Well, we are reading this morning about a common struggle, something that a lot of us have faced and a lot of people continue to face. As the old saying goes, seeing is believing. There have been philosophers in history who say that we must first see, and we must first gather all the information before we can make any kind of decision. with any kind of informed position that is. We may be certain that there is a wisdom in that, of course, but do we really live that way? We make choices based on people, based on circumstances all the time, whatever activities you choose, what games you choose to play, stories you choose to believe, you make decisions about them without having all the facts first. You make decisions about these things without seeing everything first. And so we don't always live that way. In fact, wanting to have every piece of information in front of you can actually become an obsession and an hindrance to making wise decisions or to making decisions at all. For instance, you can imagine maybe a little boy getting on the bike for the first time and he wants to learn to ride it. But first, first, he wants you to guarantee to him that he will never fall if he gets on that bike. And you can't make that guarantee. In fact, you can almost guarantee the opposite. You will probably fall. from time to time, but if you wait to get some kind of information that nothing bad will happen, it will keep you from moving forward. Think about that in terms of a man going for a job, but he wants to see first, before he gets that job, that everything's gonna work out at that job, and that he's not gonna have any problems at that job. Well, that's gonna keep them from pursuing an opportunity that's before him. We can't predict how everything will go. And if you continue in this kind of mindset, that it will keep you from moving forward with anything in your life. This is in fact how some neuroses work, right? At some point, we have to counsel ourselves that we don't need to get trapped into indecisiveness. In fact, as we read this morning, as Pastor Jorge read from the Bible reading Deuteronomy 20, we see that sometimes, sometimes even seeing can become a problem. When you see the army that's coming against you, it may cause your heart to melt and you may not have the faith that you need to have. If God showed you everything that you may have struggled with since you became a Christian, it may have kept you from becoming a Christian. Seeing is not always the best thing, for us, and the Lord knows that. The Lord knows that. The truth is, though, that we often will use this as an excuse. We'll use the fact that we can't see. We'll use the fact that we lack information as an excuse to avoid making important decisions. Now why might that be? That might be because deep down we're afraid. That also might be because we're stubborn. Unless I have everything, I'm not going to decide. It might be because we're lazy. Well, I just don't know how things are going to work out, so I can't do that. That could actually be an excuse for laziness. It might be some combination of the three. There are some who say, I'm not going to believe in Jesus unless I see the proof. But we might wonder, okay, why do you have that as a hindrance in your mind? This is something that Thomas is dealing with. And again, it's something that's common. It's something that we all face, but it's something that we do not have to be beholden to. It is something that we don't have to be beholden to. I may need you to advance the slides back there. I'm sorry, it keeps losing connection. But this morning we are going to see, thank you brother, I appreciate that. This morning we're gonna see just what Thomas saw, or rather what he didn't see at first. We're going to learn that faith does not always require sight. In fact, we're gonna learn three key truths here that we can believe without seeing. We can believe without seeing. We're gonna consider that as first, we consider the refusal to believe. There are some who just simply refuse to believe, like Thomas here. We'll consider that. Second, we'll consider The Lord's grace creating belief because ultimately it is God's grace which grants belief to us and which comforts us. Third, we will consider the invitation to believe. And that'll be from the final two verses here. The invitation from John the Apostle as well as from the Lord himself. And so let's consider each of these first. We will consider the refusal to believe, the refusal to believe. Let's look again at verses 24 and 25. But Thomas, one of the 12, called Demas, was not with them when Jesus came. So Jesus, or excuse me, so the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see his hands or see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger into the place of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. So Thomas here is called one of the 12. Now in passing, it's worth noting before we even get to Thomas that it's interesting that we still have this term, the 12, being applied to the disciples. Why is that interesting? Because how many disciples are there at this moment? There's actually 11, right? What happened to Judas? Remember he betrayed the Lord and now he is no more. And yet we still have this designation, the 12. This is something that the Holy Spirit chose as