Sermon: Signs

Thomas’s Confession and the Purpose of John’s Gospel

Thank you for being here today.

Thank you for your love, the way you receive us, as we come from darkest Peoria, Arizona. It's great to be here. I'm here with my lovely wife, Linda, and two of my daughters. I've actually only got two, but they're both here.

Will you guys just stand up for a moment so they can see how beautiful you are?

Linda, too.

Thank you.

If you have a Bible, I invite you to open to John chapter 20. Do I need this? This can be moved? John chapter 20. Bring you greetings from King's Church in Peoria on the west side. We have long admired and rejoiced in this fellowship and all that the Lord is doing in and through the testimony and witness of the church.

It's just a joy to see the growth that you've had and see familiar faces and new faces as I've come a number of times to have this privilege of preaching here. It's a joy as well as a privilege. It's amazing to see what the Lord is doing in and through you as the ministry here is both local and around the world.

We salute you. We thank God for your elders. We thank God for all that you're doing. You found the chapter with reading today. It's John chapter 20. Our focus is going to be on the 30th and 31st verse, but for the sake of context, I'd like to start a little earlier in the passage.

John chapter 20, beginning in verse 24. And ladies and gentlemen, this is the word of God. Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord.

But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe. Eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side.

Do not disbelieve, but believe. Thomas answered him, My Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you've seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book.

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

Let's pray together.

Gracious God, we bow before your holy word. Write its truths on our hearts. Accomplish all your holy will and in this be glorified. We pray in Christ's name. Amen. I once heard a Jewish man tell the story of a Jewish man who owned a small family store in New York City.

It was a family business. It had been part of the family inheritance for generations in that it had been handed down from one generation to the next. And over time a number of buildings and stores were bought up all around this store.

Wealthy owners had bought the land and bought the buildings. And yet this man, this Jewish man, stood his ground and kept his small family store operating. Eventually two mega stores were built either side of his store so that his tiny store was in the middle.

And this signaled the end of his family business. He knew it. This little store could not compete with both the inventory and the prices of the mega stores and so all looked lost. Until the store owner came up with an idea.

In fact, it was a master plan, masterful idea. He got up one morning and before the sun rose, climbing a ladder, he painted over the name of his store with white paint. He'd come up with a new name for his store and he believed it would bring people in and remove the threat of closure.

Once the white paint had dried, he used the black paint to reveal the new name of the store in huge, bold, black letters. The new name. Entrance. Signs are important. We'll come back to that. What we have in the passage before us is the Confession of Thomas, which is really the climax of where John wants to take all of his readers in the aftermath of his refusal to believe, which it really was.

He's called Doubting Thomas, but it was more like that he was disbelieving Thomas. He actually refused to believe. And John was seeking to bring all of his readers up to this mountaintop of revelation of God's truth to see the uniqueness and the supremacy of Christ with the testimony of Thomas, my Lord and my God.

It's a confession each of us must make ourselves in acknowledging the supremacy and lordship and deity of the Lord Jesus. Jesus said and was very clear in John chapter 8, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins.

It's not enough to simply believe. We ought to believe something. We ought to believe information. We ought to believe the revelation of God as he has revealed himself in Jesus Christ. Unless you believe certain propositions that I am, you will die in your sins, Jesus said.

We must believe in the lordship and full deity of Christ. Now, John didn't include in his gospel any of the beatitudes that we see elsewhere, Matthew chapter 5, of course. We find the sermon on the mount, the beatitudes laid out here, but I believe he includes a beatitude here.

If you look at the text, it says in verse 29, have you believed because you've seen me blessed, happy, blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. We read in 1 Peter chapter 1, though you've not seen him, you love him.

Though you do not now see him, you believe in him and rejoice with joy that is inexpressible and filled with glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith, the salvation of your souls. Hebrews chapter 11 says it this way in the Amplified Bible, faith perceives as real fact what is not revealed to the senses.

Faith grabs hold of true realities, but they're realities beyond the sensual realm, beyond the realm of the senses. And the blessed person is the one who has not seen and yet has believed. When he's absent from view, we still believe.

Several times, in fact four times over the years, I've had the privilege of preaching the gospel in India. Four times and on the fourth occasion, after the sermon was over and the service was over, I had lunch with the pastor at a particular church in Kerala, which is a state in the southern part of India.

And I, just out of interest, said, how long has this church been going? And the pastor looked very, not upset, but quizzical. He thought, well, why are you even asking? I said, well, how long have you guys been going?

