Now, may we all pray together. Heavenly Father, we come to this time of the preaching of Your Word, and apart from Your guidance, Your divine direction in that, we have no ability left to ourselves to understand. And so we pray now, giving you all of the glory and the praise for your guidance that you might grant to your people that you would open our eyes, our ears, clear our minds that we would comprehend what you have given us in your written word that is yes and amen in the Lord Jesus Christ. All the promises are yea and amen in him. and we praise you for it. So might you grant this today that we would understand clearly, looking at this piece of scripture, an amazing piece of scripture you have given us, that we would see clearly the wonders of your grace in Jesus. And it is now in his name that we pray, in Jesus' name, amen. Please be seated. and open the Bible to John chapter 20. We'll read verses 19 to the end of the chapter, verse 31. John 20, verse 19. When therefore it was evening on that day, The first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, peace be with you. And when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord. Jesus therefore said to them again, peace be with you. As the father has sent me, I also send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I 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. And after eight days again, his disciples were inside, and Thomas was 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 your finger and see my hands, and reach here your hand and put it into my side, and be not unbelieving, but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see and yet believed. Many other signs, therefore, Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. The title of the sermon this morning, The World's One Resurrected Lord. We saw last week the marvelous passage talking about Christ triumphant over death in the grave. The resurrection was a marvelous thing and yet a puzzlement to the apostles because you'll recall that Peter and John were spoken of as running to the empty tomb having received the report of its emptiness. and found only the grave clothes neatly put aside. The handkerchief around the face had been folded or rolled up and again put in the tomb. They saw the stone off to the side, not just rolled away, but put apart from the tomb. And afterwards, Mary Magdalene had come to the grave and saw two angels, as did the other women, And they reported that he was risen. Mary turned and found who she thought to be the gardener. And as she heard Jesus call her by name, not Maria, but Mariam, she fell upon him, embracing him, perhaps his feet, we don't know, and realized it was the Lord risen from the dead. And he said, stop clinging to me. I'm not yet raised to my father, glorified at the right hand of the father yet, but go tell my disciples that I'm risen. She did so, and we come now to the part in verses 19 and following, where even though they had the report, they doubted in their heart. And so, the text before us, we break down into three parts. First of all, in verses 19 and 20, the risen Lord revealed. The risen Lord revealed. And secondly, in verses 21 and 23, confirmation and commissioning. Confirmation and commissioning. And then finally, in verses 24 to 29, dangerous doubt. So, verses 19 and 20, the risen Lord revealed. In verse 19, we see that the doors are shut. The disciples are hiding within. And with the doors closed as they were, and barred, no doubt thinking their place of hiding was not known to their enemies, suddenly as verse 19 would relate to us, on that same day of the resurrection of Christ at evening time, He comes into the room. Not through the doors, not through a window, not in any way that is explained to us, but suddenly He appeared in their midst. And standing in their midst, He said, Peace be with you. Now, first of all, there were no doors that could be closed to him. No doors are closed to Christ. Oh, you can shut doors all right, you can try, but to little avail, no avail actually. And so you had neither the stone that was rolled on the tomb, nor the doors on this room that would be barring against him could hold Jesus out or in. And so the Lord Jesus Christ, the one all powerful and raised in a form that somehow he could go in through walls or appear in the room or whatever, we don't have the particulars. All we know is there he was in the very midst of them. And furthermore, we find that the disciples were fearful and hiding. Now, as you see them here, it makes it crystal clear that that was the case. And it says that they were in fear of the Jews. Now obviously these were the Jews who had conspired against Jesus Christ. These were the Jews who had control of the Sanhedrin. These were the Jews, the high priest and the chief priests, the scribes, the Pharisees, the Sadducees all had the political power within religion. So much so that they even forced the hand of Pilate to put Jesus Christ to death. And so, in great fear and trepidation, they're hiding in the room by themselves. Here are ten men that are of the disciples hiding in the room, afraid. They were afraid because they didn't understand. They were afraid because their faith had faltered. They were afraid because they saw if someone could kill Jesus Christ, then certainly they too could fall victim, fall prey to the machinations of the Jews. And so the disciples here, fallen into despair, were hiding, cringing