a title to describe this group of disciples. And of course, there will eventually be a replacement for Judas. But this is an official designation. This is one of the reasons why we hold the 12 disciples, the 12 apostles in such esteem, because the Lord himself highlights this as a special group right here, a special group which would go forth on his mission with many of whom would actually write inspired scripture like we see here. This is an official designation here. But what we see in this passage is that it's not just Judas who was missing, it was also Thomas. Thomas was not there. And Thomas here is also called, not just 1 in 12, but Didymus. That's a Greek term there. What does that mean? That means twin, twin. Now why is he called twin? Is it possible he had a twin? Well, maybe that's possible. It's also possible that this is just a nickname that they have given him. Why? Because in John's gospel, Thomas is the kind of guy who has both courage and pessimism. And we see both of these personality traits come out in him. For instance, if you look back to John 11, for just a moment, John 11, verse 16, this is where Jesus has announced that he intends to go back to Jerusalem. It's amazing that it was so far ago in the book of John that Jesus is saying, I'm going back to Jerusalem. a lot of time on Jesus around that area and on Jesus' final week. But in John 11, verse 16, Jesus has said that he will go. And Thomas, again, we see, who is called Didymus, said to his fellow disciples, let us also go so that we may die. He is a man who is, on the one hand, courageous, but on the other hand, a little downcast, right? A little pessimistic, a little melancholy. In fact, as MacArthur notes here, Thomas was the eternal pessimist, like Eeyore in the Winnie the Pooh stories. There you go, there's MacArthur citing Winnie the Pooh as an illustration. That's right, Winnie the Pooh. Like Eeyore, you might remember him. He was a melancholic person with an uncanny knack for finding the dark cloud in every silver lining. And that is just how some folks are, right? You give them an opportunity or they have something in front of them that seems like it would be good for that individual and that person finds something to complain about or just has the worst possible thoughts about it. Sometimes that's just the way our minds work and that's the way certain people are. And that does seem to be who Thomas was. But Thomas, don't mistake him, he's still loyal to the Lord. He's still courageous if he's not also clouded about how things are gonna turn out. And so this is who Thomas is. He is very much the Didymus. He is very much the twin, right? And we read that Thomas was not with them when Jesus came. Why is that? Well, the text just doesn't say. Was he mourning it? off by himself somewhere. That's possible. Was he running an errand that day? That's possible. But for whatever reason, when Jesus appeared to the disciples on Resurrection Sunday, and we read about that in verses 19 through 23, showing them his hands on his side, proving that he was alive to them, Thomas just wasn't there. Thomas missed it. And his absence sets up this important text in God's providence. Now that means that he also missed the promise of the coming Holy Spirit. And remember, Jesus breathed on them last time. In verse 22, he says, receive the Holy Spirit. And last time I said, this was a promise, right? This is not Jesus imparting the Holy Spirit to them at that moment. That would come later, that would come at Pentecost. Because this would be weird, because Thomas isn't with them, and he is one of the 12. Does Jesus breathe on Thomas later? We're not told that. I think sufficient was the testimony that the Holy Spirit is coming. By the way, you don't need to seek a second experience of the Holy Spirit. We receive the Holy Spirit at salvation. and that is what we see at Pentecost. We see them transformed at Pentecost. We see even Thomas here transformed into one who is bold, someone who is out there speaking in tongues and doing what the Lord had commanded. That will come later. Right now, Thomas is downcast just like the disciples were downcast previously. And Thomas missed Jesus's visit. He missed his promises. He missed all of this. And we can imagine just how sad he was. I mean, the kids can tell us, if you've ever missed something, something that proved to be exciting, something that you wanted to see, maybe it was a surprise at school, but you were absent that day. Maybe you were sick that day. How disappointing is that, right? That's disappointing. Well, Thomas wasn't there. Is that why Thomas doesn't believe? Because he's also disappointed? I don't know. But his absence does not excuse his response. Just because he missed it doesn't mean that he gets to respond in the way that he did. Why do I say that? Because he was present when Jesus said, I am rising from the dead. I'm going to be in the grave for three days, and then I will rise from the dead. Jesus said that multiple times. Thomas was there for it. Thomas just wasn't listening, right? He wasn't listening. He should have trusted the promise. He should have, hey, can you watch this? He should have believed without seeing. He should have believed without seeing. He should have heard the testimony of the other disciples. He should have