The Resurrected Christ

Turn with me, please, to John Chapter 20. I should have just had you keep your mark there because we have read our text for the evening,

John Chapter 20, as we look at the resurrection of our

Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ. John Chapter 20, let us ask the Lord to bless our time together.

Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, as we consider the very central acts of your work of salvation, we ask that you would be glorified this evening in all that is said and done, and Lord, that you would help us to grow in our understanding, grow in our faith.

Lord, that we would not just this one day of the year really give intense consideration to the meaning of the resurrection, but that it would be a part of our everyday life, that we would recognize that the power that works within us is the power that raised

Jesus Christ from the dead, and that gives life to us as well. We thank you we have this opportunity.

May you be honored during this time, we pray in Christ's name, Amen. Doubting Thomas, I really doubt that that is what he wanted to be remembered as.

I'm certain that in the rest of his ministry, when the Holy Spirit fell and he went out as one of those ministering the gospel of Jesus Christ, I doubt anyone called him that, but it is only over the course of history that because of this one incident,

Thomas has become known as Doubting Thomas. There are many different reasons why people are skeptical or doubt the resurrection of Jesus Christ.

Today, we are surrounded by those who are skeptical and doubtful of every form of supernaturalism.

They are naturalistic materialists, that natural aspect of our created being that causes us to think beyond the created realm, to recognize that there are things that transcend this created realm, that give meaning to life, that give us something to look forward to beyond this life.

Those things are being stamped out in Western culture, and we are surrounded by people today that unless you can measure it, you can document it, you can in some way, shape or form prove its existence on a piece of electronic equipment, then it just doesn't exist.

This is the religion of man, the religion of degrading man,

I guess we would say of devolving man. It is not progression, it is regression. It is a denial of the fundamental nature of man.

We are worshipping creatures, we always have been, not because we were ignorant, but because there is something beyond merely that which is the created.

And so there is doubt, there is skepticism that is born from doubt and skepticism of anything supernatural.

There is also doubt and skepticism based upon ignorance. There are people who might not naturally be naturalistic materialists, they don't just dismiss that there can be things beyond the material realm, but they may simply just not know the facts of what the

Bible teaches, and to them we must proclaim the fullness of the gospel and be ready to do so. But then there is doubt that comes from disappointment.

Doubt that comes from disappointment. And I think that's what we see with Thomas.

Let us think for just a few moments what it was like to be Thomas on Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday of what we call

Passion Week. What was it like to experience what he experienced?

I would say to you that the doubt that is expressed by Thomas in verse 25, in face of the witness of his fellow brothers, men that he had ministered with and he had seen miracles with, there wasn't any reason for him to distrust them.

But the source of his doubt was disappointment. And as such, it turned him into a skeptic, even in the face of the testimony of men that otherwise he would have trusted naturally.

Why? Well, I think we're given at least one insight from the

Gospel of Luke as to what it was like to be one of the disciples between Friday and Sunday.

Remember on the road to Emmaus, Jesus joins the two disciples as they're walking along and they're supernaturally kept from recognizing who he is.

And you can just see that they're dejected, their heads are hanging down.

And they say in answer to Jesus' questions, Well, we thought he would be the one to redeem

Israel. We had certain hopes, we had certain aspirations, but now he's dead.

And there was no place in their understanding for a crucified Messiah. And maybe they had not been amongst those who had heard

Jesus saying, I must be delivered over, I must be killed, I will be buried, but I will rise again the third day.

Thomas was amongst them. Thomas had heard the encounter between Peter and Jesus back at Caesarea Philippi, where Jesus had rebuked

Peter and said, Get behind me, Satan, you're minding only the things of man. But you see, their traditions were so deep, their understanding of who the

Messiah was to be was so fixed that the idea of a crucified Messiah just could not, it couldn't make any sense to them.

Even with the promise of the resurrection, they had clearly in most of their minds interpreted that as, well, yes, all of us

Orthodox Jews, that aren't Sadducees anyways, believe in the resurrection coming someday. Yeah, we get that.

And so Thomas is not present with the disciples the first time that Jesus appears to them.

And so, the other disciples were saying to him,

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

I will not believe. I am so disappointed. I thought he was this.

I did not see this coming. And so I am going to require a very, very high level of proof.

You see, guys, I wanted him to be the Messiah too. And I know that he's dead.

And I know how effective the Romans are when it comes to crucifixion.

And I've never heard of anybody who was crucified coming to life again or surviving that or anything else.

