Believe! - [John 20:24-31]

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Please open your Bibles to John chapter 20 John chapter 20 as we continue To work our way through the book of John the gospel of John And I really changed the name of the message.
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You know, it's funny if you look at my notes here I don't but if you look at if you look my notes, you'll see that the title of this morning's message is title
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I have a format I use and I forgot to change it, but I thought you know, even last night this morning
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I'm like, I want to change the name of the message to stop disbelieving stop disbelieving
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Saw a few posts on Facebook from somebody Relatively important to me and this person said that they realized
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That God is no more than the Easter Bunny Santa Claus Just a fantasy a fraud a fiction
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And I thought first of all, I sent a link for this morning's message to that person
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With my sincere hope that they will listen and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ I want them to understand the
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God who exists not the God that they've been taught about or heard about their entire lives true confession
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This is gonna shock you I don't like jigsaw puzzles. I Jigsaw puzzle haters
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We need to form a club. I think maybe it's just I Maybe I don't have the patience
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Maybe it's my ADD kicking in. I don't know but I find it. I find them annoying kind of demanding and If I could say just unnecessary frivolous
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But I think for many professing Christians and certainly for many unbelievers
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Jesus is kind of a jigsaw puzzle Maybe we work on the edges for a while.
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Maybe we get a little corner fixed But the big picture is at best fuzzy and often
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Incompletes. I know we've referred to this Ligonier survey a few times but the
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Ligonier survey of 2020 with in conjunction with life way is pretty telling and I just pulled a few tidbits out of there this morning
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How about this one? Jesus is the first and greatest being created by God Two -thirds of evangelicals agreed with that.
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I don't know if that was taken in Salt Lake City I don't know where they took it that that's just wrong One -third of them agreed with this
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Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not God Jesus Christ's death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin 89 % of evangelicals agree with that better I'd be looking more for like a hundred and nine percent, but Anyway 88 % agree with this only those who trust in Jesus Christ alone as their
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Savior Receive God's free gift of eternal salvation again better 83 % agree with this.
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It is very important for me personally to encourage Non -christians to trust Jesus Christ as their
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Savior 83 % agree with that. You know what I can sort of understand that Because if you don't know who
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Jesus is How do you exhort encourage?
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Preach to somebody else and hope that they will believe for some of us really theology
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Christology is a bit of a jigsaw puzzle and we act like these things don't matter very much
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They're not important. They're like I was saying about jigsaw puzzles annoying Jesus thought they were important.
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Maybe we should listen to Jesus Our text is John chapter 20 beginning in verse 24 now
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Thomas one of the twelve Called the twin was not with them when
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Jesus came So the other disciples told him we have seen the
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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
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And place my hand into his side. I Will never believe
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Eight days later his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them
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Although the doors were locked Jesus came and stood among them and said Peace be with you
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Then he said to Thomas Put your finger here and see my hands and put out your hand and place it in my side
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Do not disbelieve but believe Thomas answered him
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My Lord and my God Jesus said to him.
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Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed
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Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book
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But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ The Son of God and that by believing you may have life in his name
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Now the last time we were in John, I mean, it's hard for me to kind of remember how long ago that was it wasn't that long ago, but Genesis 3 still in my brain.
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So it was a little while ago We looked at verses 19 to 23 and it was a post -resurrection
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Visit to 10 of the 12 disciples, of course Judas is long gone having betrayed
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Jesus, but Thomas wasn't there and There were a few others. We know that a couple of the disciples who met
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Jesus on the road to Emmaus were there Probably some of the women who had seen Jesus were there
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We don't exactly know how many people were there, but I would say, you know, this was kind of the first gathering post -resurrection gathering of the church and they met behind locked doors on that occasion and I've no doubt that even though this is a little bit of supposition.
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They were pretty careful about the meeting I there wasn't a sign out front that said all are welcome, right?