remembered Jesus's promise. And he should have said, yes, praise God. I knew it. I believed it. I never doubted it. I don't know if Thomas would say that, but he should have had some kind of joy. He should have believed it. He should have accepted it. But instead Thomas goes the opposite to rush, right? He demands empirical, tangible evidence when the other disciples excitedly tell him, we've seen the Lord. And in light of their joy, he responds with sudden, stubborn unbelief. Unless I see his hands, in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, put my hand into his side, I will not believe. Why is he saying that? Well, remember, the nails were where Jesus was hanging on the cross. And the other disciples said they had seen those nail prints. Were those nail prints in the hand? Or were they perhaps a little further up on the wrist? It could have been that it was further up on the wrist the hand in that day didn't usually just refer technically to the palm and up it could have included some of the forearms so it's possible that Nail prints were actually in the wrist and that would have held his body there a little bit better on that cross Why he put his hand in the side remember the? Centurion took the spear and stuck it into Jesus side to make sure that he was dead. Well, the wound is still there. Thomas says, unless I can see these wounds and feel these wounds for myself, I will never, I will never believe, he says. Now, in Thomas's defense, we might say he is only asking for the same thing the disciples got to see, got to experience, right? Verse 20, they got to see the nail prints. They got to see the wound in the side. They got to see that this is the same Jesus who died on the cross. They got to see that Jesus isn't a ghost, right? He's there with his physical body. They could touch him. They could interact with him. Mark 16.11, in fact, records that all the disciples initially disbelieved. And we talked about that, right? That all the disciples initially refused to believe when Mary Magdalene said, I saw the Lord. So Thomas is not such an odd duck here, right? He is responding in the same way the others respond. And so it's easy to pick on him. Oh, you're just a doubting Thomas. They all doubt it, right? They all disbelieve. We might say, well, Mary Magdalene, she's the only one who believed. She came to find a dead body, remember that. She didn't believe at first either. When she saw the empty tomb, what was her first thought? Someone stole the body. So she wasn't ready to believe yet either. This is how we would all have responded in this moment. This is a very human way of responding. And Thomas is reacting no differently than people react today when we tell them that Jesus is real, that Jesus existed, that Jesus really came, Jesus really died on a cross for us, Jesus really rose from the dead again, People say, where's your proof? I want to see you. So they're responding just like Thomas was. But still, there is one exception to all of this. That was back in verse eight. You might remember that John sees the empty tomb. Peter goes in, he examines the tomb, John comes in, examines it a little bit more, and then something sparks in John's heart. We see John believed. He didn't quite understand it all yet, but he believed. He believed without even seeing. It is possible to believe without even seeing. And Thomas had the chance to follow him in that distinct honor. He could have taken those promises of the Lord. He could have been thinking about those. He could have heard the words of the disciples. He could have heard the words of Mary and the other women. He could have received all of this and said, this is amazing. What Jesus said came to pass. Yes, Lord. And he could have believed instead. He chose not to. He could have trusted his friend's testimony. Men he knew were honest. As Matthew Henry notes here, Thomas, however, disregarded Jesus's predictions. Thomas distrusted his fellow disciples. And Thomas limited God by demanding his own terms for belief. Guys, we should not do this. We should not follow in Thomas's. If we see Thomas inside of ourselves, we need to reject it. We need to turn from it. Because he is doing what he should not do. I said it's natural, yes, because we're all sinners. But we should not act like sinners. We should act like the saints whom Jesus has made. He risked discouraging the others. Think about how one grumbling student in a classroom can bring down the morale of the whole class, okay? How one soldier out on the battlefield can cause all the other men to lose heart if he is fearful. Again, that's what we just read in Deuteronomy 20. We see in Thomas the exact opposite of what we should see in a disciple. This is a sinful response that we must mark and avoid within our own hearts. If we are operating like this, we have got to stop. We've got to say, Lord, help me to get rid of that. That is not the way I should be acting. Thomas's story here warns us about using a lack of evidence as an excuse. Well, maybe you doubt God's love when your prayers aren't answered the way that you want them to be answered. You wonder, is he really there? Is he really listening? Perhaps you hesitate to trust in God's plan because you just can't see the future. Something a lot of adults face right maybe maybe young people