Shalom: The Easter Greeting - [John 20:19ff]

Welcome to No Compromise Radio, a ministry coming to you from Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston.

No Compromise Radio is a program dedicated to the ongoing proclamation of Jesus Christ, based on the theme in Galatians 2, verse 5, where the

Apostle Paul said, But we did not yield in subjection to them for even an hour, so that the truth of the gospel would remain with you.

In short, if you like smooth, watered -down words to make you simply feel good, this show isn't for you.

By purpose, we are first biblical, but we can also be controversial. Stay tuned for the next 25 minutes as we're called by the divine trumpet to summon the troops for the honor and glory of her

King. Here's our host, Pastor Mike Abendroth. When you meet Jesus face -to -face, and every one of you will, what would you like Him to say to you?

On Judgment Day, when you see the Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, if He were to initiate conversation and say one word to you, what would you want that word to be?

What do you think that word might be? Will He bring up your sins as an unbeliever?

Will He bring up your sins as a believer? Will He say, well, maybe you should have another try at this, another go at this?

What one word would you like to hear from Jesus? Certainly, it's not the word, away, punish, sinner.

Today we're going to look at a passage that in real life, Jesus saw men after they had denied

Him and sinned against Him, and He had a word for them. One word response to these men, and I think you're going to like it.

And let's turn our Bibles to the Gospel of John, John 20. And based on this word, you'll go from despair to hope.

Based on this word, you'll say to yourself, there is good news for sinners. What's the word that Jesus says to His people after He was resurrected?

Now the Bible's a big book, and it all talks about Jesus, but some places it talks about Jesus more specifically, and John is one of these books.

You're probably familiar with the Gospel of John, you've been told to read it often, and John's Gospel really is about who

Jesus is. You want to learn more about Jesus? The Gospel of John, good news about Jesus is found in John.

And he begins to talk about John in ways that are very foreign to some people's ears, like Jesus is the creator.

That's how he starts off with the book, that Jesus is the creator. Just like Genesis 1, 1, in the beginning

God created, so too, Jesus is the creator. Jesus created everything,

He created the world around you, He created you, everything He has created, and that means

He's the creator, He's not a creature. As you begin to look at this book, there are things that are said about Jesus, like He's the

Son of God, and God is His Father, His personal Father, this relationship, this special relationship that God the

Father, God the Son, and the Holy Spirit have. You begin to read this book and you think, the

Holy Spirit is sent by the Father and the Son. Who is this Holy Spirit? Why does He help? How does

He come alongside and comfort? When you read the Gospel of John, He, the writer, wants you to say this,

I believe in the claims of Jesus, I believe what He did, what's written in this book, I affirm that.

Jesus even said to help us understand who He is, things like this, I am the bread of life, and you can think about the manna in the

Old Testament, but Jesus says, no, you want sustaining, you want sustenance, you want spiritual food and nourishment,

I am the bread of life. He says, I am the light of the world. If you want to have darkness dispelled, the sin of darkness dispelled,

I am the light. I'm the gate of the sheep, I'm the good shepherd, I'm the resurrection in the life,

I'm the way, the truth in the life, I am the vine and you are the branches. And Jesus even calls

Himself God in this book, before Abraham was, I am. Remember back in the

Old Testament, Moses meets God and God says, this is my name, I am who I am,

I exist, I'm eternal, and Jesus even said that of Himself, no wonder the Jews picked up the stones to try to kill

Him. When you read this book, the Gospel of John, you say to yourself, this is not an ordinary man.

This is not any kind of man we've ever met, we don't understand it completely, but He is not ordinary.

I mean, how could someone say, you know that great temple that's there? No, no, I am the temple.

You sacrifice lambs for Passover, I am the Passover lamb. You want to know who the true

Israel is? I am. You want to behold someone's glory? I am the glory of the Father. Feast of Booths is another thing that the

Jews celebrated. Jesus said, if anyone thirsts, let him come to Me and drink. Whoever believes in Me, as the

Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of waters, many waters.

It's of Jesus in this book, John, where they said, remember Moses put up a snake, he made a snake out of some metal, and if you look at that, you'll live.

So too, Jesus says, so must the Son of Man be lifted up that whoever believes in Me may have eternal life.

