John 20:24-31 "My Lord and My God"

Praise to the Sovereign King, hear, hear His people sing, solely and wholly saving

His own bride. There where the Lamb has died hard, the

Christ is crucified, washed by the blood of that great

High Priest. Well, once again, it's an absolute blessing to see everyone here today.

Let us go ahead and open up with a word of prayer before we start looking at today's selected text. Today we're going to be continuing on in the

Blessed Gospel of John. We're going to be in John chapter 20, verses 24 through 31 today.

So please start making your way there as we open up with a word of prayer on this. Lord God, we just thank

You so much, God. And we come before You humbled before Your throne today, Lord. God, let these things worship

You, Lord, and let us remember Your great value and worth that You are, Lord. And let us remember that which is us,

God. Dust of the earth, Lord, and that You died for this dust. That You have redeemed us and that You have purchased us,

Lord. God, may You increase in our lives and us decrease,

Lord. Let us just speak Your word truly and boldly to those that we know around us,

Lord. God, I just pray that Your supremacy would be preached today, that it would be heard today, it would be read today, it would be lived today.

And all these things are to Your praise and to Your glory. And we say these things in Your name, Jesus Christ.

Amen. So as I said, we're going to be in John chapter 20, verses 24 through 31 today.

So let us read this text and then we'll pray again and we'll get into some context. We haven't been in this text now for three, well we've been here, not here for the last two weeks and then we were a topical message from this text the week prior.

So three weeks without an expositional explanation on these things in here. So let us read verses 24 through 31.

But Thomas, one of the twelve, 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 shall 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 do not be 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.

Let us pray again. Lord, God, you are our

Lord and our God. And God, I thank you so much for this knowledge that has come to us, that we can proclaim that which

Thomas also proclaimed. Lord, you have risen from the tomb and defeated that which we could not.

Lord, pay the price that we could not. Lord, let you be praised today in this kind of a text.

Lord, and let us remember these words that you say to the disciples over and over and over in this chapter. Peace be with you.

As you stand before us laying, God, let us remember that which you have borne on our behalf.

Lord, we just say these things in the name of my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ. Amen. Amen.

So verse 24, to give us a little bit of context before we jump right into this text.

As a reminder, Jesus Christ has risen from the grave. He has revealed himself in this previous verses that the doors having been shut and locked out for the fears of the

Jews, Jesus appears in their midst and it startles them. And he tells the disciples, peace be with you.

And he lets them come up and touch him. He lets them come up and feel the physical wounds that he has borne on their behalf and on our behalf.

And again, he says, peace be with you. Thus, just as I have been sent from the Father, so I send you.

We talked a lot about that two weeks ago, three weeks ago, about how we are sent into this world that will not accept us, but we are still to show them love and humility and having this peace that is surpassing all understanding because we know who

Jesus Christ is. We talked, I think, very thoroughly in those verses about these kind of things. And so we now see that just as the other disciples had scattered themselves, like sheep had scattered away from their shepherd when he had died on the cross and was buried, we see another sheep in here that has scattered and has yet to see

Jesus Christ, and this is Thomas. And so we're gonna be talking through a little bit more about this experience that Thomas has had because John, the author of this gospel, has specifically recorded these things for us in this way to bless us, the reader, for a purpose.

And I hope that it blesses us today as we do these things and also glorifies God in this way. So let us look here in verse 24.

This, once again, comes right after Jesus has already revealed himself to the other disciples. It would appear that he has departed from them.

And it says here, but Thomas, so John pauses what he's been talking about with Jesus and says, but Thomas, this other individual, one of the disciples, one of the apostles, that was not here in the room when

Jesus appeared, he was not here with us. He was one of the 12 called

Didymus. What does that word Didymus mean? It means twin. So Thomas was a twin of some kind. He was a twin.

And I wanna read from John 14, three through nine just to help us understand this Thomas character a little bit more.

So the gospel of John has, mind if I hand him to you now?

My arm's already getting tired. He's a little bit thicker than the last time I held him. He's recorded for us a couple of times in the gospel of John, but one experience that I wanna read about here is in John chapter 14, verses three through nine.

John 14, verses three through nine in here. This is Jesus Christ, once again, with his disciples in the upper room discourse.

It says here in verse three, and if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to myself that where I am, there you may also be.

And you know the way where I am going. And Thomas, this is the same

Thomas that we read about here in John chapter 20. Thomas said to him, Lord, we do not know where you are going.

How do we know the way? And Jesus said to him,

I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the father but through me.