to Maybe you're delaying faith and repentance in Jesus because you're unsure about a few questions And when you have those questions answered, there's a few more questions and then a few more and a few more and a few more Are you using those questions as an excuse? There's a way to really come to the truth It is fear, it is even stubbornness that makes us say, I have to see if I'm gonna believe. This is something that unbelievers can do. This is something that believers can do as well. I have to see if I'm gonna believe. Scripture calls us to trust in God's word. And the testimony of others, even when we don't have all the answers. Because guys, God's not gonna give us all the answers. And we can't demand that of him. At some point, we just have to accept the data he's given us and draw a conclusion based on that. When you say yes, I feel weak sometimes. I feel like maybe it's my own sin that causes this refusal to believe. Sure, but let me give you some good news with that. The Lord helps us in our weakness. The Lord helps us in our weakness, just like he helped Thomas. And that's what we see next year, see, The second point here, not only do we need to consider the refusal to believe, but second, we need to consider the Lord's grace, which grants belief, the Lord's grace, which grants belief. On the next slide there. So verse 26 through 29, after eight days, his disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, reach here with your finger and see my hands and reach here with your hand and put it in my side. and do not be unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord, my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. Now here we see the sovereign grace of our Lord in action. Thomas is one of the sheep that's going astray. What does the great shepherd do? He goes for that sheep. Now he does that in a lot of different ways. He doesn't necessarily always repeat himself. But in this instance, he chooses to show himself to Thomas. giving Thomas what he needs to come to faith. So let's consider that for a moment. First, we read that this is eight days later. Now, in our Western way of thinking, we might think that if Jesus had appeared on Sunday, then this makes it the following Monday, but that's not quite how they would have counted back then, with their evening and the morning being a day, and how the accounting process usually went, this would have been the following Sunday evening, most likely, after the sun goes down. And so the Lord rose from the grave on Sunday, he visited his disciples on a Sunday, and he then is revisiting them, coming again on the following Sunday. You might say, well, where was he in between there? Well, no, the text doesn't say. And I think Matthew Henry was the one who said it would be folly for us to speculate where he was. But the Apostle John, in writing this, may have felt it important to explain why early Christians always placed a high priority on Sunday worship. This is the Lord's Day once again. And so this is why Christians, from the very beginning, began to meet on Sundays, on the first day of the week. They would take their collection on the first day of the week. They would worship on the first day of the week. Sure, they would also worship on other days of the week. But Sunday worship was always something special. And that's why we still today have Sunday worship. Why don't we just shut things down on Sunday and have Saturday worship. Other churches don't do that. We might be able to fill things up on Saturday. Sure we might. And I'm not saying that it's wrong necessarily to have a Saturday service. But there's something about Sunday worship. Something that the Lord established in his sovereignty in his providence by creating this pattern. That's why we have Lord's Day worship, like we're having this morning, and it's so good that we are together. Because just like the Lord was present there, the Lord is present here, and we're gonna consider that in just a second. Sadly, on that day, no worship was happening. Yes, they were gathered together. Yes, the disciples came together with Thomas, But look again, the doors are shut. Or as the English standard, I think, has it here, they were locked. And that's what the term implies. But what is that evidence? Is that evidence of boldness? Are they ready to go and conquer the world because they've seen the risen Lord? No. No, because they haven't received the Holy Spirit yet. And so they're still scared. They're still afraid of what might happen. This is evidence of the need for the coming of the Holy Spirit so that they could boldly exit locked rooms and walk out right into the middle of the marketplace and boldly proclaim the Lord Jesus Christ. We need the Holy Spirit as well to give us strength. We need God's grace to give us strength. But even in their small gathering, even in the midst of their fear and concern, who is there? Jesus comes. And he comes, is he at the door trying to fiddle with the locks? Oh, I can't get in. Hey guys, can you let me in? I can't get in. No, he's not stopped by the locked door. He just suddenly appears in their midst. That's supernatural, right? He just comes in and he appears to bless their private gathering. And he says again to them, peace be with you, offering his divine peace to them to calm their