All right, I'm so glad you're here this weekend.

How we doing?

Summer happened.

It just came like that, didn't it?

Feels good, doesn't it?

No?

Okay, all right.

Maybe this will feel good.

I'm in John chapter 20, and I'm chomping at the bit here because I was sharing with my buddy Alan down here before the service that you think you've studied just about everything you could possibly study, and then you start looking at a text, and you see things, and you learn things that you probably never learned before.

This is one of those moments.

I'm in John 20, verse 24.

Actually, let's start in verse 19 and make our way down to verse 29.

Here's what the Bible says.

On the evening of the first day of the week, when the disciples were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.

After he said this, he showed them his hands and side.

Now, what are we talking about here?

This is a resurrection appearance, right?

The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord.

Again, Jesus said, peace be with you.

As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.

If you forgive anyone's sins, their sins are forgiven.

If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.

Now there's a sermon and a half just in that line.

We'll do that another time.

Now Thomas, verse 24, also known as Didymus, one of the 12 was not with the disciples when Jesus game.

So the other disciples told him, we have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails are or were and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.

Verse 26, a week later, his disciples were in the house again.

And Thomas was with them.

Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.

I'm starting to get why Jesus says, peace be with you.

It's not every day somebody walks through the doors.

without opening them and says, hey, what's up?

In a resurrected body, right?

Then he said to Thomas, put your finger here.

See my hands.

Reach out your hand and put it in my side.

Stop doubting and believe.

Thomas said to him, my Lord and my God.

Then Jesus told him, because you have seen me, you have believed.

Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

Now let's go.

We're in church.

It's okay to learn the Bible, right?

We're going to learn some things.

First of all, if you look at verse 31, we're told that Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

So John is basically saying this, out of all the sayings and the doings and events from which I could choose that Jesus said, that he did, that he taught, I have chosen to record this event of Jesus' encounter with Thomas.

I've been inspired to record this.

Second, the book of John, one of the gospels, only records 21 days of Jesus' entire ministry.

Did you know that?

21 days, that's all John deals with.

And he chooses Jesus' encounter with Thomas as the climactic event of his gospel.

Think about that.

Why is Jesus' encounter with Thomas so crucial that it's the climactic event in John's record of Jesus and the disciples' life.

You say, well, wait a minute.

Isn't there John chapter 21?

Yes, there is.

And if you know anything about John 21, it's kind of an addendum to the book.

John answers the question, in case you're wondering what happened to Peter after he denied he knew Jesus three times, let me tell you.

But the climactic part of the book is John 20 and Jesus' encounter with Thomas.

Third, Jesus does a double bind.

How many of you know what a double bind is?

Anybody?

Let me illustrate it for you.

If you're married, you know.

It's when my wife and I have been planning a date night for a long time, but it just so happens that game seven of the NBA finals falls on that night.

I go to my wife and I say, honey, I know we've planned this for a while, but it's game seven.

My buddy Rick Reed has invited me over on the big screen.

We're going to order pizza and wings.

We're going to watch game seven.

Is it okay if I go?

A double bind is when you say something with your mouth, but your body communicates something else.

So she will say, yeah, sure, no problem.

But her body communicates, go ahead, but don't ever bother coming back.

You got it?

Guys, husbands, you've read this.

That's called a double bind.

Jesus does a double bind on Thomas.

He tells Thomas that he should have believed the words of the other apostles that Jesus did not need to appear physically.

for him to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.

They told you, you know them, you should need no proof, and you should still believe.

Basically, that's when Jesus says, there's going to be a lot of people come after you that have never seen the resurrected Jesus physical form, and yet they're going to believe.

That's you and me, right?

We believe, but have you seen it?

No.

So when Jesus does appear, he rebukes Thomas.

And basically, he says, stop doubting and believe.

He doesn't tell Thomas it's okay to doubt.

Thomas has not been listening to the testimony of the disciples.

And Jesus says, knock it off.

But here's where the double bind comes in.

After saying to Thomas, knock it off, he then turns around and gives Thomas exactly what he's asking for.

Verse 27, then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side, stop doubting and believe.

Now, part of the reason for this encounter between Thomas and Jesus is because if you notice back just a few verses that we read earlier, Jesus already appeared to the disciples and Thomas wasn't there.

So he got to come back so Thomas can get a, well, a personal resurrection experience.

If you read in verse 21 and 22, when Jesus said, peace be with you, as the father has sent me, I am sending you.

And with that, he breathed on them and said, receive the Holy Spirit.

So this is just not your run of the mill resurrection appearance.

Not that any of them were, but Jesus is commissioning the disciples.

