{"id":18845,"date":"2015-05-31T00:00:00","date_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sugar-land-bible-church.local\/sermon\/not-unbelieving-but-believing-part-2\/"},"modified":"2015-05-31T00:00:00","modified_gmt":"2015-05-31T05:00:00","slug":"not-unbelieving-but-believing-part-2","status":"publish","type":"sermon","link":"https:\/\/slbc.org\/es\/sermon\/not-unbelieving-but-believing-part-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Not Unbelieving But Believing – Part 2"},"content":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"featured_media":0,"template":"","book":[88],"series_event":[434],"sermon_service_type":[472],"speaker":[6],"class_list":["post-18845","sermon","type-sermon","status-publish","hentry","book-john","series_event-john","sermon_service_type-main-service","speaker-dr-andy-woods","no-post-thumbnail"],"acf":{"sermon_title":"Not Unbelieving But Believing - Part 2","sermon_date":"20150531","sermon_month":"5","sermon_year":"2015","sermon_notes":2730,"sermon_slides":2731,"sermon_mp3":2732,"sermon_id":"53115104718","series_or_event":434,"service_type":[472],"speaker":6,"books_of_the_bible":88,"chapter_and_verse":"20:27-29","sermon_transcript":"Andy Woods\nFrom Unbelieving to Believing, Part 2\n5-31-15 John 20:24-29 Lesson 125\n\nGood morning everybody. If we could take our Bibles and open them to John, this time I\u2019m serious, you had to be here for the meeting to understand that one, John 20, taking a look this morning at verses 27, 28 and 29. The title of our message this morning is From Unbelieving to Believing, Part 2. If you\u2019ve been tracking with us in John\u2019s Gospel, we find ourselves in that closing section which really revolves around not just Christ\u2019s death but the section that we are in involves His resurrection. And that section began with the empty tomb, verses 1-10, and then what follows in this chapter, and in the rest of the book, is Christ\u2019s resurrection appearances, first to Mary, then to the ten disciples, Thomas not present, and then finally to the eleven eight days later with Thomas present. So the character that\u2019s being highlighted in these verses is this man, Thomas, a man that we sometimes, I think flippantly, refer to him as \u201cdoubting Thomas.\u201d\n\nHere is some of the ground that we covered last week. We had Thomas\u2019 reluctance; he\u2019s reluctant to believe the testimony that the disciples kept saying that Jesus has risen from the dead. Jesus had been out of the grave for eight days; Thomas is slow to believe. Why? He wasn\u2019t there when the Lord appeared to the ten, and consequently Thomas tells the rest of them I\u2019ve got some criteria, if you will, I\u2019ve got some standards. I\u2019ve actually got to see and touch Him in His body and His wounds, and if that doesn\u2019t happen then I will not believe.\n\nSo what begins to dawn on Thomas, after these requirements are laid out, is a growing recognition, in fact a miraculous recognition who Jesus is. Jesus, as we saw last time actually manifested Himself, just like He had done to the ten eight days earlier. They are in the same room and He reappears to them and now He\u2019s with the eleven, Thomas present. And consequently verse 27, Jesus gives an invitation to Thomas. How would you like it if the Lord just showed up in your house one day, in your room, in your place of study, and He said yeah, those questions you\u2019ve been asking Me, well, here\u2019s an answer.\n\nAnd you\u2019ll notice verse 27, as we pick this up, it says, \u201cThen He said to Thomas, \u2018Reach 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.\u201d One of the things that\u2019s sort of interesting about this is when Thomas had laid out his test of faith, back in verse 25, Jesus was not in the room. Jesus enters the room in verse 26 and then Jesus responds to Thomas\u2019s request. So one question that comes up is how did Jesus know Thomas\u2019s request when Jesus was not in the room to hear Thomas state his request?\n\nThe answer to that, of course, is Jesus is omniscient; Jesus knows everything! And this actually, when you study it, is one of the great proofs that is brought out in John\u2019s purpose, to identify Jesus as the Son of God. This is not the first time we have seen Jesus\u2019 omniscience or all-knowing nature on display. Remember what He said regarding Nathanael; \u201cNathanael said to Him,\u201d in John 1:48, \u201c\u2018How do You know Me?\u2019 Jesus answered and said to him, \u2018Before Philip called you, when you were under the fig tree, I saw you.\u2019\u201d Nathanael is astonished that this man, Jesus, knows all about him, having never met him. And that is brought out by John, I believe, to show exactly who we are dealing with in this man, Jesus Christ. We are dealing with God in human flesh, and God has attributes that nobody else can share in; one of those is omniscience, or knowing everything.