If you had known me, you would have known my father also. From now on, you know him and have seen him.

Philip, so another apostle, a different apostle than Thomas, says Philip said to him, Lord, show us the father, and it is enough for us, it suffices us.

And Jesus said to him, have I been so long with you, and yet you have not come to know me? Philip, he who has seen me has seen the father.

How do you say, show us the father? And this goes back to that no one has seen God the father at any time, but Jesus Christ having the fullness of deity dwelling amongst us.

If we see Jesus, we see the fullness of God because Jesus is fully God. And so thus you can say the statement, if you have seen me, you have seen the father.

No one has seen the father, but if you've seen me, you have seen him. Back to John chapter 20.

So we have this experience that Thomas already here, just as the other apostles and disciples of Christ have questioned

Jesus because they're lacking in understanding, they've gone straight to their master and said, I don't know the way.

Where do you go? We don't even know what this way is that you're speaking of. Thomas asked Jesus. Jesus says, I am the way, the truth, and the life.

And so back in here, we can see this type of same lack of understanding that Thomas has in here.

I want to be clear that when we read this kind of text, there are some people that would say that you can lose your salvation.

And they would even say and contend that Thomas in here has lost his salvation and he gains it back.

And they would apply that same type of logic to all the apostles, that even when Peter denied Christ three times in the cock crowed, that he lost his salvation in that text.

And so there's this flimsiness of going in and out of salvation that some people would apply to this kind of text.

That church, let me be clear and reassuring us, you don't maintain your salvation.

Your salvation was purchased 2 ,000 years ago on a cross. If you could maintain your salvation, you would lose your salvation.

It is Christ that has secured our salvation. And so Thomas having salvation already as, what did

Jesus say? You know me, just in that verse from John 14. So Thomas in this text, it would be my allegation, we'll talk a little bit more about this.

Thomas in this text is experiencing what I would assume every one of us in this room has experienced it one time or another, or maybe are experiencing it now.

We go through seasons where we are great in faith and we go through seasons where we lack in faith.

And so if that is you today, I want you to be reassured in this text. If Jesus Christ died for your sins 2 ,000 years ago, you are saved, period.

If you know Jesus Christ, you have a relationship with him. He is the

Christ. He is my Lord and my God. You proclaim that today, you are saved by his death, burial, and resurrection.

So you might be of little faith today, but it's the faith, the object that we have placed, even the smallest amount of faith in that has saved us, the object being

Jesus Christ. So remember these things. And so when we come to this, just remember that Thomas in here has seen, just like the apostles and the disciples that have been recorded previously to us, that they had locked themselves out of the world.

They had locked themselves, they had locked the world outside the doors. They too were having an example of little faith.

They were going through the struggle. They just saw their master, their savior, this one that has healed people, that have risen the dead.

They've just seen him die upon this gruesome cross, and they are in despair. And in no doubt, once they have seen

Christ, there has been overwhelming shame that I would imagine that came upon them for scattering away.

But they are of little, of the season of little faith. So let us see now what it says.

But Thomas, one of the 12, called Didymus the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

The other disciples, therefore, were saying to him, we have seen the

Lord. What a blessed people these other disciples were. They recognized that their brother

Thomas was not with them in the room when they saw the risen Lord. And what do they do?

They want to tell him about it. They go after him and they say,

Thomas, we have seen Jesus Christ. We have felt his wounds. Church, if you're not doing this today with your own friends and family, why aren't you?

We should have the same type of attitude that these disciples and apostles had once they had seen

Jesus Christ pierced and risen. I have seen the risen

Lord. They go about it, exclaiming it to the people and telling Thomas, Thomas, look, I know you weren't there with us.

We have seen him. And once again, Thomas gets coined, doubting

Thomas for these reasons. And so we'll look in here. It says, they say to him, we have seen the

Lord, but he said to them, unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails and put my finger in the place of the nails and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe. Thomas, once again,

I would say that he's recorded in here as an example of somebody that is in a great drought of faith.

Here he has multiple people coming to him and saying we have seen the risen Lord and he just can't believe it.

He can't come to the grasp that Jesus Christ has actually risen from the grave.

And there's some more context that it gives to us in here. It says, and after eight days, so depending on how we view in this eight days started, this could be a

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, somewhere in this timeframe since the time that Christ has risen from the grave and has appeared before the disciples.

It's somewhere in that area of time. But after eight days, the gospel again records for us this very important text.

It says that the doors having been shut, so let me read this again, excuse me.