He's giving them the message.

and commissioning them to take the good news of the gospel to the world.

He gives them the message and the commissioning, then he gives them the power and authority to the Holy Spirit.

And he says, now go do it.

The problem is a major player is missing and it's Thomas.

See what happens when you miss church?

Jesus could show up and you missed it.

Now, there's another great sermon here that I can't go deeply into, but I want to make a comment.

Where is Thomas?

Is it possible that he's so depressed and disappointed that things did not turn out the way he thought they would with Jesus, that he's decided to deal with his depression by running away from his community rather than running to?

Do you know, as a minister, I see this all the time.

Something happens to someone, and rather than running to the people who can bear the burden, give you wisdom, hold you up, and carry you, you run into isolation.

And when you run into isolation, guess what happens?

You don't hear the voice of Jesus.

Do you know why?

Because Jesus often speaks his word through his people.

And if you separate yourself from his people, whether it's the church or your accountability group, guess what?

You're going to interpret that God is not interested or silent when the reality is he's not silent.

You're just not in a position to hear.

Now, if you're uncomfortable with the fact that Jesus has done a double bind on Thomas, remember, it's a great teaching method.

Because really, this is the...and I hope some of you will help me who've studied this passage.

My eyes have been opened.

Thomas is not the great doubter.

Thomas is the great believer.

And I'm going to show you how we come to that conclusion.

And I believe it's the reason John...

because really, who cares about Thomas doubting?

I mean, really?

And this is the climactic point.

There's got to be something else going on here.

Now, it's important to understand...

that Thomas doesn't need to see the risen Christ to believe, but he needs to see the risen Christ as an apostle.

Do you know why?

I get asked this question all the time.

Pastor Jeff, why are there some books?

I've been reading some articles online, your first mistake.

I've been going online doing some investigation, chat GPT, and I have learned that there are some books that were written that were not included in the Bible.

Why not?

Like the gospel of Thomas.

The gospel of Mary, the gospel of Judas.

Why were they excluded?

To be included.

Listen now, this is good for us to learn.

To be included in the New Testament canon.

First, the book had to either be written by an apostle or a close relationship with the apostle.

Like who wrote the book of Acts?

Luke.

Who was Luke?

Paul's personal physician.

So he would travel with Paul and watch Paul doing ministry and record all the events.

If you weren't an apostle or a very close relationship to the apostle, and you tried to write a book and put your name on it, it's not allowed into the canon.

Second, it had to be consistent with the works of the other apostles.

The reason the gospel of Thomas, the gospel of Mary, and the gospel of Judas are not recorded in the canon or your scripture is because we look at them and we know this isn't really Thomas writing this.

Somebody put Thomas on there in hopes they'd get their book in the canon.

But we can tell by the writing style, the advanced or fundamental Greek, this is not Thomas, this is not Mary, and this is not Judas.

But most of all, in order to even be an apostle...

You had to experience the risen Christ.

You didn't merely have to know his words, although they're important.

You had to have witness to qualify as an apostle.

You had to witness the resurrected body of Jesus Christ.

Notice in Acts chapter 1, this is so good for us.

In Acts chapter 1 verse 21, they're choosing an apostle or disciple to replace Judas because Judas now is dead.

Notice what the passage says, therefore it is necessary.

To choose one of the men who have been with us the whole time the Lord Jesus was living among us, beginning from John's baptism to the time when Jesus was taken up from us, for one of these must become a witness with us of his resurrection.

So to be an apostle, you had to be with Jesus from the beginning, hear his teachings, but you had to witness the resurrection.

Now, Paul in 1 Corinthians 15, we've got a problem here, is defending his own right you to be an apostle.

And here's what he writes.

For what I received, I passed on to you as a first importance, that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, that he was buried, that he was raised on the third day according to the scriptures, and that he appeared to Cephas, Peter, and then to the 12, then he appeared to James, then he appeared to all the apostles, and last of all, he appeared to me as to one abnormally born.

So Paul is referring to the fact that not all who witnessed Jesus' resurrection, qualify as apostles.

However, all who are apostles had to have seen the resurrection.

You can't be an apostle if you did not witness the resurrection.

Now, the question is why?

Here's why, Ephesians 2, verse 19.

Consequently, you are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God's people and also members of his household, built on the foundation of the apostles and prophets with Christ Jesus himself as the chief cornerstone.

So the church of Jesus Christ is going to be built on the teachings of the eyewitness accounts of the apostles.

Yes, Jesus is the cornerstone.

The church is built on the premise and eternal truth of God's mercy and grace expressed through the atoning blood of Jesus Christ.

However, the foundation is going to be laid by the teaching of these truths by the apostles.