I am going to need to have something more than your testimony to believe that Jesus has risen from the dead.

And notice, after eight days, so a week later is when

Jesus appears. What was that week like? What was that week like for the disciples who had seen

Jesus? The Spirit hasn't come yet. There's still great confusion.

They've seen Jesus. They have an assurance that God has raised him from the dead.

But what does all this mean? What does it mean to us? What are we going to do?

What are we supposed to preach? What are we supposed to tell people? Are we even going to preach? What about the Romans? What about the Jews? Are we still living in fear?

Can you imagine what the confusion was? And can you imagine what it's like to be Thomas?

Thomas has to go for more than a week from the time of the crucifixion. And his confusion would be much greater.

Because now he has men that he trusts, and they're telling him, we've seen the

Lord. He's risen from the dead. The tomb is empty. Did they have arguments?

Did Peter and John take him aside personally to talk about the angels? Did Thomas' doubt cause the other disciples to maybe in their more honest moments go, did we really see him?

I mean, was this just a mass hallucination? I mean, what's going on?

You know, the Gospels do not dwell upon those types of questions. They allow us to think about these things and do not give us these exhaustive accounts that fill in all the blank spots.

But we know that Thomas had seen amazing things.

And it's easy for us, in hindsight, knowing what the rest of the story is, to sort of go, oh, come on,

Thomas. And Thomas has been made the brunt of a lot of preaching about demanding more from God and all the rest of that kind of stuff.

It's easy for us, from our perspective, to sort of get into that situation and go, well, Thomas, do you remember the feeding of the 5 ,000?

Do you remember when you were in the boat? And after the feeding of the 5 ,000, John chapter 6, remember?

And Jesus comes walking in the water. Thomas, how long ago was it that you stood with the disciples and heard

Jesus say, Lazarus, come forth, and here comes this man, four days after his burial, in grave clothes.

And Jesus says, free him. Thomas, don't you remember? We can ask all those questions.

It's easy for us to do. But this encounter with Jesus, one of the most popular, one of the most famous in the

New Testament. Hopefully, once again, we can hear it with fresh ears. After eight days, his disciples were again inside, and this time

Thomas was with them. At least he didn't say, you know what, you guys are nuts. You guys are trying to fool me.

You're crazy, and had left. No. Thomas was with them, and Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst.

Now, is that a miracle? Probably. Probably. I don't know that I can prove it beyond all the shadow of a doubt, but I do believe that the purpose of the construction, the original language, and so on and so forth, is that they are hiding, the doors are shut, but shut doors don't stop

Jesus. That doesn't mean that he has not had a physical body. What it means is that his body is glorified. Can I answer all the questions about that?

No. Do I think you can go to the Christian bookstore and buy all sorts of books from people who will give you all sorts of theories about the nature of the resurrection body, and the nature of heaven, and stuff like that, and they wrote them just to make money?

Yes. I think there's a lot of speculation. We can affirm, we must affirm certain positive teachings the

Bible makes, especially based upon 1 Corinthians chapter 15, about the nature of the resurrection body, but I just don't know that we can get overly specific.

One thing's for certain, the resurrected Christ is not limited in his power, and so getting through a locked door, whether he did so supernaturally by opening it and coming through it, or just not having to worry about such things,

I don't know. But there's no reason to say that he does not have that power. If he can be freed from death, a locked door is not a big deal.

Jesus comes, and he stands in our midst, and he says, That was the very first conversation, the very first words, this?

Was there an exchange of greetings? We don't know. It's John's intention to get right to the heart of the matter, and to demonstrate, and this is why

I think it is a miraculous thing that he came into their midst in this way, because he then demonstrates that he has supernatural knowledge of the very conversations that had been taking place over the preceding week.

Because he says to Thomas, Reach here with your finger and see my hands, and reach here with your hand and put it into my side, and do not be unbelieving, but believing.

Now, obviously, Jesus knows exactly what doubting

Thomas had said in his doubt. Thomas probably thought he was being very explicit when he had first said to the disciples,

I am going to demand more evidence than you did. Maybe he had even asked them, well, did you examine his wounds?

Are you certain? Did you look? Did you see the spear thrust in his side? I mean, there are angels and angelic visitations, and Peter, John, didn't you say you saw angels at the tomb?

How do you know? Had he asked those questions? Had he upbraided them for not asking for a high enough standard of proof?

Don't know. But one thing I can tell you is that Jesus knew what his standard of proof was.