And after eight days again, his disciples were inside and Thomas with them. So now it's the full on, all the apostles are in there and they had the doors shut and it records it for us for a purpose and stood in their midst.

So Jesus came, the doors having been shut and stood in their midst. And I wanna pause on this.

This has been recorded for us very specifically now multiple times. Back in verse 19,

I believe it was, it says that the doors were shut and locked for the fear of the Jews and Jesus appears before them.

And in the gospel of Luke, I believe it is, it says that he came and he was present before them.

He vanishes from one area and appears in another area. Now church, is this not a demonstration of deity?

This is. Right now, if anybody can pull off a magician trick and vanish from this room,

I encourage you to do it. You can't because you're not God. You just can't.

You don't have power over these kind of physical things around us, but there is one who does and that is

Jesus Christ. This is a demonstration. When we come to texts about Jesus Christ and about God, it is important to ask what attributes are on display here?

What attributes are on display of Jesus Christ appearing in the midst of his disciples when the doors are shut?

What attributes can we think of in this kind of a text? First of all, I see omnipotence.

What does that word mean? All powerful. Whatever God wants to do, he can do it and he has every right to do it and nothing can thwart what he has purpose to do.

It's not like the disciples could have put a chair up against the door and stopped Jesus from appearing in their midst.

It's not like they could have added another deadbolt there to stop Jesus from appearing in their midst. There's nothing that you can do to stop the power of God.

Christ demonstrates this ability of having all power to be able to do something like this.

Something that cannot be explained in natural ways like a magician disappearing.

Like what we could say is something along those lines. Now, what's another attribute that we can see in here?

Omnipresence. That because Jesus is God, he can appear wherever he would like to appear.

You see, in Psalm chapter 39, verses 8 and Job 38 through 42, we see

God being described in the way that if I was to go to heaven, he is there.

If I was to make my bed in Sheol, he is there. There is nothing I can do that will escape the presence of the

Lord. Nothing. He is there. In Job 38 through 42, we see him described in very much detail, talking to Job and saying, have you told the sea turtle where to lay down?

Have you declared where the water will rise to the shore and not go any further? Have you done these things,

Job? Job has not done this, but God has. And so we see

Jesus Christ demonstrating these kind of attributes that once again, what is our conclusion about this kind of a thing?

That Jesus has to be God. That he has to be.

There's no other way that he could do something like this unless it was God amongst us. And so it records for us again in here that once Jesus stands in their midst in this miraculous way, he says to them, peace be with you.

Now, as we talked, I think, in depth of the texts prior to this about that term, peace be with you, it applies again to this right now.

That Jesus, once again, has bearing the marks and scars of crucifixion.

And no doubt, when he just appears before the disciples and apostles, it would be somewhat,

I don't wanna say frightening, but alarming that this just happened in this way. And so Jesus says to them, peace be with you.

As they're looking at the crucified Christ, he says, peace be with you. And we talked how that means so much, that we can look and see that which sin has caused our

God, what the price has been paid for me, and yet he says, peace be with you.

Peace be with you. And so Jesus Christ, once again, says this very first sentence when he appears before them.

Peace be with you. Now, I want you to pause because in the verse 27 in here, we're going to see something.

But prior to making mention of this, I wanna say in here in verse 25, backing up just a little bit.

Thomas says in here, that unless I see the imprint of the nails and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe. This is an example in verse 25, where if we have somebody that says

Christ was crucified upon a stake, not a cross, not a cross -beamed cross.

A stake was a common way that the Romans would crucify people, a common way that they would kill people.

Another common way was a cross -beam on a pole. Well, when you would be crucified or killed on a stake, you would only have one nail imprint as your arms would be above you, and there would be one nail that was driven through you.

But in this text, Thomas says the nails, the nail prints, the nails.

I'm going to, let me say this again. Unless I shall see in his hands the imprint of the nails, it's plural.

And so the only conclusion can be multiple nails that were used to pierce

Jesus' hands. And thus, we would then have a cross -beam crucifixion account.

Just an example of something that we can take somebody through if they want to say that Jesus was crucified on a stake.

Now in verse 26, going back into this text, it says, peace be with you.

Now, I want you to think about this Thomas character that has just said, unless I see the imprints of the nails and put my hand into his side,

I will not believe. What do you think is going through Thomas' mind when he sees Jesus before him?

Probably joy, jaw -dropping, yes. Probably joy, he's seeing his savior.

Once again, I would imagine that he's feeling so much shame for denying that which the apostles that are around him right now have proclaimed.

Sadness, grief, thankfulness and praise for his sins being paid.