So two questions emerge.

When did Paul see the resurrected Jesus?

Anybody know?

Road to Damascus.

We have some believers in the room.

Acts chapter 9.

So that when he says, at last of all, he appeared to me also as the one abnormally born, the original language, Greek and Aramaic, in which the New Testament was written, it's a phrase that means a very late pregnancy.

So that means nine months comes and that baby's not born.

Paul is saying, I didn't have my birth, new birth like the other apostles.

I was late to the table.

I was late to the show, but I did experience the resurrected Jesus on the road to Damascus.

He was blinded.

Christ appeared to him, gave him instructions, and that was required for Paul in order to be received by his brothers as a true apostle of Jesus Christ.

Now, why is all this so important that John in chapter 20, the climactic part of his you book is John showing us that Jesus came to Thomas and gave him a resurrection appearance.

Why?

John is trying to show how the apostles received the royal treatment.

They received all the proofs, multiple proofs, that Jesus physically, bodily rose from the dead.

They received every possible proof, rational, existential, empirical, for one week.

Because Thomas missed church.

See what happens?

For one whole week, he had to relate to Jesus the way you and I do.

He was forced to believe without seeing.

Believe the word of the apostles based on his experience of their credibility.

And again, that's why Jesus said, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.

That's you and me.

So what is John trying to communicate through the story of Thomas?

The special relationship between the apostles and Jesus, and why that qualified them as eyewitnesses to write the New Testament, to give you and me the information we need.

In fact, do you know there is a direct passage we often appropriate to everyone, but I really believe, if context is king, that the passage only totally relates to the 12 apostles.

And it says in John 14, When Jesus is speaking to them, here's what he says.

All this I've spoken while still with you, but the advocate, the Holy Spirit.

whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I've said to you.

So the Holy Spirit's going to come and remind the apostles of all the teachings Jesus gave them.

Why is that important?

Because they're going to be the ones writing it down for you and me to read 2,000 plus years later.

Remember John's purpose in writing this?

In verse 30 of chapter 20, Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book.

But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.

Now think about it.

100, 500, 2,000 years later, how can you and I be sure?

Do you see why this is so important to John?

How can you and I be so sure that what we're reading is actually what happened?

Because Jesus had this special relationship with apostles.

They were commissioned.

They were anointed.

And they saw the risen Christ.

John is simply saying, Look at the links Jesus goes to to ensure the apostles understand his message and his power.

Now, let me just make a quick application to you in your personal life and go on.

How are you doing with all this?

Hey, remember what we said last week?

And I just criticized something, and Michael can support me on this.

Somebody on our lead team quoted themselves.

You don't ever quote yourself.

I'm going to quote myself.

Last week I said, And I went back to my notes.

I said, we are long past the days of those with a less than honorable agenda successfully debunking the existence of God, the reliability of the Bible, and the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I am not saying that those arguments are no longer made.

I am saying that their weaknesses have been exposed and people are beginning to wake up in the modern world to the reality of Jesus and his resurrection and the trustworthiness of the historical record of the Bible.

Jeff Bynes said that.

Jesus rebuked Thomas for doubting what the other apostles had told him because Thomas was fully aware of their anointing, their trustworthiness, and their special revelation.

Jesus says, you should have known better.

How are you doing?

2 Timothy 3 says, all scriptures God breathed and useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting, and training in righteousness.

So can I ask you, are you saturating your mind with the Bible?

Are you reading the scriptures about Jesus all the time.

One of the reasons that the church in Acts 2 and Acts 4 was able to endure this intense persecution from the Roman world, they were losing their lives.

And one of the reasons they were able to live a holy life in the middle of an incredibly secular world is because the Bible says that they latched on to the apostles' teaching.

They white-knuckled the scriptures.

They grabbed on and wouldn't let it go because they knew they would find life and encouragement, sustainability.

It transformed them and they changed the world.

Can I just say again, this is another sermon for another time.

Please just start reading it.

Please, if you don't feel like, do it anyway.

Just open up the book of John this week.

Start reading John.

Then go to Romans.

Then go to, let's say, Ephesians.

Then go back to Hebrews because then you'll be ready to read an advanced book like that.

Come on, just start reading it.

Even if you don't feel like praying, you feel like God's not, just start reading a chapter a day.

It will transform you and you will morph into something you never thought you could be.

This is a supernatural thing we're talking about.

Okay?

Now, second, oh man, this gets better.

Second, John is communicating something else.

John is saying, it is not enough to believe what Jesus said.

You must believe what Jesus did.

He's saying, you're not an apostle unless you've seen the resurrected Jesus.

And he says that because it's his way of showing you the nature of the gospel.