fears. Again, Guys, he was there for that Sunday. He's here for this Sunday. He's here right now. You say, I can't see him. It's true. It's true. You believe without seeing. You can only imagine how Thomas felt. Verse 27, Jesus turns directly to him, and then he begins to speak to him. He singles him out from the rest. Imagine his heart beating right now in his chest as he remembers the words that he spoke just a week ago. that stubbornness weighing on his conscience as Jesus physically stands before him and he says, reach out your finger and put it into my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. I wonder if there's a little bit of a back and forth. Oh no, no, it's... No! Come here. Put your finger right here. Nope. Let me see your hand. Let me see your hand. Put it right here. And no longer be unbelieving, but believing! Jesus knows Thomas's exact words. And that can be a little scary, knowing that the Lord knows our exact words, right? And he does give Thomas a little bit of a review here. But it's a general review. Because Thomas is one of his own. Thomas is a sheep, but the shepherd is bringing back home. Now, as you consider that, you might consider yourself in that position. The Lord cares for you as well, and the Lord wants to offer you grace, even if it does come with a little bit of relief. Why have you been unbelieving? Be believing. He's calling for belief because he wants you to believe. Believe what? Have you ever considered why Jesus would still bear these wounds? Why does Jesus still have these wounds? I mean, after all, Jesus has a resurrected body. Could not Jesus, in rising from the dead, have the wounds in his hands heal up, have the wound in his side heal up? I mean, obviously, there's some kind of decomposition, that process that may have started while he was in the tomb, although he didn't get corrupted, right? But that all got reversed. His cells, which were dead, came alive again. So there was some kind of reversal that was happening where he was brought back to life and now he's brought to a life where he doesn't die again. So his cells are, you know, however God supercharges the resurrected body so that it doesn't die again, there's not gonna be any more pain, there's not gonna be any more sickness, there's not gonna be any more problems. So why does Jesus still have wounds in his body? Why does he still have scars? Well, this is proof of his resurrection. Proof that he is the same Jesus who is on the cross. And proof that he is risen from the dead. In fact, as Charles Spurgeon said here, these wounds are trophies of his love. His love for Thomas, His love for the disciples and his love for you as well. And for me. It reminds us of his sacrifice. And when we have been there 10,000 years, bright shining as the sun, guess what? Those wounds will still be there. And we'll still be seeing his praise swollen. So he invites Thomas to touch the wounds. And Thomas here can now see and feel, this is tangible, empirical evidence, he knows now that what is in front of him is not a hallucination. It's not, well, he said he won't believe, but secretly deep down, he really, really, really, really, really, really hoped that Jesus was alive. And so he imagined that Jesus was in front of him. Nope, he is actually touching Jesus. This is not a hallucination. This is not a ghost. This is not an apparition. This is not a phantom. This is the true risen body of the Lord Jesus Christ, the same body that was there just a few days ago, but risen now to incorruptible life. And this realization comes crashing together in Thomas's heart, leading to a spontaneous confession about Jesus in the next verse. And it's one of the most profound declarations in all of scripture. He says, my Lord and my God. This is the law. And in Greek, his use here of the Definite articles emphasizes that this is divinity that he is referencing. Some have wondered that, right? Hey, we might have that visitor from the local kingdom hall, the Jehovah's Witness, come knocking on our door and saying, well, you know, in John 1, 1, there's no article there in the Greek, so just saying Jesus is a God, it's not saying that Jesus is the God. And if you know something about Greek, you know that it doesn't necessarily have to have the article there, But guess where it does have the article, right here. My the Lord, my the God. Now we don't usually speak that way, right? And so we just say Lord and God in the English language. But he would have said, my the Lord, my the God. He is saying Jesus is God. God of very God. this isn't a cry of surprise he's not like some people say today and it's somewhat blasphemous oh my god you know they just kind of throw that out there right he's saying no you are my lord you are my god this is worship Thomas recognizes that Jesus is Yahweh. He is the God of the Old Testament. And Jesus is fully divine. And he says so. Now, how does Jesus respond? Does Jesus say, whoa, wait a minute, Thomas. You're overreacting now. Don't call me Lord of God. I'm not Lord of God. Jesus doesn't respond that way. He does just the opposite. Jesus accepts this. Even expressing, yeah, now you believe. And then he promises a blessing on those who believe the same thing in the very next verse. He says, because you have seen me, have you believed? And again, as I