You get it at the end of the book, not at the beginning. 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. This is why the Gospel of John makes such a big deal of believing. When Jesus turned water into wine, it says His disciples believed. They put their trust in Him. He told Nicodemus that the Son of Man would be lifted up, that whoever believes in Him will not perish, but have everlasting life. And He told the woman at the well about believing in Him. And He told all these people about believing in Him. And John is always talking about people believing in him. And you saw John, when he ran into the grave, and he saw that he wasn't there, he believed in him. And Thomas believed in him when he saw him. Everything is believe, believe, believe. That's the theme of the Gospel of John. This is written to bring people to faith in Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that they might have salvation through faith in his name. And it's the resurrection of Christ that is the great capstone on his earthly ministry wherein redemption comes to us. Jesus Christ died on the cross, took the penalty for our sins in his death, was buried, and on the third day rose from the dead. We still have a little bit more to do. We're going to have a little study about Peter. I told you that was coming next week when Jesus restores him. But Jesus ascends back to heaven and will come again one day. But if you need to be saved from your sins, you need to understand there is not salvation in anyone else or any way else. It is this Gospel of John which records Jesus saying to us that he's the way and the truth and the life and no one comes to the Father except through him. Come to Jesus Christ. Humble yourself. Repent. acknowledge your sins, turn to him, believe on Jesus Christ with all of your heart. God's gift, God's grace is that he will save all of those who come to Jesus. Amen? Let us pray. Thank you, Father, that we have this time together tonight to study again the resurrection of Christ. And we didn't cover everything the Bible says, but thank you, Lord, for this walk through John's account of this. Thank you for giving it to us. Thank you for the great miracle that your Word is and that you've preserved it for all these years, and it continues to powerfully impact and change the lives of sinners. as they hear your word and repent and believe. Hallelujah. Thank you for everyone listening to this tonight. I ask Lord God that the faith of believers will have been strengthened and that people who have not yet believed would come to believe that they too may be saved. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus name we pray. Amen. Amen. All right. Hallelujah. So thanks, guys, here in the room tonight. And thank you to all of you who have joined in here online. So grace to you all and peace to you all. In the name of God, our Father, in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ, and in all of the comforting presence of the Holy Spirit. Good night, everybody.