behind closed doors, but no doors are closed to Christ. And so furthermore, we see a revelation. causing rejoicing. In verse 20, when Christ comes into the room, he said to notice that he stood, in verse 19, he stood in their midst. He spoke to them in that same verse. In verse 20, he said to them these things, and he showed them his hands and his side, and then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Now there are a lot of things here that are easy to miss if you're not careful. First of all, we need to remind ourselves they were not expecting Him. They were in doubt. They were in despair. So quite the contrary from being expectant of the risen Lord to appear in their midst, they were expecting Him to never see Him again this side of glory. And yet, among this disillusioned and unexpected crowd here is the Lord Jesus Christ. They're reporting that they saw Him. We must bear in mind that this is not the delusion of dreams. There are those who would say, well, they were delusional, you see. They were so hopeful of ever seeing Jesus Christ again that they just dreamed it. They thought they saw the Lord Christ. You know, maybe it was mass hysteria. Maybe it was something that just came over them and they believed in a fallacy. But you see, that could not be the case here because they were expecting just the opposite. They were in despair. They were in doubt. They were hiding. They were fearful, just the opposite of, of having this delusional expectation of seeing him. They weren't expecting to see him. It's worth noting. Also, they were not seeking Jesus. He sought them. They were surprised by this. They were startled. If you compare the text over in the book of Luke chapter 24, it says there that they thought they were seeing a ghost and they were terrified. So you see, this wasn't something, oh goody, here he is. They're trying to get into the corners and put chairs in front of him and hide. They think it's a ghost that's come into the room. Next time you have a Bible trivia and someone can ask, Did anyone in the Bible believe in ghosts in the New Testament? Yes, the disciples, they all believed in ghosts. But he wasn't a ghost. And so this goes to the point of the trustworthiness of their testimony, doesn't it? These are they who are surprised by Jesus' arrival. They were terrified by Christ at first. Notice in these texts, Jesus has to say, peace be to you two times. Two different times he has to tell them peace. Now it sounds so formal to us, doesn't it? Or maybe shalom, or something like that. A greeting, a common greeting, and it was. But I have little doubt, especially if you're saying this to people who are terrified at your appearance, that it had the import behind it of calm down. Don't be troubled. It's me. I'm alive. I'm raised from the dead. Peace be to you. Proclaim two times. You remember that Jesus told them in chapter 16, just a few days before this religious, uh, three or four days before this, Jesus said to them, you know, in this world, you have tribulation, but be of good cheer. I have overcome the world, my peace. I leave with you. We hear the one who is the prince of peace, the one who has shown himself to triumph over death and over the grave and over all the worst that man could do to him, speaks peace to his disciples. Well, there's a lot to consider in this. When you think of the testimony Notice the Apostle John is not whitewashing the account. Now, if I was going to give the account, you see, I might be tempted as you might be. Yes, we were all in prayer expecting the Lord to return at any time, just like He said He would. We believed Him. But there was no whitewashing of the account here. You see the account with all the warts on it, don't you? We were desperately afraid. We were cringing in fear in a room with the doors locked. We thought we had lost all hope of Jesus Christ. We thought he was dead and gone. Nothing would come of it. Everything we had devoted our lives to for three and a half years was wasted. It was a dream. And the bubble had popped. You see, that would not be something someone was lying would want to add to the picture, would they? And so I bring this out for the reason you see here the trustworthiness of the account because here you have the negative included with the positive as well. It's also trustworthy because they were not expecting it but were surprised. This was a surprise to them that Jesus Christ was raised from the dead. They knew He had died. It was a very public execution. They knew he had been arrested and dragged away from their presence when they all fled except for John. They knew he had been publicly humiliated, that he had been nailed to a cross, that his side had been lanced with the spear of a Roman, blood and water coming from it, and he had died. It was so certain that he had died, they didn't bother breaking his legs like they did the other two, and they put him away in a stone tomb and sealed him with a rock. And if you read the account in Matthew, they even put a seal on the rock, an official seal that was put there by the high priest and the temple guard, and the temple guards were set upon it. Read Matthew for yourself. They knew he was dead. The last thing they expected was to see him alive again, even though he had said it more than once. And so when he did rise from the dead, he did appear in their very midst. They were shocked, surprised. That, beloved, is a trustworthy account when that's the