And he says, well, we are the church of Mattama. And I said, yes, how long have you been going? He said, don't you understand? I said, understand what? He says, we are the church of Thomas. Mattama is how we say it.

And we believe that our church was founded by the apostle Thomas. Now, they couldn't prove it, I don't think, with 100 credibility, but church tradition at least tells us that the Thomas we read of in the gospel who had a very bad week, he didn't believe for a week.

After the resurrection appearance of Christ, Thomas became an apostle to India and died a martyr's death there in India. But before he died, he had established many local churches, and this was a church that traced its ancestry and roots back to Thomas.

And there I was having preached in the church that supposedly Thomas had started. I don't know if that's true. What I do know is there's no reason to doubt that Thomas went to India and was martyred there.

What a message that is. The one who's called the doubting one, the doubting Thomas, the disbelieving one, ended up dying for the faith of a resurrected Savior. Hallelujah. John's called John the Evangelist, as the other gospel writers are called the Evangelists, Matthew, Mark, Luke.

But evangelism not only includes sharing our faith in preaching, it also includes writing. And John as an evangelist is very intentional regarding the material in this gospel, and he tells us so in verses 30 and 31.

Now, Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. He's got good news to tell. He writes good news, good news he has to tell, and that's because every Christian, and John being one of them, is a missionary.

And we have a message. Spurgeon once said, every Christian is either a missionary or an imposter. Not everyone's called to go to a different country to proclaim the gospel, but all Christians should have a missionary mindset.

John had a missionary mindset in writing. And he tells us Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. In other words, rather than seeking to catalog all that he could remember Jesus doing, all that he could remember Jesus saying, he's saying and he's writing, this is not an exhaustive listing.

We, the disciples who are around Jesus, saw him do a whole lot more. But the things that are written here are intentionally selective, I believe, in the inspiration of Scripture and the fact that John had an intention doesn't disqualify the also right thought that God had an intention.

And they merged. All Scripture is given by inspiration of God. Theonoustos, God breathed. And so John had an intention in writing and God had an intention in writing. And God wanted us to have these words in our possession.

Whereas others might call what Jesus did his miraculous works miracles, John calls them signs. Signs. Signs signify something. Do you hear the word sign, S-I-G-N, in the word signify? And each sign had a significance.

Do you see the significance of the signs? As you and I walk through John's Gospel, I've been preaching through it for a number of years now. We're at message number 129, 130 in the series. Something like that.

And my only sadness is I've been way too fast. So much in there. Have to go through it another time just to talk about what we didn't talk about first time through. But when you see a sign, recognize the significance of it.

A sign contains information. A sign tells us something we would not know without it. But signs are not the goal. Signs point you to the goal. A sign directs us to something other than itself. Imagine a baseball supporter.

Let's imagine a supporter of the Chicago Cubs. For the first time in his life, he actually gets to Chicago and he sees the sign that says, Chicago Cubs Stadium. He's got tickets to the game, but instead of seeking entry to the game, he stops and takes photos next to the sign and goes no further.

What would we say about such a man? We'd say, he's missed the point. The point is not to stand under the sign and admire it. The point is to understand you're now at the place where listening to, reading, observing the sign.

The sign in this form is not audible, it's written. You got the tickets, go inside. Go inside the stadium. And if I could say it in these terms, John wants us to not only observe the signs, but look beyond them.

And in seeing the significance of the signs, come to the same conclusion Thomas did. My Lord and my God. Jesus did not in any way correct Thomas and say you're going too far. I never claimed to be God.

No, he says you believe because you see. Blessed are those who believe. Believe what? What you've just professed, what you've just confessed and have not seen. John wants us inside the stadium, enthralled with the sights and sounds of the game.

He wants us to see Jesus Christ as he truly is. He wants us to see the person and the work of Christ. John is unique in his view of Christ and includes things that others don't in the Gospels. He wants us to see Jesus is God in the flesh.

He wants us to understand the person of Jesus Christ, truly God, truly man. Not half God, not half man, but truly God, truly man. And he wants us not only to see Christ as he really is, but his work, the person and the work of Christ.

He wants us to be enthralled as we recognize the words in English, it is finished with the Greek word, one word, tetelestai, it is finished. It is paid for, it is done, it is accomplished. And he wants us to see the finished work of Jesus Christ.

I want to ask you today, have you looked beyond the mighty miracles of Jesus outlined in John and discovered what they point to? That's the good news of Jesus Christ. Not that he did a bunch of things, but who he is and what he did in his life, his death, his burial, his resurrection and ascension.