Everything in this book is driving us to say, it's true. Who can turn water into wine?

Who can walk on water? Who can still the waves of the sea? Who can raise Lazarus from the dead?

Who can feed 20 ,000 people? Who can take a crippled person and make them walk?

Everything in this book is pointing to Jesus, the risen Savior, that we should believe in Him.

So we come to chapter 20, and I think what I'll do is I'll read chapter 20 verses 1 -18 about the resurrection, and then we're going to deal with verses 19 and following.

So here's what we're going to do. We all know about sunrise services on Easter, right?

Did some people come to our early service today? How many did? Okay, most came to that and then went home, maybe, or something, who knows.

Or like last year, we went to the Chapel Wachusett for a sunrise service. Sunrise services were started in 1723 by some

Morovians, and they said, you know what? Let's get up early. The single men especially got up early, and they walked to the graveyard, and they began to sing songs about the risen

Savior. That was the first sunrise service. Well, today we're going to look at the sunset service.

You say, what are you talking about? What happened Easter evening? We know what happened Easter morning, but what happened to Easter evening?

And that's what we'll talk about from John. But let's read Easter morning first, another account of the risen Savior from John.

John chapter 20, this is Easter morning, then we'll look at Easter or resurrection evening.

Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark and she saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.

So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, they've taken the

Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him. So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb.

Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in.

Then Simon Peter came following him and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself.

Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.

For as yet they did not understand the scripture that he must first rise from the dead.

Then the disciples went back to their homes. Verse 11, but Mary stood weeping outside the tomb, and as she wept, she stooped to look in the tomb, and she saw two angels in white sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one of them at the head, and the other one at the feet.

They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my

Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not know that it was

Jesus. And Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said,

Sir, if you had carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away. Jesus said to her,

Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboni, which means teacher. Jesus said to her,

Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to my father, but go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my father and your father, to my

God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the

Lord, and that he had said these things to her. Today we're going to look at chapter 20, verses 19 through 31, and I want you to say to yourself, there's no one like this.

There's no person, there's no person like this, Jesus is not an ordinary man. And by the way, when we look at the resurrection account, if you just say, people aren't raised from the dead, men aren't raised from the dead, women aren't raised from the dead.

I would submit to you, you're right, ordinary men are not raised from the dead. But John, for this whole book, has been trying to tell you,

Jesus isn't an ordinary man. From chapter 1, from his eternal nature, all the way to chapter 20, when he dies on behalf of sinners and is raised from the dead, you should say to yourself, he's not ordinary.

The way he talks, the way he walks, what he says, how he preaches, how he deals with people, how he deals with enemies, there is not anything ordinary about Jesus.

So it doesn't surprise me when I see Jesus raised from the dead, even though ordinary men aren't raised from the dead.

What happened on Easter evening? If you don't like the word Easter, fine, what happened on resurrection

Sunday evening? If you'd like an outline, let me just give you a quick outline, so it can help you as we work through this passage.

Three Easter greetings from the resurrected Jesus. What did he say to these men who have not acted very godly in some of the recent occurrences before the death of Jesus?

Three Easter greetings. And by the way, they're all the same. They are all shalom, or peace.

Every one of these, he says three times, is peace, shalom, in the

Hebrew. Easter greeting number one, shalom. And Jesus is going to validate who he is by his resurrection.

He wants to encourage them. He wants to encourage their faith. Verse 19, on the evening of that day, so this is

Easter night, the first day of the week, the doors being locked, where the disciples were for fear of the

Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, losers, deniers,

Peter, not just once did you deny me, but two times, no, yet three times you denied me.

Jesus didn't say that. He shows up and he says, peace, shalom, peace be with you.

Now Jesus is going to say a lot of things, but he says peace in this particular reason, this particular case, because he wants them to know he is truly alive and therefore he validates everything that he has said.

Did you know in Mark chapter eight, he said to them, I've got to be rejected, killed.

And in three days later, I'll rise from the dead. That's so preposterous. Peter said, no, no, no. He rebuked

Jesus. And Jesus said, get behind me, Satan. In chapter nine of Mark, Jesus said, they're going to torture me.

I'm going to die. I'm going to be buried. I'll be raised from the dead. And in chapter 10, he says the same thing. Who says that?