case. Furthermore, they were eye and ear witnesses. They had stood with him. They had been with him in all the journeys he had gone on. They had been with him while he preached to the crowds. They had seen him raise Lazarus from the dead. They had seen him feed 5,000 with a couple loaves of bread and some fishes. They had seen him walk on water, calm the stormy sea. They had seen him make the leper cleansed and whole. The blind had been made to see. The demons had been cast out by the power of the Holy Spirit. They'd been with him. They'd seen all that occurred with his betrayal, his arrest, and everything else that followed. But here you have eyewitness accounts of a different thing in verse 20. He spoke to them. In verses 19 and 20, Jesus Christ is speaking to them. Furthermore, He showed them His hands and His side. The word that's used here for show them His side is the idea not just of take a look and glance at it, but it's the idea of opening to careful examination. He shows them His hands. He shows them His side. It's me. And so the idea here is one can see what's shown to them and it's beyond dispute. He was not yet glorified. And finally, then. Notice, after he had done all of that, if you compare the Luke account, he even ate some things, some honeycomb and some fish. He even said, here, feel me. Put your fingers in it if you must. Do whatever you must. No longer be disbelieving, but believing. It says, then, after he had shown them all of this, in verse 20, then they were glad. They were glad after they knew he is risen indeed. the joy and the peace of faith. Faith recognized that even though it seems too wonderful to be true, it is. Elsewhere in 1 John, you find the same apostle writing there, and he says, that which we have seen, that which we have handled, that which we have heard, that's who we declare unto you, Jesus the Christ. And so we have the risen Lord revealed. But secondly, verses 21 to 23, we have the confirmation and commissioning. In verse 21, it says, so Jesus said to them again, peace to you as the father has sent me, I also send you. Now notice, the Father has sent me. Notice who we're talking about. You read in John 1, remember in the very opening chapter of this gospel, we realize in the beginning was, the imperfect tense, He was and was continuing to exist. In the beginning was the Word and the Word was with God. Pros, equal, face to face with God. And the same was God. Verse 3 of that same chapter, remember, everything that was created was created through Him and by Him and nothing that exists was created apart from Him. In Sunday school, we saw in Colossians 1, they're talking about the sun. He is the one who created all things that were invisible as well as visible, powers and dominions and thrones, that he existed before all things, and in him all things consist. As Hebrews 1.3 would say, he upholds all things by the word of his power. This is the eternal son, the second person of the Holy Trinity who has become incarnate, the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form. He says, though, to them, as the father sent me, I'm sending you. Are you kidding me? Look at who you are. The Father sent you and you are sending me? Now there's something missing here too that I want you to notice. You see what's missing, don't you? You're all scratching your heads, say, Lelden has another trick up his sleeve. It's no trick. These are men who had abandoned him. Men who fled. Men who were in unbelief. in despair, hiding. And what's missing? Not a single rebuke. Oh, what love, what grace that he says, not you ought to be ashamed of yourselves. Or why didn't you believe what I told you? Or why are you so surprised? I'm raised like I said, it would be not a breath of that, but here he is. the Great Mediator, the One who is, by His transforming mediation of all the benefits of His redemption, the One through whom the Father relates to us as poor creatures, is redeemed. And through this wondrous Mediator, as the Father sent me, I'm sending you. And so instead of a rebuke, Oh, what wondrous power and grace instead. Here he sends these men. Remember in the Old Testament there were the twelve princes of Israel, of God's covenant people of the Old Covenant. And we think of the twelve tribes or twelve families of Israel. that formed the covenant people of God. There was the godly remnant among them. They by no means all were saved, but there were the faithful among them who believed the covenant promises all in Christ. But here the Lord will appoint ultimately 12 replacing Judas, Paul. The Lord will have 12 princes of a new Israel, you might say. a new spiritual people, a people who will be a temple, not the stone type, but living, breathing, spirit-filled temple of God. Revelation 21, 14 talks about that. It talks about the heavenly Jerusalem there, you know, the 12 gates of the old covenant people, Israel you enter in. But the 12 foundation stones of this heavenly Jerusalem called the Bride of the Lord are named after the 12 apostles. And so the Lord here building a new covenant people, including Israel, by the way, but all nations, tribes and tongues incorporated into the covenant people of God in Jesus Christ through faith by the Spirit. He says, I'm sending you these 12 men. Well, he gives them a commission and a confirmation here. Look, what he says, not only did he commission them, I send you. But in verse 22 he says, receive the Holy Spirit. Now why would he give