Thomas already knew everything.

I mean, he'd been with Jesus, heard the Sermon on the Mount.

How many times did he hear Jesus say things like, love your neighbor, forgive one another, talk about sanctification, generosity, sacrifice?

Thomas did not need another interview or lecture if all he needed was his notes.

He needed to witness the historical reality of the resurrection.

to understand what truly matters is the death, burial, and resurrection of Jesus, that the gap between us and God has been bridged, and we will live with him forever because of what Jesus did, what he did in history.

John is trying to show what's really important is not merely what Jesus said, although that's important, but the crux of the matter is what he actually accomplished.

Now, when you read something like this in John, you start to wonder, did the Holy Spirit anticipate the modern mind?

Because the modern mind is the opposite.

The miracles, the resurrection, the blood of Jesus, the worship of Jesus as God, they tell us, that's all unnecessary.

That divides people.

These are legendary elements and miraculous accretions.

We don't need to believe this stuff.

What's really important is the teachings of Jesus to love each other, turn the other cheek, do good to everyone, keep the 10 commandments, help the poor.

That's what Jesus is really about.

That's the heart of things.

That's what really matters.

And John says, absolutely not.

Because when you say that Jesus is about how you should live and the things you should do for a successful life, you've made the gospel about you.

The gospel is not about you.

It's about him.

And again, if I were in an African-American church, these next few lines, I'd get an ovation.

The gospel is about what he's done on your behalf.

A gap exists between you and God, and Jesus bridged it, and the gospel is good news of what's already been accomplished.

Jesus accomplished and secured for you your eternity.

Can I get an amen?

Now, I need to give some credit here.

I need to give some credit because Tim Keller, I read something he wrote this past week.

He does an amazing analysis of John 20.

It's outstanding.

Let me quote something he says.

He says, John is saying, That if you get rid of the things Jesus did, like the resurrection, the miracles, his sacrificial atonement on the cross, and focus only on what Jesus taught, you've not just modernized the gospel, you've disemboweled it.

And Keller says, I thought long and hard about that word.

I know it's ugly.

I know it's crass, but that's the word I'm deciding to use.

And then he says, visualize that for a moment.

You've ripped the guts out of the gospel.

You've gutted it.

Folks, trying your best to be like Jesus is a religion Jesus detested.

His religion was this.

He died, rose again.

Now put your hope and trust in him.

Trust in his righteousness to save you, not your own.

Love and trust him, not because of what he said, but because what he accomplished on your behalf.

Those are two totally different religions.

Let me settle down just a little bit.

It really frustrates me.

I go to bookstores.

I like to see what's popular.

And I mean, we still have bookstores, even though Amazon exists, we still have bookstores.

So you go to any bookstore in our area, and I've probably been to all of them.

We used to love to go and sit at Barnes and Noble when they had coffee.

They had Seattle Best coffee.

I don't know what's going on there now.

Seattle's worst coffee now, but something's going on.

Listen, you go to any bookstore and you go to the religious section, you are going to find pages and pages of books.

that are trying to get around what John is doing in John 20.

Okay, listen carefully.

Take our lovely Claremont College Theological School.

Okay, I was going to say, yeah, right, theology.

But it is theology.

It's the study of God.

It's just I don't know what God they're studying.

The Claremont Colleges, they champion what is called process theology.

Are you sure, Pastor Jeff?

Absolutely certain.

Now, be careful.

Process theology you is a doctrine of demons.

Now, let me say why.

Because they will teach their students, these are our future seminary, these are our future pastors, whatever.

They teach that biblical miracles are just metaphors rather than interruptions in the natural order.

In other words, nothing supernatural happening.

And then they strip Jesus of his divinity and suggest that he was nothing more than an embodiment of divine wisdom.

And then they claim...

That in the beginning, Jesus was just another teacher, but legends came in and the church concocted this risen miracle working Jesus who claimed to be God.

Almost all the books in these bookstores on the religious shelf.

And I'm talking about big books, like 500 pages with all these footnotes at the end, heaps of footnotes.

And every book is critical than the one that was written before.

that says Jesus was just a great sage or a rebel leader or he married a wife and moved to India, that was one of my favorites, or he swooned on the cross, didn't actually die.

All are doing basically the same thing.

They're stripping Jesus of his uniqueness, emphasizing what he said while ignoring what he did.

Now, this is not new.

Keith Green, you're showing your age now.

Anybody remember Keith Green?

In the day, I'm talking late 70s, early 80s, he was the man.

His music and his lyrics were...actually, if you go back and listen to them now, they'll still move you.

Years later, they will move you.