Who actually does it? And now Jesus shows up and he's proving to the disciples that what I said is true.

You can trust me. I'm not an ordinary man. One man said it's worthy of notice how gently

Christ acted toward them and not keeping them in suspense any longer than till evening.

I mean, Mary, she knew the other Mary, she knew. But now what about these disciples? The suspense is killing me.

Now they're weak, they're frightened, they're timid. But Jesus shows up and he says, peace.

I mean, what if Jesus was a liar? What if Jesus stayed in the tomb? I mean, we, by the way, we got up early for no good reason today.

We're to be pitied. We're to be mocked. Matter of fact, first Corinthians 15 says, if Christ has not been raised from the dead, the first fruits of those who have fallen asleep, then we have hope in this life only.

And we are of all people to be the most what? Pitied. But Jesus shows up and he says,

I'm alive. And he does it on Sunday. By the way, just think about it.

This is kind of a nice thing to work through in your mind theologically. Six days you work for the

Jew, and on the seventh day, Saturday, you rest, right? Six days work, one day rest.

Work Monday, Sunday through Friday, and then you rest. All of a sudden now everything's changed because of the resurrection of Jesus.

We worship on Sunday now, and Sunday is called a day of what? Well, for you, it's rest.

For me, it's work. Just kidding. Just kidding. Wonderful work.

Restful work. But now the first day's rest, and in light of the rest we have in Christ, what do we do the rest of the week?

We work. Everything's changed now. Work, work, work, work, work, rest. And now it's front -loaded.

The resurrection happens on Sunday. We worship the Lord Jesus on Sunday. And it's all because He is alive.

These disciples know, hmm, they crucified, tortured, beat Jesus. We're next.

We're next. This is going to happen to us too, because Jesus even said, what's happened to me is going to happen to you, my followers.

And they're afraid, and so what does Jesus do? He miraculously, that's the point, supernaturally shows up.

The doors are locked. That's more than one door. And the disciples were there in fear of the Jews, and He came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.

Now most people immediately think Jesus just walked through a door. I'm not so certain that He walked through a door.

Does the text say He walked through a door, like materialized through a door? I'm not talking about opening it up, but did

He just have His body and kind of like Star Trek dematerialized through the door? Is that how

Peter got out of jail when the Spirit of God led him out? He just kind of walked through the bars, the iron bars?

The text doesn't say anything like that. We know it's supernatural. We know Philip can be one place at one moment in Acts 8 and someplace else the next moment.

Jesus can just show up. That's all true, but we read this like modernists. And modernists know this is wood pulpit, and if anything is going to go through that wood pulpit, it has to change that goes through it, not the pulpit has to change.

We're modernists. We're enlightened people. We don't ever think to ourselves, Jesus didn't change because He's truly human.

True humans don't walk through doors. Maybe the door changed. I don't know. Maybe He picked the lock.

Maybe they took Him from the ceiling and dropped Him down in a pallet. I don't think any of those are true, but the text doesn't say not a one of them.

Supernaturally, because He wanted to try to encourage these people, and they were frightened, He shows up.

Doesn't say He entered through the shut doors, but He suddenly stood in the midst of them. One man said, it's funny to read scholars,

Jesus didn't walk on water by dematerializing His body. He supernaturally certainly can do things, and that's what we should think of.

If He can slip through a murderous crowd, He can show up and translocate as it were.

Jesus is truly human. He must be truly human. He's more than truly human, but He must be truly human.

And Hebrews says, Jesus is co -equal with humanity.

His essence is humanity, both before the resurrection and after the resurrection. Well, let's keep going here.

The point is, obviously, that Jesus supernaturally shows up, and He wants to encourage those men.

He stands in their midst. Boy, this is amazing. And He doesn't rebuke them.

He says, peace. Is this an ordinary man? And He says peace in the

Greek word. It's where we get the lady's name Irene. And Irene just means peaceful.

And here, I'm sure He's using the word shalom, or that's the import of the word shalom. And if you go to Israel, how many people have been to Israel?

And you meet people and you say what? Shalom. And so, shalom is not just, well, there's no war, but there's a presence of peace, happiness, fulfillment.