Now, it's funny, people automatically assume that Thomas went, and, oh, okay, I don't see any evidence that Thomas does this.

We're not told, but it does not strike me that, and it doesn't make really any sense to me as I envision this encounter, that if I had been

Thomas, and Jesus appears, and Jesus demonstrates that he knew what

I had said when he wasn't here, he's demonstrating supernatural capacity and power, and says,

Thomas, I know what's in your mind. And so here, is that the proof you need? Here are my hands.

See my side. I don't think Thomas would have gone, well, okay. I think he sees, he recognizes that Jesus has perfectly accurate knowledge of what his doubts actually are, and he responds.

Now, let me just mention, you all know me. I'm the apologist. You might have some folks come by your door sometime.

Knock on the door, and they want to discuss Armageddon with you or something like that. They want to pass out some little literature to you.

They won't take any literature from you, but they want you to take literature from them. And one of their little pet things is that Jesus wasn't crucified, he was impaled.

He wasn't crucified on a towel -shaped cross, but on an upright pole with his arms over his head and one nail between his hands.

Just want to mention, you might want to keep this text in mind and point out, it doesn't make a whole lot of sense, if that's how

Jesus was crucified, that Thomas would talk about the print of the nails in his hands, unless there was one over here and one over here.

If there's just one up here, you only have the print of the nail, singular, not nails.

So, you just might want to make a little note of that. It might be helpful for you just to get past one of the common objections that is there and get back to something that's actually more meaningful, and that is the rest of John 20, especially verse 28.

Now, think with me for a moment. I have thought on this text many, many times. And most of you would know that most of my time has been spent on verse 28 and Thomas' response.

And there are some amazing, amazing ways that men have come up with to try to get around the plain and obvious meaning of John 20, 28.

I mean, the most absurd, of course, is the idea that what happens here,

Thomas answered and said, My Lord, my God. Now, that's about all you can do.

That's what many of those folks that knock on your door with the literature will say.

If you ever encounter other people who aren't a part of that organization, but still deny the deity of Christ, if you want to see them spin in circles, ask them about this text.

I've seen entire appendices written just trying to find some way around explaining why it is

Thomas answered and said, To him, Alto is the singular. He said all of this to Jesus.

Hakodiasmu kaihathiasmu. My Lord and my God. You can't cut them apart. You can't say one was addressed to Jesus and the other is addressed to the

Father. Both hakodiasmu, my Lord, and hathiasmu, my

God, are addressed to Jesus. Thomas identified Jesus as his kurios, the same word that is used for the name

Yahweh in the Old Testament, in the Greek Septuagint, and my God with the article ha.

No way around it. It's right there. That's why even skeptics like Bart Ehrman will say,

Well, Matthew, Mark, and Luke didn't believe in the deity of Christ, but John certainly did. Even he has to recognize,

Oh, yeah. John believed in the deity of Christ. Even the skeptic can see that. Of course, he doesn't believe any of its inspired scriptures, so that's why he doesn't have to worry about it.

So I've spent a lot of time explaining John 20, 28 to people. I've gone on to say, And notice

Jesus' response. If Jesus was what

Jehovah's Witnesses say he was, if Jesus was what Muslims say he was, the next sentence should be,

Thomas, are you crazy? Why are you blaspheming? If Jesus was a mere prophet, if Jesus was some angelic creature, or whatever else it might be, the next words from his mouth, when

Thomas says, My Lord and my God, should have been direct rebuke. Just as when

John tries to worship the angel in the book of Revelation, the angel says, Don't do that. I'm your fellow servant.

Worship God alone. That should have been the response. But what is the response? Now, there's two different ways of translating this.

You can translate it as a question. Because you have seen me, have you believed? Or you can translate it as a statement.

Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who, while not seeing, have believed.

Now I don't think that's a rebuke of Thomas, so much as it is a recognition of the propriety of belief in Jesus Christ based upon the testimony of his disciples.

Because what's the very next two verses? Therefore many other signs, Jesus also performed the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these have been written, such that you may believe that Jesus is the

Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Thomas, he believed because he saw.

But you may believe because you hear the testimony concerning Jesus Christ.

And so the point is, Jesus does not rebuke Thomas' confession of faith. He does not rebuke his identification of him as his

God. He identifies it as belief. He acknowledges that it's a proper identification of who he is.

He is Thomas' kurios. He is Thomas' theos, God. There's no question about it.