I'm sure that this would have been an emotional day for Thomas in so many ways, but I want you to remember that Thomas should be shameful.

He should be. He didn't believe what his brothers and sisters had been telling him.

He has the shame upon him, but Christ says these next words to whose benefit?

I want to ask you this, to whose benefit is Christ saying this next sentence to? It says, then he said to who?

To Thomas, reach here your finger and see my hands and reach here your hand and put it into my side.

Do you think that as Thomas was holding on to Christ and especially from what he says after this text, his shame was laid there with Christ on the cross?

The sin that Thomas had committed just in this prior text of saying,

I'm not going to believe that this took place has already been paid for just a few days prior.

This is an example of a post cross sin that was committed that was paid for on the cross through Jesus Christ.

And so Thomas here is holding on once again, he's holding on to his savior, just like the apostles and disciples were in the previous text.

He's holding on to him, he's put his hand into the side and Thomas says this, my

Lord and my God. Back in verse 27, it says, reach here your hand and put it into my side.

Do not be unbelieving, but believing. This is

Jesus speaking to Thomas. Now, church, once again, like I said, if you are in a day today where you are feeling that you are of little faith,

I would never assure an unbeliever of salvation in Jesus Christ because they haven't placed their faith in him.

There will be times where each one of us will say, am I truly saved?

How can I know these things? My answer to you is, do you know who

Christ is? Is he your Lord and your God?

Though today you would be of little faith, be assured that Christ died for you.

Place faith in Jesus. Don't be unbelieving today, be believing in him. If you are of little faith today, according to verse 31, it says, but these things, these, speaking of what was just said, 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.

Just as it took Jesus to come to Thomas and say,

Thomas, look, touch the nail prints. If you are of little faith today, according to verse 31, if you put your thumbs on this text, it has been recorded for you.

Just as Thomas had to have Christ before him, this text has been written so that you may not be unbelieving, but believing.

This is the text that depicts who Christ is for us. Though he is not present before us physically, he is described here for us physically.

If you are of little faith today, see Christ crucified here in this text.

Put your hand into his side in this way, in this thinking. Be assured that Christ has died.

His death, burial, and resurrection has saved you. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.

Be assured of what Christ has done for us. Verse 27 again, he says, and do not be unbelieving, but believing.

And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord, my God, I church this text in verse 28 as one of my favorite texts in the entire

Bible. As this was in my first month of being saved, I still remember driving in Boise, and I don't know if I should maybe be saying this in front of people, but I was driving in Boise and I had recently gotten my first Bible that my now wife, at the time girlfriend, were sharing.

And I still remember being on Cole and Overland, which if you know those streets, those are very busy streets. And I still remember driving actively down those streets and having my head buried in the

Bible, reading this text and crying over it. And just crying,

Christ is my Lord and my God. What does this phrase, my

Lord and my God, mean? Well, first, my, so this is

Thomas saying, this is my thing, this is who I see you as. Lord, being master, that deserving of being followed and praised, adorned, sought after.

This term Lord, but something that's said in the second half of this sentence that is so important to us as Christians.

And once again, my God, Theos. This is the same word that John has recorded for us in John 1 .1.

In the beginning was the word, lagos. He was, let me go and read it real fast for us.

John 1 .1, in the beginning was the lagos and the lagos was with Theos, God, was with God.

And the lagos was Theos, was God, is

God. And here we see Thomas saying, he is my God. Now church, what did we read from our call to worship today?

Is there any gods besides the one and only God? Is there any other Theoses besides the one and only

Theos? No, there's none before, there's none after.

Is there any other rocks? There's other rocks outside, but there is no other rock of our salvation.

There's none before, there's none after. Thomas is declaring

Jesus as not only Lord, but as God.

You cannot be a Christian if you deny Jesus Christ as being God in flesh or proclaiming him to be one of many gods.

You cannot be Christian if you do these things, as you have clearly violated the text.

I still, once again, when I was driving and reading this text, I was just overwhelmed with joy and tears that here is somebody who is doubting

Christ, proclaiming him as God in flesh. Lord and Savior, God and Redeemer, the rock of his salvation.

Verse 29, Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? And this is a question. Blessed are they who do not see and yet believe.

Now church, this is not Jesus saying, because you have seen me physically and believed, you are not saved.

This is not what Jesus is saying in here. As we know that those that have faith in Jesus Christ are saved.

This goes for them that have seen Jesus physically and that goes for us today, that if we do not see

Christ physically, we see him here in this text. We have no excuse for to not know who

Jesus Christ is. It is because we have faith and believe in him that we have been saved.