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I mean they were concerned for their safety If you recall Jesus miraculously entered the locked room and there were even some, you know commentators
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I remember this one because it's just so dopey Some commentators trying to explain away the supernatural and they say well, you know, he was hiding in the room
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No Supernatural and he showed the wounds in his hands aside and even in his feet as we gathered from Luke And he gave the disciples the church a mission
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Telling them he was sending them in the same way that the father had sent him And he also gave them
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Some encouragement by way of I would say a charge a duty
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Where he wanted them to understand that they in the future would be
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I'll just put it this way that they would be able to discern that they would have the responsibility of discerning what somebody made a profession of faith
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But the gospel according to John focuses on the deity of Christ. We just read about it That's his entire focus
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He wanted unbelievers to read it and to be converted by it. He wanted them to go from disbelief to belief
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He wanted them to go even as we heard in Sunday school from agnosticism right to faith He wanted unbelievers
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He wanted us to read it and to be strengthened in our faith to be strengthened in our understanding of who he is his overall goal
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Jesus overall goal on this occasion and on the previous occasion was to calm and encourage his disciples his believers
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And John here really gives us the penultimate or Penultimate look at Jesus, but really the ultimate look at Jesus as God and this morning as we go through this passage
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I have four s's four s's to help us kind of keep track of where we are
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But as we look at what is I think the quintessential Christological Passage maybe in all of Scripture, but certainly in the book of John the pinnacle of John's proclamation of the deity of Christ.
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I want us to see these four s's So we'll see first the standard set in other words
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What what is it that we're trying to see and what is it that ultimately
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Thomas? I guess we put it this way that Thomas demands Thomas was as we said not at that first meeting.
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He didn't see the resurrected Jesus and The second meeting starts out with a bit of I think you could say it this way a bit of a trial
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Right and Thomas appoints himself as judge Look at the text again.
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He says John writes now Thomas one of the twelve called the twin was not with them when Jesus came and the first the first time the first Sunday night
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So the other disciples told him that's resurrection Sunday Easter Sunday We have seen the
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Lord and the idea here in the Greek is they continuously told him just think about it all through the week
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Sunday Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday Saturday. They're just telling him we saw Jesus.
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He's alive Thomas isn't going for it
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Now John doesn't tell us here why Thomas wasn't at the first meeting. We don't know but the other ten
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Apostles were there certainly others. I think we could guess that Mary Magdalene was there the other women who'd seen him
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There's ample eyewitness testimony But there's just one problem the judge
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Thomas who thinks he's in charge Isn't going for it. In fact, he says in verse 25
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But he said to them unless I see listen it listen to his demands unless I see in his hands in Jesus hands the mark of the nails and Place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into a side.
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I will never believe Now we've heard the phrase Doubting Thomas right and you read this and you go.
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Oh, yeah doubting Thomas for sure. I Mean he earns it right? He's got the doubting merit badge.
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How many of you were in scouts? you know, I remember was a big deal for me when I got the Rifle and shotgun merit badge because I think it was the first person at the camp to ever get it and I was like Well Thomas is the first one to get the doubting merit badge good for him
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Think about who's telling him not only have they seen the resurrected Lord, but these are people that he knows
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Well, these are his friends. This is his closest circle of friends And yet he doesn't believe
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But isn't that like unbelief? Right don't unbelievers want to set the standard
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I'll tell you what if God would just show himself or if he would you know strike me with lightning or if he would do
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Bla bla bla bla then I would believe No, you wouldn't
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But here's the thing we talk about doubting Thomas if we think about every single one of the
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Apostles whether it's Peter John James whomever even Jesus brothers
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They did not believe in the resurrection until they saw Jesus for themselves. So is Thomas really that much worse?
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I mean sure. He's ignoring the eyewitness testimony but So did they in fact none of the disciples?
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Understood what Jesus himself had told them that he would rise from the dead and None of them believed the first reports.
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Listen to Luke 24 verses 10 and 11 Now was Mary Magdalene and Joanna and Mary the mother of James and the other women with them
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Who told these things to the Apostles what thinks about the resurrection that they've seen
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Jesus listen to verse 11, but these words seem to them to the Apostles to the disciples to Jesus inner circle and Idle tale and they did not believe them
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They weren't going for it before that first Sunday night meeting the Resurrection Sunday evening
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They were told that he was raised from the dead and they didn't believe it What were they doing?
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They were hiding They were afraid that the same thing that happened to Jesus was going to happen to them.
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They mourned Their dreams their hopes had been crushed. They worried about themselves.
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What am I going to do? I went all in on Jesus and now what he's gone. What am I to do? but even if Doubting Thomas the nickname isn't altogether fair.
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I think it would be fair to call him demanding Thomas, right? I'm not gonna listen to all these testimonies.
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I'm not gonna listen to anything. I have to see it for myself and Thomas really sets the bar high
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He draws his line in the sand. I Will never believe he says
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Unless his demands are met The Greek there is the highest bar, you know, no, no never
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There is no chance. I'm going to believe unless these things happen It is an absolute.