And that is a proper act and confession of faith according to Jesus Christ.

The only way around this is to reject the inspiration of Scripture. And why would you be arguing with somebody about something like this if they already rejected it?

But, having said all of that, I want you to think with me about something that again, isn't normally the approach taken to this text.

Earlier in the chapter, Jesus appears to disciples. And, their first reaction isn't,

My Lord and my God. And when you think about it,

Thomas' reaction seems a little odd, doesn't it? I mean, if you were in Thomas' position, and Jesus appears, and clearly he has known about the demand that you have made, wouldn't like the first thing be,

Oh, I am so thankful that you have risen from the dead. It's wonderful to see you.

We were so disappointed. There's so many other things. I mean, if you were just to predict, if you were to take someone who'd never read this text before, and say,

What do you think Thomas is going to say now? You don't let him read verse 28. You just stop at verse 27. What's Thomas going to say now?

How many would predict, My Lord and my God? Doesn't that seem just a little overboard?

Let's think why Thomas said this. Now again, the skeptic says, Well, because Thomas never said this, but John's just making it all up.

But, leaving the skeptics off to the side for the moment, maybe there's something more we can learn here. Why does

Thomas say this? Had Thomas been thinking during the course of that week?

Maybe that's why there was eight days. Thomas has been giving some thought.

He's had time for reflection. When you're hiding from the Jews and Romans, you have time to reflect. And maybe he's been thinking back on all those things that he had seen in the ministry of Jesus.

And we can think of all the Gospels, but let's just stay with John. He remembers the water turning to wine.

He remembers what Jesus said to the woman at the well. They were shocked that he was talking to her, but he talked about true worship.

And then he remembers the battle with the scribes and Pharisees in John 5.

And he actually claimed in John 5, verses 17 and 18, to have the same prerogative to work on the

Sabbath day that the Father did, making himself equal with God. And then you had the whole teaching that he gave at that point about how you need to honor the

Son, even as you honor the Father, and that He gives life in and of Himself. And all these things like that.

And then in John 6, he walks on the water, but even before that, he had taught in the synagogue about how you need to eat

His flesh and drink His blood to have life within yourself. And then in John 8, the anger of the

Jews when Jesus said, unless you believe that I am, you will die in your sins. And before Abraham was,

I am. They pick up stones to stone him. And we just couldn't believe he was making that kind of claim because he was claiming to exist before Abraham was.

In fact, he was using the language of the name of God in the Old Testament. Maybe over the course of those eight days,

Thomas had been going through his mind in light of what the other disciples were saying. And he was reflecting upon and thinking upon these things.

And then, there's the man born blind in chapter 9. And Jesus' response wasn't what they expected.

He wasn't born blind because of his parents' sin or even his sin in the womb, which is what Jews had thought.

Instead, he was born so that the works of God might be worked in him. And then when Jesus finds the man after he's been tasked out,

Jesus allows him to worship him. And then in John 10,

I and the Father, we are one. John 11, raising Lazarus from the dead.

And then he had begun teaching the disciples. And there had been that conversation if you've seen me, you've seen the

Father. Not that he was identifying himself as the Father. He said, I and the Father, we are one.

But he claims to be the very representation of God the

Father. So, had Thomas come to the conclusion, you know what? If these guys are right, if they really have seen

Jesus, then you know what that means? You know what it must mean?

You know who this one must be? And so when

Jesus appears to Thomas, and he shows that he has supernatural knowledge of Thomas' own thoughts and struggles, and now he has come into their midst in that locked room, it all comes together.

And Thomas doesn't need any more proof because his disappointment is gone. Has he figured it all out yet?

Does he fully understand what the Messiah is doing? No, that's going to take the coming of the

Spirit. Jesus is going to be doing some teaching now. There's going to be a number of days in which

Jesus is going to be teaching. And we know from Luke, he opens up the Scriptures. He breathes upon them, opens up their minds, understands the

Scriptures. But it just seems to me that the reason that Thomas answers in the way he does is because he's had the opportunity to look at the testimony.

He's been able to see the cumulative evidence that John himself has placed here, that Thomas himself had been present to see and to understand.

And he recognizes the One who is before him. He's his Lord. He's his

God. He's not a separate God from the Father. He's not some demigod.

He's not a secondary God. Did Thomas fully understand the doctrine of the Trinity at this point so he could pen the

Council of Nicaea? No. But he understood the testimony of the

Scriptures. And he understood the testimony of what he himself had experienced, had seen in the ministry of Christ.