Well, they asked him, because he was kind of a musician philosopher, and in an interview, they asked him, why did you decide to follow Jesus?

He gave one of the simplest answers.

He said, well, you know what?

I studied all the religions, and all the religions give credit to Jesus.

They all point to him for something.

Muslims say he's a great prophet.

Krishna say that he's an incarnation of the Godhead in this age, but there are other incarnations other than him, other incarnations in other ages of the God Spirit, Yogananda.

Says that there's a Christ consciousness in religious leaders.

Buddhists say that Christ is a type of Buddha.

He's enlightened, an incarnation of the God like Buddha himself.

And then he finishes by saying this, all these religions point to Jesus or give some credit to Jesus, but Jesus gave credit and pointed only to himself and no one else.

Jesus did what no other religious leader did.

He atoned for our sins, bridging the gap between God and us and rose from the dead, granting us eternal life.

That's it right there.

But Here in the middle class, well-educated West, in places like New York and California, we hear a sermon where the pastor says, you should love everybody.

Oh, love everybody.

And we walk out thinking, oh man, that was such a good sermon.

Oh man, we should just love each other and forgive each other.

Liberal churches, there's plenty of them around here.

If you see their sign, liberal churches just love to talk about how Jesus told us that God loves everyone.

We should love and accept all people.

We should fly the rainbow flag and embrace all types of sinful behavior because God loves everybody.

And the people in the liberal churches hear that and they walk out, oh, that was so good.

Now, of course, we should love everybody.

Please don't misunderstand.

Of course, we should love everybody.

But if you think God is only love.

And it's only important to listen to what he said, but not to look at what he did.

You're going to miss the gospel.

Hey, how many of you, going back, I don't know why I'm going retro, how many of you remember the Coke commercial, I'd like to teach the world to sing?

I found a photo.

You remember that, man?

It was at Christmas time when it came out.

Man, it just felt so good.

Oh, I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

I'd like to buy the world a Coke and keep it company.

That's the real thing.

And you see that and you say, oh man, that's so good.

Now, if you're in this circle, at least give me a fair hearing here, okay?

Here's what we know about the gospel as it spread throughout the known world in the early days.

It absolutely captivated the broken, the oppressed, the poor, the abused, the slave, and it transformed their lives.

Can you imagine the apostles sitting down across the table from someone who's a slave, who's poor and oppressed, and saying to them, I got some really good news.

Love each other.

Turn the other cheek.

Teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.

Here, have a Coke.

Can you imagine them saying, oh man, that changes my life.

Oh, that's everything.

I'm transformed.

That message absolutely transformed me.

L.A.

people crack me up.

They love to go to shows and movies and plays that communicate, let's just love everybody, get along with everybody.

And the reason we do that is because we're middle-class people, and we love to hear somebody tell us, there's really no ultimate truth here.

Let's just be kind to everybody, love each other, and feel good inside.

I'm telling you, if the original hearers of the gospel of Jesus Christ would have heard a message like that, there's no way that message, which all the books in the bookstores claim, would have spread.

It's going to take more than that, and they know it.

Imagine poor oppressed slaves in their poverty hearing the message, do good, love one another, be good people.

Are they going to say, that changed, I will never be the same.

Finally, I have something to deal with this relentless despair.

I have hope for the future.

No.

However, if those early Christ followers come preaching the message of a resurrection, and they say he is risen, and sin and death are defeated, and slaves are ultimately liberated, the broken put back together, and one day justice will roll like a river, all based with certainty on an actual historical event.

That changes everything.

That's the only explanation for why the church exploded.

They got a message that transformed.

Resurrection, it means that your past has changed, you're forgiven, your present has changed.

You just don't have to...

Have some kind of teacher that you emulate.

Somebody comes in your life from the outside to the inside and transforms you.

And your future is changed because now you know you're going to live forever in a renewed, rehabbed body in a new heaven and new earth.

That's transformational.

Amen?

Now, if the poor and oppressed heard a message like that and said, if this is historically true, if this actually happened, if Jesus did this, then I do have a new identity.

I have a new hope.

I have a better future than I ever dreamed possible.

I have a new purpose in my life.

Howard Thurman, an African-American scholar, I think I've quoted him one time before at Boston University, he lectures on Negro spirituals.

Now, do you...

I don't know if you remember some of those great songs, Swing Low, Swing Chariot, you know that coming for to carry me home.

He's got the whole world in his hands.

One of my favorite, nobody knows the trouble I've seen.

Remember that?

Nobody knows my sorrow.

They spoke it, but they were able to live above it because they began to come out with songs like Glory, Hallelujah.

If you get there before I do, oh yes, Lord.