One writer said, never had that common word shalom been so filled with meaning as when Jesus uttered it on Easter evening.

His shalom on Easter evening is the compliment of it is finished on the cross. Shalom, accordingly, is the supremely

Easter greeting. We like to say here, many people said to me this morning, Christ is risen. And I didn't want to ruin the sermon, but I wanted to say shalom.

I have to say He's risen indeed, which is perfectly fine. That's a good greeting. Jesus' greeting on Easter evening was shalom, peace.

No wonder Romans 16 calls God the God of peace. 1 Thessalonians 5, and the

God of peace Himself will sanctify. No wonder at the beginning of many books of the

Bible in the New Testament, grace to you and what? Peace. And you say, I know what this peace is.

This peace is like that eagle song, I've got an easy, peaceful feeling. Serenity of heart.

By the way, I can't believe you listen to the eagles. Don't they sing songs about California?

We don't want it. This isn't that peace that you have in your heart.

This is, I'm at war with someone. More technically, God is at war with me, and every sinner who's ever been born,

God is at war with. They're His enemies. His personal enemies. And all of a sudden you think, how can

I have God as my enemy, and now I have peace? I've been reconciled.

Things have been apart, and reconciliation means they've just gone back together, so that you could have peace.

Romans 5 says, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ.

We have peace. And I want you, dear believers, to understand this. That you, if you're a

Christian, you have peace with God. You have peace with God. Through the preacher today,

I'm telling you that if you died today and stood before God, the word would not be away, banish.

I don't know if the word would be greeting, I don't know if the word would be my son. I don't know exactly what

Jesus is going to say. But it contains the idea of, we're okay. Peace.

Because what Jesus did on the cross is He paid for all of our sins. Why would God be mad at us any longer?

Peace. Christians have peace with God. Peace from God. Peace with God.

Morris said, the justified person is no longer tormented by questions of his relationship with God arising from the fact that he's a sinner.

Sinner though he is, he is at peace with God because of what God has done for him.

And God's not going to say, by the way, double payment I require. I'm going to pour out my judgment on Jesus for your sins and pour out judgment on you as well.

No, He would never do that. The war is over. We stand before God. Literally the language is, if you went right up into God's face and you stood before God in Romans chapter 5 verse 1, what would you do?

Shriek? Cower? No, there's peace with God. Peace facing a holy

God. Estranged from God no longer. Verse 20, when

His disciples said this, He showed them His hands and His side. John 20 verse 20, then the disciples were glad when they saw the

Lord. His word is true. Victory is accomplished. The God man, Jesus, is alive.

His humanity in fact did die, but He's been raised from the dead. Jesus is confirming this.

He wants them to know. Jesus in a spirit being, some kind of phantom flying around?

No, no. Truly human. John 16, earlier Jesus said, therefore you too now have sorrow.

But I will see you again and your heart will rejoice. He's talking about right now.

And no one takes away your joy from you. Everything that Jesus said is true. The risen

Savior is in fact the crucified sacrifice. So I want you to know, dear

Christian, the war is over. You're trusting in Him. You're good.

We're in good relationship. We're in good standing, God. Perfect standing because of the Lord Jesus. Not only that, the second

Easter greeting from the literally resurrected Jesus, the first resurrection greeting,

Shalom, was to validate His claims and His sin -bearing work. The second one is

Shalom, found in verses 21 and following, as Jesus now has the authority to catapult weak sinners into gospel ministry.

And He does it here with the apostles. Verse 21, Jesus said to them again, there it is, the exact same word.

Two words in the original language, peace be with you. As the

Father has sent me, even so I'm sending you. I mean, now we're on good terms.

We're no longer enemies. We're friends. You have me as a lawyer, as an advocate, as a captain of your salvation, as the anchor of your soul.

Now I send you out. Why would Jesus send out enemies to do His work? No, no, He sends out

His friends. He sends the reconciled. Father, in eternity past, said to the

Son, go rescue my bride, the elect. Go die for them. Go live for them.

Be raised for them. And as the Father sent the Son, so too now the Son sends out these men, these apostles.