His response is, My Lord and my God, today across this land, the resurrection of Christ has been proclaimed.

But in many instances, it has been turned into some type of spiritual analogy.

A few years ago, you may recall a good friend of this church and certainly of Reformed Baptists as a whole,

Dr. Jim Renahan. Dr. Renahan and I had the opportunity to debate two very liberal scholars on the subject of the resurrection.

And I remember very clearly that these men wanted to present the idea that the resurrection was a very important thing and that we should think about the resurrection and the resurrection defines

Christianity. But that the resurrection had nothing to do with an empty grave.

The resurrection had to do with us experiencing new life as we reflect upon the life of Jesus.

And as long as we reflect upon Jesus, then we experience His resurrection in our life.

But that's not the resurrection. There is no resurrection without an empty tomb.

And it was about halfway through the debate before one of them really sort of just piped up and said, so you really think this has to do with an empty tomb?

Really? That's amazing. Well, yes, that's what Christians have believed for a long time.

And yet there are many in our land today who call themselves Christians. But if you were to ask them, was there really an empty tomb?

Not just metaphorically, not just spiritually, but did

Jesus rise from the dead? They would say, well, that's not really what it's about any more than the crucifixion was about the sacrificial giving of life so that those united to Christ might have forgiveness of sins.

You see, I just don't think it's possible for you to really, really believe in the resurrection as the

Bible presents it if at the same time you think Jesus was anyone less than your

Lord and your God. And those who really believe that, really believe that, really believe that God has invaded

His own creation in the person of Jesus Christ, that's Christianity.

But you see, if you really believe that, then you realize this is one that I cannot ignore.

This is one that I must deal with every single day. This is one worthy of my worship, worthy of my life, worthy of every aspect of my being.

And that's pretty uncomfortable for folks who are just trying Jesus. There is no trying this person.

There is no trying our Lord and our God. He either is or He isn't.

And so we have the advantage that Thomas gained over that week. We have all this testimony of Scripture.

We can look back and see all the things that Jesus said and did, the miracles

He performed, the teachings that He gave. And so when we see the resurrection, we don't just go, wow, strange things happen.

We go, oh, God the Father has testified to the truthfulness of God the

Son. He has vindicated the Messiah. He has accepted His sacrifice.

And that is why we must proclaim the message that there is only one way of salvation.

Because if these words are true, then to say there's some other way to enter into the presence of God is to make a mockery of God Himself.

Think about it. If there was a back door, if there was a secondary way, if there was some other way, what is this all about?

What is God the Father doing, allowing God the Son to be hung upon a tree and treated the way

Jesus was if there's another way? That's why Paul recognized if there is any other way, if you can be justified by keeping the law, then

Christ died needlessly. It turns the cross into a mockery.

And yet you and I both know, you and I both know that when we walk out of this place this evening, if we engage in conversation with someone and we make the statement that Jesus is the only way, we are once again committing cultural heresy.

Because that's the one thing you're not allowed to say. You can say Jesus died for you.

You can say that's the only way for you. But don't say that's the only way for anyone else.

Well, to say otherwise is to turn this text on its head. To say otherwise is to turn the

Gospel on its head. Thomas doubted out of despair and disappointment.

Jesus ministered to him. And Thomas came to understand who

Jesus was in a far deeper way than he ever could have before. Those eight days must have been difficult, but you know what?

When God puts you through eight days of difficulty, it's because what's on the other end is going to be worth it.

Resurrection Sunday. Well, on the calendar, that's today. But to be honest with you, it's every

Sunday. That's why we meet. That's why we gather.

That's why we can pray and have peace with God because we know He rose from the dead and He right now intercedes before the

Father for us. And that's why we have peace with God. And we don't have to wait for another year to rejoice in that.

I'm sure that every day from this day forward, Thomas rejoiced.

And he lived in light of that confession he made. My Lord and my

God, may we likewise, like Thomas, confess, even though we have not seen, may we confess and not be afraid of the face of men as we give testimony as well.

Let's pray together. Indeed, our gracious Heavenly Father, as we have opportunity in this coming week to give testimony of our faith in Jesus Christ, our

Lord and our God, may we be bold, may we be clear. May we do so as recipients of grace.

May we do so to Your honor and Your glory. And may we live our lives in light of the fact that we serve a risen

Lord who has conquered death and promises that we who are in Him will likewise have eternal life.