Don't forget to tell all my friends I'm coming too.

Oh yes, Lord, I'm coming too.

How did, this is the question, how did the American slave keep hope alive?

I've been to many of the plantations in the South because now they're museums.

Do you know what you find every single time?

A church.

A church.

The old wood floors and the walls still preserved.

How could the American slave keep hope alive?

when they were being beaten, abused, mistreated, tortured, burned, hanged, and yet they kept singing and worshiping.

Thurman says, these songs didn't sustain them.

The message upon which the songs were written sustained them.

They knew, yes, the heart of man is wicked.

Yes, the strong will oppress the weak.

But one day justice is going to roll like a river.

We'll be reconnected with the loved ones we've lost.

Heaven and justice and mercy is going to come.

Glory, hallelujah.

If you get there before I do.

Oh, yes, Lord.

Don't forget to tell all my friends I'm coming too.

Yes, Lord, I'm coming too.

The question has been asked over and over, why could nothing destroy their hope?

And Thurman says this, nothing could destroy their hope because it was otherworldly, not based on any circumstances within the walls of this world.

It lay in the future with God.

This hope enabled them to affirm a terrible right to live.

In other words, they were saying, I live in this world, but it's not my home.

I'm just a passing through.

You could only have that belief, man, if the resurrection of Jesus Christ was a reality and that you would know that the Christian resurrection means that real justice will be done on the earth someday, that all wrongs are going to be made right on this earth and upon future, past, present generations.

That's why sometimes when somebody comes up to me and says, Pastor Jeff.

you know, you seem to be a thinker.

I love it when they start like that.

You seem to be a thinker.

Don't you think that salvation comes through other faiths too?

My answer is, well, what salvation are you talking about?

No other religion even claims to hold out for hope for the salvation of this world along with the restoration of our souls and bodies based on an actual historical event.

The Christian hope, it's personal, it's restorative.

And the reason the truth of the gospel transformed the world to such a degree that you and I are still talking about it 2,000 years later is because people were certain about what Jesus did, not only what he taught.

I've mentioned my high school basketball coach many times, and he died.

I don't know if I told you this, but he died last year.

I was in Istanbul at the time, and I couldn't go to the funeral, but I called all the family.

And I talked to his wife and I said, hey, because he was only 73 and he got sick and his death came quickly.

Some kind of disease they couldn't grab hold of and it just, he died.

They were trying to keep him alive, trying to keep, you know, kind of resuscitated him.

And Diane, Coach Duggar's wife, said that right at the end, Coach Duggar grabbed her hand and said, stop it.

Don't bring me back.

I'm ready to go and be with Jesus.

Man, I think of this hard coach, this, you know, drill instructor kind of guy at the end, so sure that he's about to see Jesus that he tells his wife, don't resuscitate me.

Let me go.

These so-called scholars who write these books, these well-educated middle-class scholars, they know deep inside that the message of just loving one another and teach the world to sing in harmony, they're smart enough to know historically.

there's no way that would have transformed the world the way the gospel has.

Hey, listen, the poor have always rejected that kind of religion.

And it's the kind of religion the middle-class educated people keep trying to give them.

Because the educated elite just can't fathom that the only kind of religion the poor and oppressed have ever embraced is the one Jesus brings.

a resurrected Savior.

The apostles were not mere purveyors of Jesus' teachings.

They were eyewitnesses to his resurrection, and that's the reason they changed the world.

Now, quickly, quickly, the reason John gives us the story of Thomas and the climactic point of his book is that he wants you to know something.

He wants you to know that you are not a Christian if you're just trying to emulate Jesus.

You are a Christian when you understand His death, burial, and resurrection, atones for your sins, and grants you eternal life.

And when you finally learn that, that's when you'll start to dance.

And folks, this is my calling, whether there are five people here, 50, 500, 5,000, or 50,000, my calling is to remind you, if you're just following Jesus as a good example, You don't know Him yet.

But if you follow Him because you know you're a sinner separated from God, and there's a gap between us and God that only Jesus has bridged, and you've given your life completely and totally to Him, and you believe in the actual historical resurrection of the body of Jesus Christ, proving that you too will rise from the dead, then you're a Christ follower.

Hallelujah.

Now, I want you to notice, I said earlier, we're on time.

We're on time.

Hallelujah.

Thank you.

But I got to push it a little here.

I said earlier that Thomas should not be known as the doubter.

He should be known as the great believer.

And here's why.

Jesus shows up and gives Thomas what he needs to be an apostle.

Touch my hands, touch my side.

At the same time, he rebukes Thomas and he tells him, you should have believed on the testimony of the word of the apostles.