I mean, who has that authority? Of course, Jesus has all authority because it's been given to Him by the

Father. John 14 said, peace I leave you, my peace I give to you. Not as the world gives, do

I give to you. Let not your hearts be troubled, nor let it be fearful. You have heard that I said to you,

I go away and I will come to you. If you love me, you would have rejoiced because I go to the

Father, for I'm greater, for the Father is greater than I. So I've been sent on a mission.

I send you on a mission. And by the way, I'm going to go back up to heaven, but I'm going to give you the

Spirit to help you. John 17, as you sent me into the world, Father, I have sent them into the world.

What's he do? Verse 22, hope it goes well. Hope you can figure it out. Hope you're good marketers.

Hope you can understand cultural relevance and contextualization. Hope you can figure this out.

And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the

Holy Spirit. Not only does Jesus say, okay, we're at peace. We're friends.

I'm true. It's validated. I'm the resurrection in life. I'm now going to send you out and preach what

I've preached, that is forgiveness of sins in me only. And by the way, you're not left to your own devices. You're not left to figure it out on your own.

I give you the Spirit of God. He's telling these apostles, here's this preliminary enablement.

Full Holy Spirit will come upon you in Pentecost, but for right now, like the

Lord God formed the man out of dust in Genesis 2 and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, so too now you want empowerment for gospel ministry.

Jesus is raised from the dead. He said, yes, it's all true. You can confirm that. You can look at my hands.

You can look at my side. And by the way, you're in ministry. I would think this is fair to say to call this a call to ministry.

People say, are you called to ministry? These people definitely knew they were called to ministry.

Just like breathing on dust, God creates Adam and Eve and gives them a soul, so too here.

These men, fearful, hiding, persecuted, weak, deniers, now are given gospel boldness to go preach, to go minister.

And what's that call of ministry contain? Verse 23. By the way, if you forgive the sins of any, they're forgiven them.

If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. The gospel ministry, you preach the

Lord Jesus and you tell people, if you trust in him, if you rest in him, all your sins are forgiven.

And by the way, I say that too. I don't have apostolic authority, but the same is exactly true for today.

If you, dear person sitting here today, are trusting in the Lord Jesus, you are completely forgiven for all your sins.

Yeah, but what about those really bad ones? What about those ones I'm ashamed about? What about those in the skeleton closets that I have?

They're all forgiven, completely paid. It is finished. You are forgiven. And on judgment day,

God will have nothing held against you. No judgment, no condemnation for Christ Jesus.

By the authority of the word of God, if you trust in the Lord Jesus, you are completely, totally vindicated and forgiven.

Today. The same is true, though, on the flip side. And if you withhold forgiveness from any, it's withheld.

If you're sitting here today and you say, I will not believe, I don't want to believe, I'll believe later, my parents can believe for me,

I'm not into this, I don't want to do this, this isn't my cup of tea, this is not for me, I do more good than bad,

I haven't done a lot of the Ten Commandments broken, just some of them. I'm telling you by the authority of the word of God and the

Great Commission that you are not forgiven and you will pay for your sins eternally in hell forever.

That's the authority that was given to the disciples. And of course, the disciples were told in Matthew 28 to teach us and we teach the next generation.

This isn't like me, I'm some kind of special bishop and I'll tell you if your sins are forgiven or not.

That wasn't like this for the apostles either. They weren't some kind of bishop. They were saying, I am a sent one, the apostle means that,

I've been sent by the Lord Jesus to tell you the good news and the good news is God offers forgiveness without any work because you couldn't work hard enough, you couldn't be good enough, you couldn't have enough baptisms and catechisms and confirmations and mission trips and everything else that I thought

I brought to the table. We bring nothing to the table except sin but Jesus loved sinners and Jesus died for sinners and Jesus was raised for sinners.

And if you won't believe, you're not forgiven. Try as you may, you can't, I wouldn't bank on it because you will be eternally distressed.

That is a bad option. So what does Jesus do? He shows up. Shalom. And by the way,

I'm going to send you out. I'm going to have you be ambassadors, my deputies and you go out and you preach the gospel.

You tell them that I'm no ordinary man. You tell them there's no other way of salvation. I am the way, the truth and the life.

You tell them who can walk over to a dead body Lazarus. How many days was he in the tomb?

So long in the tomb that he what? King James people are always there on the spot.