Now, I wanna turn, just real fast in this text, with the thought of Thomas being of little faith.

There's a creed from the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith. This is the creed that I love reading and it makes me happy to read creeds throughout the last 2 ,000 years as these are

Christians that are doing their best to explain what God's word has said. And guess what? They are all very similar because they're all reading the same word of God.

But here in the 1689 London Baptist Confession of Faith, underneath chapter 14, paragraph three, for saving faith.

This is what saints, brothers and sisters in Christ in the 1600s recognized in God's word.

They say this, this faith, speaking of the faith that saves, this faith may exist in varying degrees so that it may be either weak or strong.

Yet even in its weakest form, it is different in kind or nature like all other saving graces from the faith and common grace of temporary believers.

Therefore, faith may often be attacked and weakened, but it gains the victory.

It matures in many to the point that they attain full assurance through Christ who is both the founder and the perfecter of our faith.

I want to read a text here from, excuse me, from 1 John 5, 4 -5.

1 John 5, 4 -5. 1

John 5, 4 -5. It says in here, for whatever is born of God, immediately your mind should go back to John 3,

I've been born from above, the Holy Spirit has regenerated me. Whatever is born of God overcomes the world and this is the victory that has overcome the world.

Our faith. And who is the one who overcomes the world but he who has believed that Jesus is the

Son of God. I want to remind us that we are saved by grace alone, through faith alone, in Christ alone.

And this is written all over the text as being the only way and only means of salvation. I want to go back to John chapter 20 now, please.

As you're making your way back there, I'll just read one more verse here from Hebrews chapter 12, verses one through three, it says this.

Therefore, since we have so great a cloud of witnesses surrounding us, let us also lay aside every encumbrance and the sin which so easily entangles us and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of faith, who for the joy set before him endured the cross, despising the shame and has sat down at the right hand of the throne of God.

For consider him who has endured such hostility by sinners against himself so that you may not grow weary and lose heart.

Back to John chapter 20. Thomas saying, my Lord and my

God. Let's read verse 30 now. Many other signs, therefore,

Jesus also performed in this presence of the disciples which are not written in this book. So Jesus here is validating everything that he's done, everything, he's doing many other signs before them.

Whatever these signs are, it's not recorded for us and so there's no need for us to speculate in this text, but just know that Jesus Christ is validating over and over and over again who he is.

And if Thomas had missaid something about him being the one and only Theos, the one and only God, when he says, my

Lord and my God, Jesus Christ would have rebuked Thomas if he was not God in flesh.

He would have said, nope, Thomas, do not say that. He doesn't say that. He accepts this kind of worship always from the disciples because it's true, it's factual.

But let us go on to verse 31. It says, but these things 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. I want to finish out here in Acts 4, verse 12.

Acts 4, verse 12. Acts 4, verse 12.

We'll read verses 10 through 12. It says, let it be known to all of you and to all the people of Israel that by the name of Jesus Christ, the

Nazarene, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by this name, this man stands here before you in good health.

He is the stone, that rock that we read from Isaiah from, he is the stone which was rejected by you, the builders, but which has become the very cornerstone, the chief cornerstone.

And there is salvation in no one else, for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.

Church, according to John, chapter 20, verse 31, it says that these things have been written.

For what purpose? So that when we read them, we might believe.

And what a beautiful thing it says in there, that by believing in whom?

The name of Jesus Christ, the Son of God, that in His name we would have eternal life.

There is no other name under heaven by where which a man must be saved other than the name of Jesus Christ.

And so on that, let us pray again here and make ourselves ready for communion. And let me be clear in this.

This is only for those that are in the name of Jesus Christ. If you deny

Him as being both Lord and God today and deny His death, burial, and resurrection as your only means of salvation,

I would invite you to please abstain from these signs. So let us do these things in the remembrance of Him.

But let us pray. Lord God, we just thank You, God, once again, for what

You have done for us, what has been written here, what has been recorded, so that we might believe and know,

Lord, that You are both Lord and God. God, we pray that whatever season we might be in today,

Lord, that we might have a stronger faith, God, that You would grant these things to us.

Lord, as we seek to know You better, we seek to worship You more, Lord, as we seek to take away our own flesh that keeps us from coming to You.

Lord, it is through this saving faith that is in You, the author and perfecter of our faith,

Lord. In You alone we have victory. And God, once again, we just say these things in the utmost love and respect.

In Your holy name, both my Lord and my God, Jesus Christ. Amen. So let us,