And then do you remember what Jesus says?

He says, go ahead.

Here it is.

Touch my side, my hands.

Do you notice it doesn't say that Thomas did?

His response is immediate.

He says, my Lord and my God.

Now, some of you scholars may know something I don't, but I don't know of any other confession like this among any of the apostles.

The closest would probably be Peter at Caesarea Philippi.

When he says, my Lord and my God, he's saying, you are my master.

I will do what you say, but you're also God.

You're God.

And John has been recording the whole time.

that Jesus has been trying to communicate this.

In John 8, 46, can any one of you prove me guilty of sin?

In John 8, 19, if you knew me, you'd know my father.

John 14, 9, if you've seen me, you've seen the father.

And the big one, John 8, before Abraham was, I am.

I am is the name God gave Moses when he said, who should I say is sending me to Pharaoh?

God said, I'll tell you my name, I am.

It's just a word that means uncreated, uncaused, self-existing, the source of all other things.

Thomas was probably the first to get it.

But we're told by the educated middle class that we can't say things like that.

We can't say that Jesus is God and become his servant because that's unpopular.

Can't do that.

Did Thomas really believe it?

Oh, yeah.

In AD 52, he's the one that took the gospel to India.

He planted seven churches until he was martyred in 70 AD, 72 AD.

Do you know why he was martyred?

He wouldn't deny the physical resurrection of Jesus Christ.

I think he believed it.

He introduced the people of Kerala, and to this day in India, where Hinduism is the dominant religion, the city of Kerala is 20% Christian.

That's amazing.

What a legacy.

It's one of the oldest Christian communities in the world, 2,000 years still going.

And the message Thomas brought to India was that Jesus physically rose from the dead, and because he did, so shall we.

All right, I got two minutes and 52 seconds.

And if you turn around, I'll extend it.

Oh, you did.

I saw you.

Let me do this quickly.

I knew I've scratched a bunch out because I need to do this.

How do you get there quickly?

First, listen to the apostles.

Verse 24, now Thomas, also known as Didymus, one of the 12, was not with the disciples when Jesus came, so the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord.

In Greek, it is a present progressive, which means it means they told him and they kept on telling him.

They kept on telling him, we've seen And Jesus said, you should have believed.

If you don't saturate your mind with the words of Scripture, over time, Jesus will become an abstract to you.

He will no longer be personal, no matter how smart you are, no matter how close you think you are to him.

He may be God and Lord, but he will not be your Lord and your God until you start saturating your mind with the words of the apostles and you listen daily to the accounts of his teaching, his workings, his doing every single day of your life because the tug of the world's too strong.

So for those of you who say, I want to be a better Christian, I just don't feel my faith.

Let me tell you why you don't feel your faith.

Because you're not in proximity to the truth and the words of God that the Spirit uses at the right time and the right place to help you feel the presence of Jesus.

Second, look at his patience.

Verse 27, then he said to Thomas, put your finger here, see my hands, reach out your hand and put it into my side, stop doubting and believe.

But Thomas doesn't.

He just, okay, I got it.

Now, quickly, and I got to move.

How did Jesus know that Thomas was doubting?

I mean, I know what you're going to say, but were the other disciples around Jesus in that first meeting and they said, hey, have you heard what Thomas is saying about you?

And Jesus said, oh, really?

Well, I'll fix this.

Now, what happened?

And why was Thomas's heart melted?

How many of you, did you ever see the movie, and don't go home and rent it, Fisher King, Robin Williams?

Fantastic movie.

Robin Williams plays a homeless man.

I think his name is Perry.

And on the street, just living on the streets, he watches this young girl go by him every day.

Her name is Lydia.

She goes through her daily routine.

He's totally enamored with her.

He just sits there, lays in his puddle, and watches every day.

And he falls in love with her.

She's awkward.

She's clumsy.

She has low self-esteem.

She's accident prone.

Finally, a friend, and I think it's Jeff Bridges.

Is that Jeff Bridges?

A friend helps him clean up and get everything together, and they set up a date for the two of them.

As the day progresses, Lydia starts to like Robin Williams' character, Perry.

She finally says, you know, you should just forget me.

She starts listing all her failures, all of which Williams' character is aware because he's been watching her every day for a long time.

And then Robin Williams responds like this, I'm in love with you.

And not just from tonight, I've known you for a long time.

I know that when you come out from work and fight your way out that door, you get pushed back out.

I walk with you to lunch.

It's a good day if you stop and get that romance novel at the store.

I know on Wednesdays you do, or you go to rather the, is it Dim Sum Parlor?

Okay.

And I know you get a jawbreaker before you go back into work.