He stinketh. You walk up to a body and you say arise and instantaneously every dead atom, every dead molecule is now alive and the person's alive and their spirit's alive and then they get up and walk.

Who does that? Well, that's the God with whom you have to do. And the church declares what the apostles declared, what

Jesus declared. Don't you want to trust in the Lord Jesus to be forgiven? I command you to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ because the options are you won't be forgiven any other way. No absolutions, nothing that a man says.

If you go talk to a man and he says you're good to go, you do more good than bad, you're all set.

That's not true. That's not the message from the Lord Jesus. That's not the message from the apostles. That's not the message from the

Bible. Verse 24, now Thomas one of the 12, John 20, 24 called the twin was not with them when

Jesus came. So the other disciples told him we've 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 hands into his side,

I will never believe. By the way, I've met a lot of people in this lifetime of mine in 61 years and I've met people who said

I'll never believe. And guess what? They're sitting next to you. See, Jesus comes and seeks and saves those that are lost.

He doesn't say you start, I finish. You move toward me for a moment and I'll move toward you.

No, no, people, all of us were born in sin, dead and trespassed in sins. Just everything we do is sin.

We might not sin as much as everybody else, but before God we're a sinner. So God has to initiate. God has to act.

God has to be the one who does the saving. We respond certainly with faith, but God has done all the work.

And here he shows up to Thomas. I mean, denier

Peter, peace. I wonder what he's going to say to Thomas. One writer said the stupidity of Thomas was astonishing and was monstrous.

It was a monstrosity. At least when he saw

Christ, he ought to have been overwhelmed with shame and amazement, but on the contrary, he boldly and fearlessly stretches forth his hand as if he was not conscious of any guilt.

What happened with Thomas? Which leads us to Easter greeting number three. It's Shalom. Shalom number one, what

Jesus said is true, confirmed by the resurrection. Nobody raises themselves from the dead. Shalom number two,

I'm putting you into gospel ministry. And of course, if the apostles are in gospel ministry and then they say to us, we're in gospel ministry now telling people about the good news.

That's wonderful. Now the third Easter greeting, the last greeting, is Jesus encourages and restores.

It's just like the Lord Jesus who's slow to anger and abounding in loving kindness, patient, kind, compassionate.

What does he do with people with little faith, weak faith, trembling faith, fearful faith?

Is he going to say, you're a bruised reed and I'm going to crush you? Does he say, you're a smoldering wick and I'm going to extinguish you?

I wonder what he does. The ordinary, the no ordinary man of John 1 through 19 would probably give you a hint what he'd do in chapter 20.

It's one thing to say, well, you've got people like this and they're going to want their pound of flesh and everything else.

I wonder what Jesus would do. He actually, after all, did blister the Pharisees. He did actually get a whip of cords and drive people out of the temple.

I wonder what Jesus will do. But if you know the pattern of Jesus through John 1 to 20 verse 18, you'll say to yourself, he's no ordinary man.

That's not going to be what Jesus does. He loves sinners. He loves his disciples. He loves his apostles.

So what does he say? Verse 26, eight days later, his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them.

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

How dare you, Thomas, forever you're going to have the name doubter. Matter of fact, that stuck with us, didn't it?

Doubting Thomas. He doesn't say, drop and give me 50 push -ups.

What does he say? Everybody else gets peace, but you don't get peace. No, he says peace.

They were together worshipping him on Sunday like they did the previous Sunday. He said to Thomas, verse 27, put your finger here.

Do you see the Lord? Do you see his compassion? Do you hear his heartbeat here? And see my hands?

Put out your hand. Place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.

Kindly, compassionately. He didn't have to do that. He could just say, you know what, you need to believe.

I'm going to call on people in the next centuries and millennia to believe even though they've never seen me, let alone touch me.

But Jesus, okay, I'll even kind of quote you back,

Thomas. You can. It's fine. By the way, Jesus had died for the sins of doubting

Thomas. Did you know that? They're already paid. Why would Jesus have to scold? Why would

Jesus have to reprimand? Discipline, fine. Chastening, fine. But if I as a sinful man can be kind to my children, how do you think

God is going to act to his children? Well, Thomas, the text doesn't say he put his hands anywhere.

Jesus encouraged that. But Thomas instead replies.