John points out seven signs. One, changing water into wine at Cana. Two, healing the official son in Capernaum. These are in your bulletin. Three, healing the paralytic at Bethesda. Four, feeding the 5 ,000 in John, chapter 6.

Five, Jesus walking on water. Chapter 6, Jesus healing the man who was blind from birth. And seven, the raising of Lazarus. We read these words in John, chapter 2. In fact, if you have a Bible, perhaps you'll go back to chapter 2 for a moment.

John, chapter 2, verse 11, commenting on the wedding at Cana miracle, John writes this, this, the first of his signs, Jesus did the first of his signs. Jesus did at Cana in Galilee and manifested his glory and his disciples believed in him.

We could add to the list here his resurrection appearances. The large hall of fish in chapter 21. Psalm 103, verse 7 says this, he made known his ways to Moses, his acts to the people of Israel. I trust that in you there is a delight in the person of God himself and a desire to know him.

As well as to know his ways, we must know his acts. But to know his acts without knowing his ways misses the point. He made known his ways to Moses. Oh God, I want to know you. I want to know what you're about.

I want to know what makes you happy, to use that phrase. What pleases you. The people just observed the mighty acts of Israel. They had not seen their significance. In other words, Moses did. Moses understood.

God made his ways known to Moses. And in all this, God takes the initiative. God has to reveal himself. The Bible tells us that there are basically two books. The book of nature and the book of scripture.

And in nature, God reveals his existence, something of his attributes. But by itself, all of nature doesn't bring us to salvation. Salvation comes, as we believe, certain propositions that are made known in scripture.

You can learn a lot about God from nature. But the way of salvation is known not only by nature, but by scripture. They're not in opposition to one another, these two books. But 2 Timothy 3 says, the scripture is able to make you wise for salvation through faith in Jesus Christ.

That's not something you'll gain by observing the stars or even going to Hawaii, though you don't need to if you live in Arizona, and see and observe the wonderful sunsets, sunrises. The people of Israel saw God's works.

Moses knew his ways. My challenge to all of us is that we would know God as he really has revealed himself. So we've looked at verse 30. Let's go to verse 31 of John chapter 20, John 20, 31. But these, he's already told us, I'm not writing everything I can remember.

I'm being highly selective on purpose. I'm doing it with intent. But the things I've written, the things that I've written, these are written so that you may believe. Not everything that could be written has been written, but what has been written is sufficient to bring you to faith.

Man is not left with an excuse for his unbelief. We believe, we have faith. Faith, these words are used synonymously in Scripture.

Believe what?

Believe in the person of Jesus Christ. Don't just believe something fuzzy, something in general. I believe there's something up there. No, nature will tell you there's something or someone up there. God doesn't believe in atheists.

Think about that. Because he believes and he has revealed enough about himself so that men are without excuse. Professing themselves to be wise, they become foolish. Their hearts are darkened. We ought to believe something specific.

John 1, it says this, verse 11, he came to his own and his own people did not receive him, speaking of the Jews, but to all who did receive him, who believe in his name, he gave the right to become children of God who were born not of blood nor the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God.

You see, someone who believes in his name, something specific, it's the activity of God. God's been at work. Man does not get into the kingdom or climb into the kingdom by self-effort or by his wisdom, but because God has been at work in opening up their eyes to see the beauty and the worth of Christ.

Believe something specific? Yeah, John 3, 16, for God so loved the world, God loved the world in this way, that he gave his one and only son that whoever believes in him, believes in him, something specific, someone specific should not perish, can in no way perish, but instead, in contrast, have eternal life.

Christian, if you believe in Christ, let me exhort you, believe on,.

Go on believing.

Often that's how John uses the term faith and belief. It's not a one-time look at Christ, it's an ongoing faith. That is the nature of true saving faith. It endures. Many have a passing interest in Christ, but the nature of faith is to endure, an enduring delight, an enduring trust in the person and the work of Jesus Christ.

False faith is temporary. It's here today, gone tomorrow. Let me ask you, why do you think you'll still be believing in Christ next Thursday? It's a question, isn't it? A lot of romance ends between a Sunday and a Thursday.

Why do you think your romantic interest in Christ will still be there Thursday? Will you wake up and then check yourself and think, I lost that loving feeling and it's gone. Gone, gone.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

The reason I believe I'll still be believing on Thursday is that I didn't start the process on any Sunday. God did. And because I had no interest in Christ and now I find I have an interest in Christ and it's gone on for multiplied years and a few trials along the way, I'm convinced of this as Paul was.