said earlier, That question, it's translated as a question. It didn't have punctuation in the original Greek, so we don't always know, is it a question, is it a statement? In this case, it's probably more of a statement than a question. He's affirming Thomas' faith. Yes, now that you have seen, you believe. Blessed are those, blessed are those who did not see and yet believe. Jesus is making a promise of blessing. This is like a beatitude, right? Blessed are those who have not seen and have believed. Who would the those be? Pretty much everybody, right? Would that also include us? Have we seen? We have not seen, right? Do we believe? The Lord promises a blessing upon those who believe without seeing. This is a blessing that we can hold on to. And this is a blessing for you, for me. This is a promise of blessing. This is a promise where he is going to give grace to us because he's not always going to show up physically. He's not always going to show up in a way that that calms all the fears, that quiets all the doubts, that answers all the questions. He's not always going to do that. He's not asking you for blind faith. He will give you evidence, but at some point it is a question of will you believe or will you refuse to believe? He promises grace for those who believe. In fact, he gives grace to Thomas even there. He shows Thomas that evidence. Today he gives evidence as well. You say, what evidence? What have we been reading? This is like sermon 107 or something like that of the book of John. What have we been reading together all that time? We've been reading evidence. We've been reading testimony. We have been reading proof and we know that the Bible is reliable. We know that it's been accurately transmitted to us. We know it hasn't been changed, even though some people wonder about that. It hasn't been changed. It's reliable. It's trustworthy. And we're giving this testimony. And so we have all this in front of us. Do you lean on Jesus's promises? Do you trust him? Do you believe in him? You say, well, I'm a believer, but sometimes I still struggle. Even when life is uncertain and you can't see him, you can believe. He gives you blessing for those times. In fact, he invites you to believe. That's what we see with the final words here. Let's consider the invitation to believe. Verses 30 and 31, verses 30 and 31, we read there, Many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life in his name. Now these verses set forth the purpose statement of this book. If you were writing an essay, you might say, You need a thesis statement, right? Well, guess what? That's what these two verses are. These verses tell us why this was written, and these two verses wrap up the previous 20 chapters. This is why they were written. And John is giving us the most important takeaway that we can have. Jesus is real. Jesus is God. He's the Son of God. He's the Messiah. And you should believe. You should believe. So this is the testimony that is given to us. John records that Jesus performed many other signs. Another way of translating that might be attesting miracles. These are miracles that confirm Jesus's identity. People don't typically do miracles, right? I mean, some people might do some magic tricks. Kids have seen some magicians and they do some neat things. But there's almost always an explanation that you can figure out, right? Oh, that sleight of hand, he did this, he did that. There's a mirror there, there's a little bit of smoke there that obscured this. It's not really a miracle because there's an explanation for it. Jesus did things that no one else could do. He made the blind see. That's not a sleight of hand. He turned water into wine. He made Peter walk on water. He raised up the dead. And he himself raised himself up from the dead. That's miraculous stuff. And it's just evidence as to who Jesus is. And Jesus, John says later here, chapter 21, we can go over to verse 25, the very last verse of the book, and there are also other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books. which would be written. There's plenty more to be said, but there's not enough material or time to record it until glory. Now in glory, why are we gonna be praising God so much? Because we're gonna be learning more stuff. We're gonna be seeing more of what Jesus did. We're gonna be understanding more about these things as we continue to learn. But for now, we're given what we need to know. So that means that this is not an invitation for future fan fiction. There are people who have done that. There are people, as early as the second century, they began writing these Gnostic Gospels. It was like, well, we don't know what Jesus did as a kid. Well, let's create a story about Jesus being a kid, and then we'll add in all this neat stuff he did, because he probably was a neat kid. Well, he probably was a neat kid, but that doesn't mean that we get to invent stuff out of whole cloth. The Quran later does this too. Quran kind of borrows from some of those Gnostic Gospels and records Jesus doing things that the Bible doesn't record. Guess what? People still do that today. There are popular TV shows that are like, well, plausible that Jesus did this, so let's have Jesus doing this. This isn't an invitation for our theories and for, well, fan fiction, really. What is John