Thomas answered him. By the way, if you call somebody my Lord in the Old Testament, you mean they're

God. If you call someone God in the Old Testament, it means they're what? God. My Lord and my

God. Not Lord. Not God. Not Lord and God.

But my Lord and my God. He just like come to himself because Jesus is working on him and Jesus is empowering him and Jesus has come to encourage him and he responds now rightly.

He acknowledges that Jesus isn't an ordinary man. He's the God -man. He is the one who has conquered death.

Kurios, Lord. Title of deity. Theos, God. Title of deity. Is Jesus God?

Absolutely. Must you believe Jesus is God? Absolutely. You can look at John 1 and see

Jesus is God. Romans 9, Philippians 2, Colossians 2, John 10,

Titus 2. The list goes on and on and on. He sees

Jesus and he says what everyone here has said who is a believer. The Spirit of God prompting them to say my

Lord and my God. That's why we worship on Sunday because Jesus is

Lord and God. By the way, when angels were worshipped by John who wrote this book, what did the angels say?

The angels see John get down on his hands and knees. Get down on his face.

Have you ever met an angel? Of course the radio posted me once saying have you ever been touched by an angel? I don't think that shows on any longer, is it?

If you saw an angel so brilliant, so spectacular, although created, you would be down on your face and John is down on his face in front of an angel.

And what does the angel say? Stop worshipping me because only God deserves worship.

What did Jesus do here? No, no, don't worship me. I'm like the

Son of God. I'm less. I'm created. I'm not eternal. I'm pointing you to the Father who's really

God. But I'm not really God. What does Jesus do? He accepts the worship. You ought to mark that in your minds.

He is no ordinary man because He is the God -man. Truly God, truly human.

Earlier in this book, John the Baptist knew Jesus was God. Nathanael knew it. Jesus Himself knows it.

The blind man knows it. Martha knows it. John the Apostle knows it. And now Thomas knows it.

No one had ever talked to Jesus like this. And now Thomas does. Verse 29,

Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Don't forget the second half of the verse because it's about you, dear

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

Reminds me of 1 Peter 1. And though you have not seen Him, you what? Love Him. And though you do not see

Him now but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, obtaining the outcome of your faith and the salvation of your souls.

Eternal blessings. Jesus shows up and He says,

I'm true and my word is true and I'm alive. Shalom. I send you on a mission to do gospel ministry.

Shalom. I'm alive. And then for the weak, for the frail, for the children of God who are struggling,

He says, Shalom. I restore you. I encourage you. He's no ordinary man.

Verse 30 and 31 and we end. Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples which are not written in this book.

Some are written in the other gospels but some aren't even written. These are written, the ones that are written about Jesus raising

Himself from the dead, raising Lazarus, walking on water, feeding the 5 ,000 men, all those, they're written so that you, if you're sitting here today, either believe for the first time or keep on believing that Jesus is the

Messiah, the Old Testament promised King, the Son of God, the Eternal God, and that by believing you may have life in His name, eternal life.

I read this week something fascinating. Quote, scholars have concluded that the gospels only record about 50 days of Jesus' ministry in all the combined gospels yet Jesus' total ministry of three and a half years comes out to about 180 days, excuse me, 1 ,080 days.

That means that we have only a record of 4 .6 % of Jesus' ministry. The writer says, imagine the teaching, conversations, and ministry we've never heard about.

But we have enough so all of us here either say we're all in by trusting and believing or we reject this.

I don't want a Lord, I run my own life. I don't need a God, I'm my own God. I don't need help on that day,

I'm just going to be eaten by worms. There's no judgment day. So Jesus, it's very binary here, you either believe or you don't.

You're either for Jesus or you're against Him. You say, well, there's kind of a faith that's just a little bit of faith.

Well, a little bit of faith and the right object is saving. You know about Jesus, you give hearty agreement to it and then you trust and rest in what

He's done. And it's life for all eternity. What's the gospel of John about?

It's about Jesus. So what? Every preacher writes down or they should write down at the end of their sermon, so what?

What's the so what? What's the therefore? Why are you up here talking for 45 minutes?

Or in this particular case, 40. I only have 40 more to go because I like long endings. So what?