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So that's the standard. I will never believe unless These things happen
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Second s the standard met first standard set then standard met
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You set the bar we'll get over that bar and this is the very next
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Sunday night Thomas has his unreasonable demands met look at verse 26 eight days later
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His disciples were inside Jesus disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them
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Now you're probably wondering. Okay, it says text has eight days. That should be Monday night, right?
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No, because that's not how they count if there's any part of Sunday left That's day one
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So this is day eight because this is the next Sunday So it goes from Sunday to Sunday.
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And so it's another kind of Sunday night meeting of the church They're trying to piece things together there.
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They're Afraid they're gathering together. No doubt to pray and to talk to have fellowship and Again, there is an interruption and it is
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Jesus again He comes through miraculously supernaturally
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Not hiding in the closet or something And he grants them peace look at verse 26, although the doors were locked
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Jesus came and stood among them and said peace be with you
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Your hearts are troubled you're worried you're afraid Have peace be at peace.
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I'm here The church was still scared they still weren't holding public meetings
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But a locked door didn't stop the Lord of the church from attending a service verse 27
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Then he said to Thomas Put your finger here See my hands
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Put out your hand and place it in my side Jesus greets everyone he greets all the disciples
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But he zeroes in on Thomas he zeroes in on the one with the issues
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How does he know about Thomas's refusal to believe how could he know about this list of demands because Spoiler he's
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God He's omniscient he knows everything Does he know about the demands that Thomas has made?
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Absolutely Thomas demanded to see the nail marks in his hands. Jesus says what see my hands look
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Thomas demanded to put his finger into the marks. Jesus says Put your fingers here
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Thomas demanded to put his hand in the Lord's side Why because that's where the
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Roman soldier had pierced his side with a spear He wanted to make sure
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Jesus was dead. So Jesus says take your hand and do what put it in my side Place it in my side sibs said of this he says
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Richard sibs he says how gently did Jesus endure the unbelief of Thomas And stooped so far into his weakness as to suffer him to thrust his hand into his side
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So we hear that we think you know, I can I can hear the sermon now Jesus will meet you wherever you are.
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You just set the demands. However, ridiculously you wanted Jesus will meet you. He's that's what he does
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He just meets you wherever you are Is that the point? The point is always this
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Does Jesus meet your demands Does he meet the demands of the unbeliever or does he change the heart of the unbeliever?
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I remember when I first and the answer is b by the way In case you were wondering I remember when
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I first got saved And amazed at the grace of God as I read through the bible
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Amazed at the idea that Jesus would love me enough to die for me But I had a problem
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And my problem was a theological problem. I'd spent my life Denying the trinity of learning how wrong the trinity was and i'm like, okay
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I know I have to believe the trinity but how? And the answer is study the bible
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Right the answer is look at how people have taught the bible for hundreds of years and understand
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The truth has never left the earth because God won't allow that Now here's a kind of a tricky question
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Did thomas actually stick his hands in there? Did he put him in his? Hands, did he put him in his side?
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Well, we don't know Some scholars say nope. He didn't the command was enough
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And I agree the command was enough, right? The sight was enough But did he?
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I don't know, but he probably did it's a command right? Jesus is right there saying do this He probably did
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But either way the effect is evident, right whether he did or didn't isn't the point
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The point is what effect does it have on thomas? Here's what's absolutely clear the command of jesus not to feel the marks
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But to believe look at verse 27 again Do not disbelieve stop unbelieving but believe go from unbelief go from Agnosticism go from being unsure to believing trust
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When we talk about believing in the lord, jesus christ, I was thinking about this week and i'm like what is it like?
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It's like this I don't Understand a lot of things here's what
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I know is that jesus died for my sins and rose from the grave I know that he's truly god and truly man and upon that I'm willing to do the the old trust fall right?