And I know you hate your job and don't have many friends.

Sometimes you feel uncoordinated and you don't feel as wonderful as everybody else.

And I love you.

I love you.

I think you're the greatest thing since Spice Wrecks.

I love you.

I love you.

Now, if Robin Williams can do that for you, imagine what Jesus can do.

This is the point of what Thomas has learned.

Thomas gets it.

Jesus has been watching me all along and he still loves me.

Look at his patience.

You know, can I just remind you that Jesus has been watching you from the day you were born.

Everything that's happened to you, good and bad, every good decision you've made, good and bad decision, everything that someone has done to you to harm you.

And while we can't fathom the will and the mind of God, we can know this, that His primary goal is to get you to turn your heart to Him so that He can take you into heaven, so that you will resurrect to life eternal.

And as a result, He'll be patient with you, patient, and sometimes even allow things that are unfortunate in hopes that you will have your eyes open and wake up to the futility of hope in this world.

You put your faith and trust in Him.

And finally, look at his wounds.

Now, I'm going to end with this just because of time, but let's look at his wounds.

Husbands, let's go back to our wives, double buying.

Sometimes my wife will ask me to do something.

I'm not going to use the nag word because that gets me into big trouble.

She'll ask me to do something, and if I was thinking about doing it anyway, but she starts telling me, haven't you done that yet?

There's something in me that will not do it.

I don't want to do it now.

If I'm on my way to do it, and she goes, oh, you're finally going to do it?

I'll make a U-turn.

I'll do something else.

I'm just being honest with you.

Now, if I think of it myself, and I say, hey, this needs to be done, and I'm engaging to do it, and she can't help but to get a word in, To say, oh, well, you need to do it this way.

I'll tell you, I will stop right then.

And I want to say to her in a very mature voice, you're not the boss of me.

We don't like being told what to do.

Had Jesus shown up and done these great wonders and miracles and said, now you better obey me or I'm going to come down and drop the hammer.

You know what we would have done?

No, I don't want to do that.

The Bible says when it comes to God, we want him, but we hate him.

We want him, but I don't want to give up my independence.

That would kill me.

God, listen now, it's probably the most important thing we're going to say.

God is not so foolish as to send another great teacher to tell us what to do and how to live.

We don't follow the most elementary teachings.

What makes us think we'd follow the advanced ones.

If God only sends a man, that won't work.

We don't need another wise savior teacher.

But if God only sends a God, that won't work either because we don't like being ordered around.

Only a wounded God, the side of divinity at your service, a gourd God, is the only thing that will blast through the barriers.

And when you see his wounds and believe, that's when he becomes your Lord and your God.

Keller goes on to say, and I told you I'm indebted because he's got great information on John 20.

He says, unless you have a God with wounds, not just a teacher with wounds, not just a God without wounds, but a God with wounds who came down, descended into greatness, and became worthy of your worship and allegiance, you will not give your heart to him.

That's so true.

This is brilliant.

God knew what would draw you in.

Don't make the mistake of the Claremont Colleges that you think the only thing that's important is, I'm just going to love people.

Well, what are you going to do when they don't love you back?

What are you going to do when you die?

Hard to love people when you're dead.

It's not enough, not enough just to understand or believe what he taught.

You got to believe and understand what he did.

If you're in this room.

If you're in this room right now and you have never made that decision, you never crossed over from, yeah, I respect Jesus.

See, this is what Jesus detests according to the Gospels.

I respect Jesus.

Good dude.

Good dude.

I respect him.

He wants you to worship him, not respect him.

He wants you to fear him in the sense that he's the most important thing in your life.

And he won't allow two options.

The Gospels, he kept basically forcing people's hand.

He would say crown me or kill me.

There's no middle ground.

You either crown me as king or kill me.

Don't just think I'm a nice God that says, love everybody.

And if you're in this room and you've never made that decision, Michael's going to come out in a minute, I think.

Do it now.

If your eyes are open, do it now.

Do you know why?

There's this small thing called your eternity that is at stake, where you will spend eternity.

It's only with Jesus if he's your Lord and your God.

Amen.

Father, thank you for your goodness and your mercy.

I pray right now in Jesus' name, the Holy Spirit descends on this place.

If there's even one, even one person that knows right now because of the conviction of the Holy Spirit that has come, that they are not where they need to be, that today would be the day they would come forward and give their lives to Jesus Christ.

And to know that what he said might be important, but what he did, what he did is paramount.

That he did for them what they could not do for themselves.

And when we place our faith and trust in him, our sins will be forgiven.

And one day we too will rise to eternal life with our Lord and our God and our Savior.

In his name we pray, everybody says, amen.