them the Holy Spirit here? Think about that for a moment. Why would he give them the Holy Spirit? Remember, as we saw earlier in, what was it, in verse 9 or so? It says, They as yet did not understand that Christ must rise from the dead. They did not understand the scriptures, the Old Testament scriptures. I would submit unto you, remember Jesus promised this in John 14 and 15 and 16. He says, I will send another Comforter, the Holy Spirit, and He will lead you into all truth. He will testify of me. He will glorify me. All of that's ringing a bell, I hope. And so here He is. He's sending the Holy Spirit, first of all, to them, just these 10 at the moment, and He breathes on them the breath of the Spirit. By the way, the word that is used there is used only once in all the New Testament, or Old, for that matter. Of course, Old is not written in Greek, but it's the word we get our word infuse from. Infusao is the word, in case you're wanting to know. And here, He infused the Spirit unto them is the idea. I would submit, first of all, He gave them the Spirit to open their understanding that they might comprehend the Scriptures. a knowledge and understanding that they desperately needed. You find that over in Luke 24, in case you think I'm making it up. And in that chapter, you'll find that it says, and the Lord opened their understanding to understand the law, the prophets, and the writings that all of these testified of Him. And so He gave them the Spirit. He gave them divine illumination. He gave them understanding light for their heart and for their mind. that the word of God might all of it now suddenly make sense. Any of you ever seen a picture, you know, that you didn't know it was a picture at the time. You see all these dots on a piece of paper. You ever seen something like that? I know most of you have. The kids haven't. Now they want to see it. Now they go home and they say, show me that. You get all of these dots and you say, boy, that's funny. Somebody got a dirty piece of paper here. It's not that at all. You find they're numbered. So you go from 1 to 2 to 3. You connect all the dots. And after you're done connecting all those dots with lines, suddenly you realize there was a picture. It was there all along. It was just a bunch of scattered dots before you connected them. The Old Testament scriptures were to those apostles at that time like that page full of dots. And here Christ by the Spirit connects all the dots for them, that they might comprehend it's about Him. He gives them the Spirit for divine understanding. I urge you to read Luke 24, it's verses 25 to 27, and then verses 44 to 47, just to double check on that. But I think there's another thing he was doing. I think he gave them the spirit for another reason. Remember, they were downhearted. Remember, they were in despair. They were filled with fear. I think he gave them the spirit to revive their heart, to enliven them with new vigor and life. These were men who had, well, to some degree forsaken their Lord. These were men who had forfeited their title to have confidence as apostles of the Lord because they were the cringing fearful who had fled from his presence. But now he gives them the revival of life, a restoration of their privileges as apostles, and he breathes upon them this breath of life, this breath of the Spirit, infusing unto them this grace and power to fulfill the commission he entrusts to them. Oh, beloved, there's a lot that they came to understand now. You think in your mind, what are some of the things you suppose they began to understand about the scripture? Perhaps, first of all, that the seed of Abraham that was promised and the seed of David that was promised are both talking about Jesus Christ. Or the sacrifices that all of the Old Testament talked about, the Day of Atonement, but especially here in view of His crucifixion, the Passover sacrifice, and the redemption it accomplished, all fulfilled in Jesus Christ. the priesthood, the mediator between God and man, Jesus Christ, the temple itself, God dwelling in the midst of his people, Jesus Christ. But I think one of the most profound things that also brought this all together, that the fact that Jehovah's salvation would be accomplished by Jehovah himself incarnate. No one less than God himself, the covenant Lord himself. That's who was standing before them. That's who was incarnate in flesh, in human form, the fullness of the Godhead in bodily form standing before them. That's who it was. And a foretaste as he infused the spirit to them, a foretaste of the Spirit that would be poured out upon them fifty days later. By the way, there were three times the Lord Jesus Christ commissioned his disciples. I'd like to give those to you. This is the first one. This is Resurrection Day itself. Here they are in a closed room in Jerusalem on Resurrection Day itself. Jesus Christ commissions these ten apostles. Then in the second time we have recorded, it's in the great commission of Matthew 28. Remember that text, don't you? Matthew 28, you find there they were sent into Galilee. And there on a mountain in Galilee, the Lord comes to his disciples. And he says, all authority has been given unto me in heaven and on earth, therefore go, make disciples of all nations. Now where is Galilee? Galilee is on the northern frontiers of Palestine, of Israel. And here he was on a mountain looking into Samaria, looking off into what would be modern day Jordan, looking