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I'm willing to throw myself into the arms of god Now does that mean let go and let god i'm never going to worry about my sanctification
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No What it means is I trust jesus. I trust the bible says
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What the bible says about who he is I believe it Do not disbelieve but believe
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I like how d .a. Carson translates this. He says stop doubting and believe
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And the raw greek here is basically do not be unbelieving but believing And as with mary magdalene, right if you remember what did he say, you know, mary was confused
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She didn't know who jesus was when she ran into him in the tomb She probably had tears streaming down her eyes and you know, she was just a muddled mess
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And what did jesus do? He just said Mary, but he said it in aramaic
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He called her by this name that she'd heard dozens hundreds who knows how many times over the years that they've been together
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She knew instantly who it was And similarly with thomas
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Jesus appears and he says thomas do this It doesn't matter what thomas did or didn't do jesus wanted him to believe and he does
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He absolutely does Standard set standard met and now he makes our third as the superior confession superior confession
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Look at verse 28 thomas answered him. My lord and my god
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Da carson said of this he said it is the most profound confession in scripture the depth here is
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Inestimable It's deep If this were a jigsaw puzzle, all the pieces have stopped moving around all the edges are filled in he can see who jesus is
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Hedrickson said this he said no longer does thomas wish to rule supreme In other words, he's like i'm not making any more demands.
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I get it I surrender We can just Think about thomas's mindset for a minute before the crucifixion
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We're talking about jesus as lord before the crucifixion. He would have believed that jesus I think was the messiah
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But what did that mean to him? We saw what it meant to judas, right? He he was all invested in in jesus for the wrong reasons
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He wanted to enrich himself He thought he was going to gain power and everything else It's not unlikely that thomas like many jews thought that Jesus was going to usher in some kind of renaissance for israel overthrow the romans
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That there was going to be some kind of tangible benefit to being one of his right -hand men per To put it that way
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The concept of a dying messiah one who would take away the sins of the world
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Now certainly that was something john the baptist talked about it was something jesus talked about But it was not what many of the disciples or any of them really had expected
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They didn't expect him to die for their sins and then raise on the third day. It didn't even matter that he'd said that Today people are given false ideas about jesus.
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Jesus is going to solve your problems Jesus is going to Heal your body.
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Jesus is going to do all these things All you just have to do is believe and I think about my friend on facebook
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And I think the problem she's having is this I want these things right now.
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I want my life to change right now. And since that isn't happening god doesn't exist
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The failure of course Is what? Not understanding that your greatest problem isn't your life situation
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Your greatest problem is your sin that you stand condemned before a holy god That's the problem that jesus addresses
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By coming down living a perfect life dying a sacrificial death and being raised on the third day my lord
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He says and then he says my god This is just a huge leap here
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Thomas is a faithful jew This is a profound statement The whole of judaism is based on what it's monotheism hero israel moses writes in Deuteronomy 6 verse 4 hero israel.
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The lord our god is one, right Monotheism all the other nations have this multiplicity of false gods.
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They have gods for Mountains and they have gods for fertilities and gods for rivers and gods and gods and gods and gods and gods
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Israel has one god at least when they're obeying him, right? They often go after foreign gods
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But to call him my god It's not some kind of I I was even reading it's not some expression of Some crass expression of anything he's addressing jesus as his deity as his god what's interesting here too is jesus doesn't correct thomas in his assertions in his professions
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Because you don't correct somebody who's right I think
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I may have spoken about this man a few weeks ago But I had uh an exterminator come to my house on a few saturdays ago came up to my house and um
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You know started talking to me now. He was from a company i'd never seen before but There was something familiar about him in this sense.
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I'd never seen the man before But male caucasian clean cut and here was the killer
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Sorry, sorry folks. No new england accent And last year
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I had somebody come up and and the year before to different company but similar mo similar similar appearance
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And as I talked to him Or them I realized they were mormons. So I I was like, okay i'm i'm locked and loaded for this guy.
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He comes up And you know, he's and I go well, we're under contract. Uh, well, you know, my wife's not here
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I'm making every excuse and then I just go. Hey, uh, I noticed you don't have an accent. Are you from around here? He says no.
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I said really where are you from? He goes idaho and I said, oh I said you wouldn't happen to be lds, would you and he's like Yeah So I start
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I I just said I said can I ask you a couple questions? And I said was there ever a time when jesus did not exist
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And he said now keep in mind. This is a man who'd been on a mission This is the man. He told me he'd been to extra training in jerusalem.
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I guess they have some kind of school there so this is somebody that was well steeped in mormon theology and he said well
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He knows he paused for a minute. He said well the father rearranged pre -existing matter
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What do you mean by that? He meant that jesus is not eternal in the sense that he always existed as a being
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But that the father created jesus out of existing matter and in that sense
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Jesus is more or less eternal because even though we all came into being at more or less the same time out of created matter
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What's the problem with that? I mean just think about that matter existed before jesus did
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We're going to see the problem here in a moment, but I I just want to emphasize that Right.