He that began the good work in us, he will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ. Philippians 1, 6. If I start the process, I'm in trouble. But if God did, and I'm convinced I had no interest in Christ, now I do, he's committed to finish every project he starts.

How many here are projects?

Amen.

John bears this out later on in his epistle,.

Doesn't he?

You know what an epistle is? It's the wife of an apostle. No, it's a letter. 1 John 2, 19. They went out from us.

Who did?

Ministerial associates.

Teachers.

They were on the team. They looked the part. They smelt the part. They sang the part, but his assessment, they went out. They didn't just go down the road to another church. They left the faith. They renounced the faith.

They are now teaching against the faith. They went out from us, but they were not of us. That's John's assessment. They looked the part, but they were not of us.

Why?

How does he say that? For if they had been of us, they would have continued with us, but they went out that it might become plain that they all are not of us. 1 John 2, 19. That's John's commentary on those who leave the faith.

Those who leave the faith never had the faith.

Never had it.

If you have it, you cannot lose it. If you lose it, you never had it.

Believe what?

We go on in verse 31. That Jesus is the Christ. Christ is a title. You know this. Christ is not Jesus' last name. Jesus wasn't born to Joseph and Mary Christ. Christ being a title, Greek Christos, comes over from the Hebrew Mashiach, which means Messiah in English, the anointed one.

And so we must believe something specific, that Jesus is the anointed one, the one who was prophesied of old, who through the Scriptures has revealed himself so that when he came, you would all be able to recognize him.

We can. We certainly do. Jesus is the Christ. I remember a BBC religious program, and 98 of the time it's not only trash, but could wreck your faith if you sit there and watch it. And a man with a very elite accent got on the television, a bishop, and said, I believe in Jesus Christ, I just don't believe he's the Jewish Messiah.

I couldn't believe my ears, because it's a total denial of, in the second part of the sentence, of the first part of the sentence. To call Jesus Christ is to announce Jesus the Messiah. I believe in Jesus the Messiah, I just don't believe he's the Messiah.

I wanted to throw something at the television, but I know that only I would pay the consequences rather than him. Oh no, we don't believe Jesus is the Messiah, you know, we don't want to offend anybody, our Jewish brothers.

Truth is offensive. If you want to have a religion that does not offend, I would say don't be a Christian. If you want to teach the Bible and teach in a way that's not offensive, good luck with that. I don't believe in luck, but good providence with that.

You can't get past the first verse. In the beginning. Some people don't believe there was a beginning. God. Some people don't believe in God. That's offensive. In the beginning, God. Your four words into the Bible, you're offending people.

In the beginning, God created. Some people don't believe there was a creation. He created heavens and earth. Some people don't believe we're here. If you're signing up to be a Bible teacher, realize your assignment is to offend.

Don't be offensive in how you do it, but know this ahead of time, what you say will offend people. Preach the truth anyway. Teach the truth anyway. There is a God. You're not Him, and God has revealed Himself, and this is the God you and I are going to stand before.

I remember when I was wrestling with what we call the doctrines of grace, having not only believed but taught other truths or really untruths, and I came across Romans 9. Have you ever heard of Romans 9?

And the picture in my mind was of getting up in the morning in a hotel room not too far from Everest. You could see Everest from this hotel room. This is all in my mind, and opening the curtains every morning,.

And yeah, it's still there.

Romans 9 is in our Bibles, and you wake up after wrestling with it overnight, open the curtains, yep, still there.

Eight years later, yep, still there.

The God of the Bible is the God of Romans 9, and one day I would be standing before the God of Romans 9 and say, what would I say? What I couldn't say was, you haven't revealed yourself because He's clear.

The God of the book of Daniel, who rules and reigns, the God who is in the heavens, who does all that He pleases, Psalm 115, verse 6. The God who accomplishes all His holy will. He says something, and it happens.

He never is in any way frustrated. He accomplishes all He sets out to do. That's Old Testament, and that's New Testament. Ephesians 1, believe that Jesus is the Christ, something specific. The Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing, you may have life in His name.

John refers so very little to himself in his gospel, though he's present on all occasions. Basically, he's not the one in focus. His intention is not to elevate himself. It's John who puts these words on the lips of John the Baptist.

I'm sure rightly so. He must increase, but I must decrease. And if we were to assume, which I do, John said those words. I think John the Baptist said them, and John the gospel writer lived them. The Baptist says it, and John lives it out.

Notice, by the way, it's John the Baptist, not John the Presbyterian. I just want you to know that. I've got enough water here for Baptists.