south into the rest of Israel. in the Galilee of the Gentiles, as it was called in the book of Luke, remember, as well as Isaiah. And he says to these disciples, you go make disciples of all nations, all authority given unto me universally, heaven and earth. I have the authority. I am the savior king. Now go and baptize them into my name. But there was a third time. And this was the final time He commissioned them. It's recorded in Luke 24, but it's also recorded in Acts chapter 1. This was at the Mount of Olives in Bethany, just outside Jerusalem, in other words. And Jesus said, you remember John promised that He baptized you with water, but I, the one coming after Him, would baptize you with the Holy Spirit and with fire. Wait here at Jerusalem and you will be empowered from on high, but you'll be my witnesses from Jerusalem to Judea, to Samaria, to the uttermost parts of the earth. And then he was caught up out of their sight. And it says that he was ascended to the ascended to the right hand of the father and sat down 10 days later to pour out his spirit. on all flesh. You see, beloved, as you see these three commissionings, the Lord Jesus Christ drives home to all His apostles. He is sovereign. He is Savior. And He sends on His mission. There is no message more important, more central than that. That's what He said. This gospel is to be taken to the ends of the earth. There is no other name under heaven given among men whereby we must be saved. The commissioning of his people. In verse 23, there's something that might strike you as a little odd, and that is a message that he says, you know, what you forgive and what you don't forgive, what you retain will correspond in heaven. It's a message, in other words, that seals eternity. A message that seals eternity. I don't believe Jesus is saying here, I'm giving you the authority to absolve and retain sins. You have the Roman church that thinks in those terms, you know, te absolvo, I absolve you. Oh, I'm holding things against you. It's not what he's talking about. It is the message and the authority to declare that message as apostles that has the retention and the setting free from it. And so we find a message that seals eternity, does it not? Eternity rests. upon this gospel message and its belief or its rejection. And he says here, as you declare it, you bring the authority of heaven with it. Confirmation and commissioning. But in the third and final place, dangerous doubt. In verse 24, we have recorded the idea Beginning in verse 24, going through verse 29, we have the idea about what we call, you know, the fellow. All of us know about Doubting Thomas, don't we? Boy, I'd hate to have a reputation like that. Doubting Leldon. Try living that one down. But it's recorded here again. I bring that up because this is another authentication of this is a trustworthy account. This is true that one can count on. Now, why do I keep bringing that up? It is because this isn't just a message to preach to other Christians, people who are already believers, is it? It's a message for you and me to take to those who are unbelievers, and one of the first things they say to you, I don't believe it. Right? How do I know that's true? Ah, it's in your old book, the Bible, the old-fashioned book. How do we know there's any truth in it anyway? Start bringing out these evidences, these things that I'm talking about. But back to this idea of Thomas, let me just bring out four simple things about this account, these verses, in the few minutes that remain. First of all, I call it dangerous doubt to begin with. Because in verse 24 and the beginning of verse 25, Thomas is missing Christ's marvelous presence. He's missing Christ's marvelous presence. Where is he? All the other disciples are there. Why isn't he? Why isn't Thomas there? Where did you have more important to be, Thomas? All the other apostles were together, except for Judas, of course. He killed himself by now, but Thomas was missing. It says here in verse 24, Thomas called the twin, one of the 12, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, we have seen the Lord. You missed it, is the idea. So Thomas was absent when he should have been present. You know, by the way, there's a principle to be mindful of. The Bible talks about us to be not those neglectful of gathering together as is the manner of some, but all the more gathering together as we see the day of the Lord's return approaching. Think of the words spoken in season that would have been the balm unto a hurting soul. or the encouragement or rebuke that would be so necessary for the sin that easily besets us, or the discouragement that we find in our lives, or the truth or confusion rules in our heart and mind that God would be declaring to us, or the fellowship of the saints, and God the Spirit dwelling among us as we encourage one another unto love and good deeds. You see, the whole thing here, as we see the commonality and the encouragement, Thomas should have been there with the other disciples for the benefit of encouraging one another, iron sharpening iron. They should have been in prayer, should have been in worship, and he was absent when he should have been present, and he missed the appearance of the Lord Jesus Christ. You talk about missing out on something you wouldn't want to miss on, and he did. And so, he was missing Christ's marvelous presence, but secondly, as we think of this dangerous doubt in verse 25, There were the arrogant demands of unbelief. This is frightening. The arrogant demands of unbelief. And that's what it is, make no mistake about it. Look at what he says in verse 25. 