Why? What's going on with all this? And here's what John does over and over and over.

While it talks about the Lord Jesus and what He does as no ordinary man, all throughout the book it talks about faith.

The response to Jesus is to believe. I'll read you a few verses in John. But to all who did receive

Him, who believed in His name, He gave the right to become children of God.

Many Samaritans from that town believed in Him because of the woman's testimony. He told me all that I ever did.

Truly, truly, Jesus said, I say to you, whoever hears My word and believes Him who sent Me has eternal life.

He does not come into judgment but is passed from death to life. I am the bread of life.

Whoever comes to Me shall not hunger and whoever believes in Me shall never thirst.

This is the will of My Father that everyone who looks on the Son and believes in Him should have eternal life.

And I will raise Him up on the last day. Truly, truly, I say to you, whoever believes has eternal life.

Whoever believes in Me, as the Scripture has said, out of his heart will flow rivers of living water.

I told you that you would die in your sins for unless you believe that I am He, you will die in your sins.

I am the resurrection and the life. Whoever believes in Me, though he die, yet he shall live. And everyone who lives and believes in Me shall never die.

Do you believe this? One day, dear congregation, believer and unbeliever, you'll stand before God.

You'll meet God. You'll meet Jesus, the Incarnate One. If He were to say to you one word, what would you want that one word to be?

Welcome. I love you. Peace.

My child. Or would you want that one word to be?

Depart from Me, you who practice lawlessness. And so for us as Christians, aren't we thankful that the first response is going to happen?

It's not, well, I hope I get there, laying there thinking I'm going to die in the hospital and I'm saying to myself,

I think I'm going to meet God pretty soon. What's going to happen? I mean, after all, I was baptized as a kid.

I've been baptized as an adult. I didn't think this part, but just to throw this out. I was baptized in the River Jordan.

That should count for something, shouldn't it? I've done religious things.

I've been faithful to my wife. I think I'm in. But I knew that everything

I have done in my life has been tainted by sin. And I need a Savior. So it dawned on me in the hospital, and I wasn't thinking, well,

I didn't have the oxygen and I'm tired and everything else. Just processing through, I said to myself, what

Jesus said is true. And Jesus said, your only hope is faith. It's trust.

It's resting in the accomplished work. And I said to myself, if Jesus isn't true, I'm dust, eternally dust.

I don't mean pulverized, but I'm just in a bad way. But if Jesus is true, and His Word is true, and it is because it's confirmed by the resurrection, everything

He said, He said He did, He did, then I said to myself, then it's going to have to be the

Lord who takes care of me whether I live or I die. And I'm going to trust in Him and rest in Him because,

Lord, while my belief might not be perfect, it is in the perfect object. And then

I fell asleep. Do you believe? If you believe, one possible word when we see

Jesus will be Shalom. But it'll certainly be Welcome. And if you don't believe, today would be a good day for you to believe in the

Lord Jesus Christ. Not only a good day, but you must believe because Jesus is alive. Let's pray.

Father in Heaven, we thank You for what You've done. And we also believe in Jesus' Word where He's going to come back from Heaven.

On that appointed day, He's coming back. And for the unbeliever, that thought is horrible and dreadful.

But for us as believers, it's wonderful. It's a great comfort.

It's pleasant to think on that day that the

Lord Jesus will profess our names before You and the holy and elect angels, and all our tears will be wiped away simply because we've trusted and believed.

And we would acknowledge today that even that faith is a gift. We look forward to that great day now with longing, wanting to enjoy all the promises and fullness of God in Christ Jesus our

Lord. And Father, as You've granted many of us or maybe most of us saving faith, for those that are sitting here today, would

You let them contemplate eternity and the claims of Christ and then grant them saving faith and repentance in Jesus' name.

No Compromise Radio with Pastor Mike Abendroth is a production of Bethlehem Bible Church in West Boylston Bethlehem Bible Church is a

Bible -teaching church firmly committed to unleashing the life -transforming power of God's Word through verse -by -verse exposition of the sacred text.

Please come and join us. Our service times are Sunday morning at 10 .15 and in the evening at 6. We're right on Route 110 in West Boylston.

You can check us out online at bbcchurch .org or by phone at 508 -835 -3400.