I like that.

Jesus is unique. By the way, when you talk about something being unique, don't say something is very unique. It's either unique or it isn't. It can't be very unique. Unique means one of a kind. Something cannot be very one of a kind, but Jesus is unique.

You cannot put Him on the same level as any other human, though He was truly human. He's unique. He's supreme. He demands our full allegiance. He's the Christ. He sits on God's throne. He subdues God's enemies.

He's also the suffering servant of Isaiah 52, 53, and He is the Son of God. He's the title of deity. The child is born to us, Isaiah 9, 6. The Son is given. The child born that represents His humanity, the Son given, representing His deity.

For to us a child is born, to us a Son is given, and the government shall be upon His shoulder, and His name shall be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God. I know you know this, but it's a great reminder.

El Gabor, the Mighty God, a title of deity. Isaiah chapter 10 uses it also. And there it's Yahweh in view. Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father or Source of Everlasting Life, Prince of Peace of the increase of His government and of peace there will be no end, on the throne of David and over His kingdom to establish it and to uphold it with justice and with righteousness from this time forth and forevermore.

The zeal of the Lord, the zeal of Yahweh, the zeal of the Lord of hosts will do this. So John is writing that we would believe something about someone that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.

Life in His name refers to salvation, eternal life. Made clear in passages like John 3, we heard verse 16. Verse 36 is in the same chapter. You ever heard these kind of people? I believe in the love of God.

My God is a God of love. I don't believe in a God of wrath. John 3, 16. God so loved the world. Well, just keep reading. John 3 and you find that the same God is also a God of wrath. Whoever believes in the Son, verse 36, has eternal life.

How do we get eternal life? Believing in the Son. Whoever does not obey the Son shall not see life, but the wrath of God remains on him. Salvation is by grace alone, through faith alone in Christ, alone.

It's a gift to those who believe. If you believe, believe on. If you haven't come to faith, come to Him now. Repent and believe the two good news. Peter's words in Acts 4, there is salvation in no one else.

He's unique. For there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved. Let me just take a moment and say that our message is the gospel. It is good news. But the reformers of old and others after them would speak of the message of our Bibles, both Old and New Testament, as law and gospel.

Can we say those words out loud together? Law and gospel. Law is the commands of God, laws that God has imposed upon us as His right to do. Because He's Creator, He can tell us what is right in His sight and command obedience.

The gospel is the good news for those who have not kept His law. The message of the Bible is law and gospel. You go to some places and all you hear is law.

Law. Law.

Do this, do that. Don't do this, don't do that. It's very easy for us as Christians to slip into a moral kind of teaching that leaves people either prideful because they think they can do it, or else so depressed because they know they can't do it, and we leave them in both arenas, but not in the biblical message, which is law and gospel.

If we only give them law, they're liable to think, yeah, I can keep that. I can do that. I once was meeting an elder in a church and I'd arrived on time, but they were running late and the elder said, we're actually doing a preaching class.

Would you sit in and assess this young preacher? I said, you don't want me to do that. Yeah, yeah, I do. And they all agreed I should do it. I sat there and listened for about 15, 20 minutes to a man who was in Ephesians and he was talking about redeeming the time for the days were evil.

And I sat and listened and I could not find anything wrong in anything he said. What he said was borne out of the text. He was doing very good exegesis and that was apparent, but something bothered me and they said, John, you looked a little bothered.

Is something wrong? And I said, well, there was nothing wrong in what was said. It's just that there was no gospel. What he did was say, you know what? God demands our time be honoring to him. And I'm thinking, yeah, he does, but I've never done it.

I have never in my whole life had a single hour where I said, and I could say, I love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind, and strength.

I should. We all should.

We're all told to. But how many of us could say, I have all my life honored God with my thoughts, my words, my actions. I've made full use of my time. There is not a single second I could have loved God more than I did.

No.

And so I said, I didn't hear the gospel. Now, the gospel wasn't in the actual text, but you know what? It's in our Bibles. And we should find the gospel from every text. Spurgeon said, just as all roads lead to London in England, so all Scripture verses lead us to Christ and the gospel of Christ.

We can be in Proverbs and learning a lot from Proverbs or in Ecclesiastes or in Ephesians and find a way to Christ from that passage. So the message should be this. What is the hope for you as you've not loved God with your time?

That's where I am. I need that hope. I need the gospel. And without it, I'm either in pride or else in depression. But if we understand law and gospel, we hear God's law regarding time, but we also know that there is good news for those who've broken His law regarding time.