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This is a religion the mormon religion where they will tell you that they're christians I even said to him
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I said, you know when I was growing up, we never would have said I'm a christian And he goes really he looked at me.
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I mean Generational thing but he looked at me like really because we say that all the time and i'm going I know you do
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It's just not true It's not true.
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You just can't make stuff up and say we're christians We need to be anchored in scriptural truths, but we need to be anchored in historical truths
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These historical truths are taught to us in confessions of faith. These are summaries of what the bible teaches
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I want to read part of the belgic confession. In fact, I would commend that to you belgic confession chapter 10
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Let me just read part of this listen We believe that jesus christ according to his divine nature god
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Is the only begotten son of god begotten from eternity? not made
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Nor created For then he should be a creature What does it mean that he's eternally begotten?
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How can we make sense of something like that? What does it even mean to be begotten from all eternity?
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I have an answer I looked it up The eternal generation of the son is categorically different that's what it means to be begotten begotten generation same thing
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Is categorically different from human generation? When a human father begets a human son in other words if you have a child the beginning takes place within time
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A human father temporally Precedes his son in existence, right? We understand that Uh, my dad existed before me.
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I existed before my son my daughters, right? This is just what happens Human begetting is a time -bound process, but the father's begetting of the son transcends time
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It transcends time why because time is a creation It's it's like what we were talking about in sunday school
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And if you weren't there in sunday school I encourage you to come because there are questions that need to be asked and and things that we need to fletch out
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We need to think more about these things the more we can fill in The the puzzle the more we understand the better equipped we are when false teaching comes along And it often comes along calling itself christian
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It goes on to say this begotten of the father before all ages helpfully distinguishes the divine beginning outside of time from human beginning within time
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Now, can we fully comprehend that of course not? We know the bible teaches it and that is enough.
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Let me give you a few examples John chapter 1 verses 1 to 3 and then verse 10
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I read it before our service because I I want to emphasize these things listen In the beginning was the word what does that mean that means before anything else existed when there was nothing not any space or or anything to organize
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Before anything was except for god In the beginning was the word and the word was god and the word
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And the word was with god and the word was god. He was in the beginning with god All things were made through him and without him was not anything made that was made
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He was and this is verse 10 He was in the world and the world was made through him yet.
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The world did not know him I'm gonna go quickly because I don't want to take too long here first corinthians 8 6 listen to this
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Yet for us there is one god the father and you go. Wait a minute. Then jesus can't be god Hold on From whom are all things and for whom we exist listen and one lord jesus christ this is
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Not to get too into the weeds here, but this makes them equivalent in the greek grammatical structure But just listen to the wording here and one lord jesus christ
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Through whom are all things and through whom we exist the only difference Is That god is referred to as the source the from from whom are all things and for whom
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We exist and then through whom are all things and through whom we exist Colossians 1 16 for by him all things were created in heaven and on earth
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Visible and invisible whether thrones or dominions or rulers or authorities all things were created through him and for him
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Jesus christ is ever existent yet. He's distinct from the father and he is the creator
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This is important. And when we say all things came to being Came to be through him and by him and for him
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Well, if we say that jesus is a thing if he's a created being well, he couldn't have created himself
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So there's a logical error there back to the belgic confession chapter 10 quickly
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He is talking about jesus co -essential and co -eternal with the father the express image of his person
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I mean, this is like hebrews one language, right? He's the icon. He's the express image of god
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And the brightness of his glory and listen equal unto him in all things
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He is the son of god. Not only from the time that he assumed our nature In other words when he was born but from all eternity
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As these testimonies when compared together teach us talking about different scriptures
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Moses says that god created the world and john says that all things were made by that word, which he calls god
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And the apostle says that god made the worlds by his son likewise that god created all things by jesus christ
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Therefore it needs follow that he who was called god the word the son and jesus christ did exist at that time when all things
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Were created by him And it goes on and on So this is the
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The development the embodiment of what thomas says when he says my lord and my god he's explaining
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In shorthand who jesus is i'm explaining in the long hand So we've seen the standard set the standard met the superior confession and now the standard for faith our last s verse 29 through 31
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Jesus said to him have you believed because you have seen me Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed
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Now jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples Which are not written in this book
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But these are written so that you may believe that jesus is the christ the son of god And that might and that by believing you may have life in his name
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Now faith means what we know from hebrews chapter 11 that faith is The substance of things
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Not seen right Faith means believing what we haven't seen thomas has seen this
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The disciples have seen it So what are we left with we're left all we have
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Is the testimony of eyewitnesses to the resurrection? That's all we have That's pretty good how many were there
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The answer is hundreds 500 We believe the testimony of the messengers jesus appointed his apostles we believe what they wrote in the gospels in in the new testament
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But john, it's he tells us here selected from the signs that he saw he says
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I didn't write about all of them I chose the ones that I chose to fit my purposes and here's my purpose that you might believe
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That he is the son of god that he's the christ That he's the messiah that he's the redeemer that he's the one who came
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Left his father's side eternally. God came to earth to live a perfect life die a substitutionary death be raised on the third day
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Why so that by believing you may have life in his name? That's what he wants
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There are miracles before the resurrection. There are miracles after the resurrection. John doesn't give us all of them
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I mean think about that even in the short couple chapters we have after the resurrection in john He doesn't even write all the resurrection miracles or post -resurrection miracles there
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But he has one purpose to convince his readers Of who jesus is why that they may have?