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. He had dug his heels in, hadn't he? He was being obstreperous about the whole thing. He said he would not believe unless he could put these things to the test of his experimentation. In other words, putting it in other terms for our modern day, revelation must bow to a naturalistic reason and investigation. Naturalistic reason, naturalistic investigation, revelation of God must bow to that. That's almost like saying the Creator is bound by His subjects to meet His creatures' demands. Now can you see the arrogance? Unless you meet my demands and requirements, I will not believe. Wow. You see why it's a dangerous doubt. Once doubt has taken hold, it's indeed a caustic and corrupting force, and it's certainly showing itself to be so. He's disbelieving ten people, close people, who knew the Lord Jesus, who had handled the Lord Jesus, who had seen Him eat in front of them, had spent time with him disbelieving the testimony of all ten. I won't believe on their testimony. I need to see it for myself." And then we see in verses 26 and 27, Christ's grace to the doubter. After eight days, His disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, stood in the midst and said, peace to you. Now they all knew by this time, no one had reported Jesus had been seen by them during the week. They knew that he had appeared to them only one time the previous week. So there was no opportunity for gaining more information. That is Jesus gaining information from the disciples as if he needed it. But this is why I bring it up. In verse 27, he, that is Jesus, said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands. Reach your hand here and put it in my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. In other words, how did Jesus know? The disciples hadn't told him. They were the only other ones in the room at the time. when Thomas had said that to them. And Jesus says, okay, here I am. Come over here, put your fingers in my hands, your hand on my side. Now that's grace. Now it was a mild rebuke, you must admit. He was rebuking him by implication. Okay, now you have to do the hard thing of putting your fingers in my nail prints, etc. That's grace that the Lord would submit to answer that demand of doubting Thomas. But you see the reaction finally of faith. A faith that is saving faith is a faith that bows and confesses. A faith that confesses like we see here in verse 28 by Thomas. Thomas answered him and said, My Lord and my God. You see, the Lord had dispelled all doubt. Now faith occurred. Not ultimately because of Thomas. We know better. Faith is a gift of God. Faith is a work of God's grace. Faith is a convicting work of the Spirit. But here we see nothing less than the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ who's bringing Himself before His eyewitnesses who will bear witness of Him in all of these places we've already discussed. And here He is showing them, persuading them, demonstrating to them that they may bear witness also. And Thomas is convinced, bows before him, my Lord and my God. The deity of Christ is also professed by this doubting man who's suddenly gone from doubt to faith. Beloved, as we come to the end of this portion of scripture, let me remind you of something. This is a supernatural, divine in other words, person and work that we bear witness to, bear testimony to. Now you and I have the written witness from these eye and ear witnesses that saw it in the room, that walked with him. It says in Acts chapter 1 that over the space of 40 days Jesus appeared to them and proved himself to be raised by many infallible proofs. We see in 1 Corinthians 15, perhaps at the Galilee Mountain event, that Jesus was seen by over 500 people at once resurrected from the dead. But you see the written account that Jesus Christ would bear witness to his own resurrection through these men he commissioned to write the apostolic witness to the risen Jesus Christ. and you and I rest our faith in the witness that's given. It says here, Jesus said in verse 29, you see me and you believe, but blessed are those who have not seen me and believe. Thomas, in verses 30 and 31, we find the apostle John saying, these things were written that you might believe and that believing you might have life in his name. Who can give you life, life everlasting? List them for me. Make a long list, make a short list. But who can give you life everlasting? First, what are their qualifications? Well, first of all, they have to have life everlasting themselves. Now you've got a short list. The Lord Jesus Christ, the one who conquered death and hell and has the keys to death and hell, He is the one who has the right, the power of everlasting life. We have life through faith in this one, in this name alone. You see, the supernatural reality is proven by this mighty miracle of Jesus Christ rising from the dead. You know, we've talked about it so much. our church and every other Christian church that somehow it becomes kind of commonplace in our thinking and it can dull the glory of it, can dull a little bit in our thinking, missing somehow the majesty and the wonder of this absolutely miraculous thing that the one who was dead on the third day rose to fullness of life and that he is God in the