doing when he says that there are other things that Jesus did? He is saying he has recorded what is necessary for us to believe. And we can have all kinds of questions. We can wonder about this or that, but at the end of the day, we need to answer the question, do we believe? Do we believe? That is the question. And John explains this. He says why he wrote, these things have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the son of God. There's some debate, does this mean come to believe or continue to believe? Well, if you're a believer, certainly, hopefully, as you've been reading this together with us, you have continued to believe. If you're not a believer, maybe you discovered that you're not a believer. These things are certainly written so that you may come to believe. And this is an invitation of faith. Jesus is the Christ. He is the Messiah. He is the Anointed One. He is the Son of God, fully divine. Do you believe that? Do you believe that? He is calling us to faith. You say, who? Who he? Is it John? Yes. Is it God? Yes. Is it Jesus? Yes. Believe. Come to believe this. You need to believe this about Jesus. Yo, faith has to be focused on something. Some people believe in the wrong things. Some people believe in themselves. How often have you let yourself down? Why would you believe in yourself? That's what Disney movies tell us. Oh, you gotta believe in yourself. I let myself down a lot. I'm not a trustworthy source of belief. I need something stronger than me to believe in, right? You say, oh, so you need to believe in Jesus. Yes, but believe in the Jesus of scripture, not the one of your personal imagination. Because there are lots of different Jesuses out there, right? There's the Jesus who's just a nice guy. That's nice, I guess. Is that Jesus gonna be able to save you? No. There's the Jesus that's just a great teacher. Maybe the wisest teacher that ever lived. And then he died. Some might think he's a bit more, a bit more special, like Moses. He's a prophet, and he is a prophet, but if you stop there, that's not enough. Some think, oh, okay, so he is supernatural, like I mentioned a moment ago. Some have said, well, maybe he's a phantom. Some have said, well, maybe he's an angel. Some have said, well, maybe he's a lesser god, right next to God the Father. No. None of those are the biblical Jesus. You need to come to know the Jesus who actually is. The Jesus who's recorded in the pages of scripture. You need to believe in the Jesus who is God incarnate, who came down as the promised Messiah, and who died for our sins, and who rose again on the third day to make sure we could have eternal life. Because if we believe in this Jesus, then we will have life everlasting. We will have life in his name. And that's the kind of life that we want to have. And I'm not just talking about, you know, that you get to go to heaven when you die. That's good. That's good. Because we don't want to go to the other place when we die. as the kids were saying, the bad place during BBS. No, we don't wanna go to the bad place, right? We wanna go to heaven. We wanna be with the Lord. And yes, that's important, but life begins now. And we can begin to experience eternal life now. We can have life in his name now. We can be seated in heavenly places with him now. We can enjoy his presence now. This is something that we can experience now. And so I hope you believe. This is an invitation to believe. Adults, maybe you needed to consider the signs, the teachings, and the resurrection of the book of John before you could come to believe. But these are enough to decide to believe in Jesus as God's son, and I hope you do. Kids, when you hear Bible stories about Jesus, guys, these are written to help you believe in Him. And I hope you do believe in Him. I hope that we all accept this invitation to believe, and we find life in His name, because you don't need any more proof than you have right now. So let's wrap this up, church. This text challenges us to believe even without seeing. To believe even without seeing. Thomas refused to trust until he saw Jesus. But the Lord met him with grace and granted him belief. But Jesus also is blessing those who believe without seeing, who don't have sight, inviting us to trust in him through the testimony of scripture. I hope that you believe without seeing. Now, maybe you struggle with that. You struggle to trust in him without seeing. Well then, seek him for grace. He will give it. He will grant it. Can you feel alone, kids? He is near, even if you can't see him. and you will protect him. If you're a teenager, I hope you can understand as you live your life, as you get ready to transition into adulthood, you can trust in God's plan, even if you don't see everything God has for you yet. You can still trust in his plan, even when life's confusing. If you're an adult, You can trust in Christ's finished work for you. Even when doubts creep in and you're reminded of the things that you have done, the ways that you have sinned, even though you haven't seen him yet say to you, well done, you can believe that that is coming. Just trust in his promises. And I hope that everybody, as we are, Considering what John has written, we will see these signs as enough to believe in the real Jesus, and to trust in Him, and to find life in His name.