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life in his name I i've been thinking about another message in my mind.
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I want to call it spiritual zombies, but I won't Listen all around you. There are dead people.
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You know, I see dead people. There are spiritually dead people all around you They need the words of life.
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They need to understand who jesus is. Jesus granted you life and kept you here
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Right, you are still here so far You're here why?
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So that you might tell other people about him Belief grants eternal life, which is to say
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Instead of condemnation instead of hell Our joy is not in this life, but in the life to come we may suffer we may have trials in this life, right?
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We may have disappointments. We may have heartaches But our joy is not
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Limited to this life. I think we have joy here if we understand the gospel, right? We should wake up we should go to sleep always thinking
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I can't believe jesus would save me But we need to warn people
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They are in peril of hell Now friends, let me ask you this how complete is your puzzle is your picture of jesus
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I mean have we somehow just resolved ourselves settled ourselves? We're satisfied, you know what that is a strong looking corner
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I've got going up there or you know what the outside of my frame looks pretty good I know that's what
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I do I'd be very happy To just walk away from you know, let the kids fill in the pieces.
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Sorry kids Let me ask you this The more you know about jesus true or false the more you know about jesus the more you love him
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It should be true I Mean i'm sure there are maybe people that want to debate that But I can't promise you this
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I can't promise you that you're going to love him more I can't promise you this the more you know about jesus the more amazed you will be by him
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True or false the more you know about jesus This one is 100 true The more you know about jesus the more confidence you will have to talk about him
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To evangelize those weirdos who come to your door That's true, right?
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The more confident you are in what you believe the more you know about what scripture says the more you know about what the church
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Has taught for hundreds and thousands of years the more confident you will be when
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The cultists comes to your door When you hear statements like this, they ask you these survey questions.
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Jesus is the first and greatest being created by god False, I know that's false.
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I may not know the chapter and verse but i'll get it for you Jesus was a great teacher, but he was not god false.
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I know that because it's right here in john chapter 20 Jesus christ death on the cross is the only sacrifice that could remove the penalty of my sin true
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Only those who trust in jesus christ alone as their savior receive god's free gift of eternal salvation true
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Many professing evangelicals go to church week after week after week and don't know these things
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Many more i'll guarantee you what if you walk around your your Homeschool groups, etc, etc.
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And you say, you know, jesus is eternally begotten of the father People will be like what what are you talking about?
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These things are important They're important for us to understand to be encouraged by and that's i'm encouraging you
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If you believe this morning, I want to encourage you to keep on believing just as the apostle john does
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If you don't believe I want you to go from unbelief from disbelief to belief. I want you to trust him
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Let's pray father Thank you for your word.
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We thank you for the revelation of the lord. Jesus christ even here in this text How he does indeed condescend to thomas
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We have that witness written by the apostle john by the power of the holy spirits That we might know that jesus rose from the dead that he lives
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That he died for our sins rose on the third day and now is ascended into heaven and intercedes on our behalf father,
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I pray no matter what comes if it's trials difficulties or some exterminator at our door
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That we would rely on the truth That we would declare the truth that truth would be our greatest comfort
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And our greatest joy We know these things because you have declared them and you have preserved them for us that we might
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Not just be encouraged by them not just be strengthened by them But that we might proclaim them