flesh and that salvation is in him and him alone. You know, I hear the gospel presented, or part of a gospel anyway, lots of times by people talking about, Jesus died for your sins. That's good. Not diminishing that. You could say, well, what about particular redemption? Okay, but we don't want to get stuck on that for the moment. Jesus died for your sin is my point. What's missing? He's raised from the dead. If Christ is not risen Then the death of Christ is merely the death of a martyr, the death of a wondrous man. But if he's not raised from the dead, we are of all people most miserable. You see, the resurrection of Christ is key to the gospel of Jesus. It's good news gospel because he's raised from the dead. Furthermore. You see, the witness, the accounts, the gospel that's given here is given for a reason. That we might have faith and that as we learn the more, we might be strengthened in this faith, in this truth, in this gospel, in this life, in His name. And so, beloved, I bring you to the end of the account. the resurrection of Jesus Christ, the world's one resurrected Lord. There is no other. One resurrected Lord, risen indeed. Oh, how that should drive us to our knees in prayer and in worship and adoration, just like Thomas and say, my Lord and my God. It had such a transforming effect that God by His Spirit and Christ mediated to them that here we have men who were fearful and in despair and hiding in a room that suddenly come before the very same people who said, crucify him, we have no king but Caesar. And they say, you put him to death by wicked hands. You repent and believe for there's no other name. That's a transformation. This is the truth. that transforms. If you're not, the question arises, how much do we believe it? Oh, how this causes the gloom of downheartedness to flee. The fear that we find in our lives should be set to flight just like theirs was because Christ is raised from the dead. And finally, oh, how this causes everything else to shrink to insignificance when we realize this one Lord and this one gospel and this one kingdom of righteousness is what we hold paramount in our lives. Everything else should be made subservient to Him, our Lord and our God. our resurrected Lord. You know, he gave the spirit to revive them. He gives the spirit to revive our hearts too. It says though, in like Isaiah 57, 15, we read that earlier as well, you know, that the Lord resists the proud, but he gives grace to the humble. It's not the proud and the arrogant that he encourages, but he says the high and lofty one dwells with the one who is contrite and lowly of spirit. Oh, may we bow and find the revival of our faith and life and hope and joy and every other fruit of God's great spirit as we look to Christ in fullness of faith, May our faith be increased and strengthened and deepened. For this is the Lord I proclaim to you this day. This is the day we hold up as the Lord's day, because this is the day he is risen indeed. May God be glorified in that name. Amen. Let's pray together. Our righteous Father, We come before you on this, the Lord's day, recognizing that we come in the name of Christ alone. Father, how central, how key, how important, how magnificent the reality that Jesus Christ is raised from the dead. Our hope for all eternity is rooted in the fact He's raised from the dead, but our hope for our own resurrection is rooted in His as well. We do not grieve like those who have no hope, knowing we shall all be raised in Christ Jesus. Father, our faith does not rest on fables, on dream-like stories, but it is resting upon the truth of the risen Lord Christ who committed this testimony to be delivered unto us, the faith once for all delivered unto the saints. O Lord, may the children that are here today, that have grown up hearing about the gospel, may today be the day, Father, that it goes from mere theory to becoming reality, the truth that is the rudder of their whole life. Father, may all of us, as we consider the gospel that you've given here in this truth, may you strengthen our confidence in this reality, and may we be ready to give a reason for the hope that lies within us. As we think of the turmoil and the conflict and hostility that is in this world, Father, may we bear in mind that you have set a day in which you will judge the living and the dead, and you've given testimony of this by raising Jesus Christ from the dead. For, Father, as we consider that time is marching on, to a climactic end in Christ. That because we were dead in trespasses and sins through faith, Father, that your spirit produced by your regenerating call, calling us from death unto life, that we, Father, believe. And therefore we are in union with Christ, raised to walk in newness of life. Father, may you encourage each one here. Any who do not believe in Jesus Christ, may today be the day of repentance and faith. May you fill in the dark places of misunderstanding and ignorance in our lives with the truth and the reality we've covered in this passage. And Father, we realize no other name May we spread the gospel to all who will hear. To everyone, Father, that you send us, grant it to be so. In Jesus' name, amen. Now receive the benediction of the Lord. Now to him who is able to establish you according to the gospel and the preaching of Jesus Christ, who has been made known to all nations unto the obedience of the faith. To the only wise God through Jesus Christ be glory forever. Amen.