\n\nA lot of people have this mistaken idea, based on Philippians 2:7, where it says Jesus \u201cemptied Himself,\u201d they believe that Jesus somehow gave up either His deity or His attributes of deity when He took on human flesh. And that could not be more incorrect. Jesus never gave up deity nor did He give up the attributes of deity, nor did He give up the ability to perform miracles. He retained those all the way through in His incarnation. What He surrendered was the independent exercise of those attributes. He completely submitted them, or surrendered them to God the Father. This is standard Christology, which deals with the doctrine of Christ.\n\nWalvoord, in his very good book on Christology, if you\u2019re interested in Christology or what the Bible reveals about Jesus I would recommend to you his book, Jesus Christ Our Lord.\u201d He writes this: \u201cThe act of kenosis,\u201d now\u201d kenosis\u201d means emptying, it\u2019s the word that\u2019s used there in Philippians 2:7 where it says Jesus \u201cemptied Himself.\u201d So how He became a man, kenosis, emptying, takes on that title, \u201ckenosis\u201d from that Greek word. \u201cThe act of kenosis as stated in Philippians 2 may therefore be properly understood to mean that Christ surrendered no attribute of deity, but that He did voluntarily restrict their independent use in keeping with His purpose of living among men and their limitations.\u201d\n\nWhat is the incarnation? The incarnation simply means the enfleshment of God. Jesus Christ, the Second Member of the Trinity, stepped out of eternity into time and took on human flesh; in fact, that is the whole subject of John\u2019s Gospel. You remember all the way back in John 1:14 it says, \u201cAnd the Word,\u201d that would be Jesus, \u201cbecame flesh, and dwelt among us, and we saw His glory\u2026.\u201d The incarnation or the enfleshment of God was not a subtraction. Many people falsely assume that something got taken away; Jesus surrendered deity or attributes of deity, or miracle-working powers. And the fact of the matter is nothing could be further from the truth. The incarnation was not a subtraction; the incarnation was an addition. Humanity was added to eternally existent deity at the point of Jesus\u2019s miraculous conception, born of a virgin.\n\nAnd so we need to look at Jesus the way the Bible reveals Him. And Jesus in His incarnation gives this statement to Thomas. Now Jesus in His incarnation, still omniscient, knew exactly what was on Thomas\u2019s mind. You know, the Bible, in Psalm 139 it talks about how before we speak the Lord knows what we\u2019re going to say. Well, God just doesn\u2019t understand what\u2019s on my mind\u2026 YES He does, He understands it before you do; before you articulate it He knows exactly what you are going to say. That\u2019s the intimate knowledge He has, just not of humanity in general but specifically you; specifically Thomas, specifically what was on his mind.\n\nJesus then, in this manifestation says to Thomas, go ahead then, touch, \u201cReach 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.\u201d Jesus had no interesting in tantalizing Thomas\u2019s curiosity. What Jesus was interested in is inculcating faith, creating an environment where faith or trust in Christ could be exercised.\n\nGod has no interest in tantalizing our curiosity. What He is interested in is us believing in Him. In fact, it couldn\u2019t be clearer, could it, when you look at verse 27, be not \u201cunbelieving, but believing.\u201d This is why Jesus condescended to Thomas\u2019 level, because Jesus is all about faith, creating an environment whereby human beings can exercise faith in Him and consequently have the gift of life. And whatever it takes to bring that about I believe God will do, and we call that the condescending of God; not condescending in a negative sense but coming down to our level.\n\nI like the way J. Vernon McGee puts it: \u201cPut the cookies on the bottom shelf for all the kids to get.\u201d That\u2019s what God is about. The incarnation is the ultimate putting the cookies on the bottom shelf. It is the ultimate condescension of God to our level whereby we can see, hear, understand, relate to Him, because after all, He is one of us.\n\nAnd so He tells Thomas here, be not \u201cunbelieving, but believing.\u201d That\u2019s the goal. That is His goal for every single human being on planet earth, not that all will accept, sadly, but the heart of God is for all too accept. 1 Timothy 2:4 says this: \u201cwho desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.\u201d 2 Peter 3:9, it says, \u201c\u2026not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.\u201d That, of course, is what John\u2019s Gospel is about; we\u2019ll be getting to those verses that we\u2019ve already covered many times next week.\n\nJohn reveals to us his purpose in writing, why this book came together\u2014it\u2019s a revelation of Jesus, who He is in terms of His correct identity, not to give us a theology lessons for theology\u2019s sake. Not to communicate knowledge for knowledge\u2019s sake but to create an environment and a testimony whereby faith can be exercised because the most important decision you have to make in your life is not what kind of career you\u2019re going to have, not how much money you\u2019re going to have saved up for retirement, not what neighborhood to live in. It is are you going to trust in Christ or not, because that decision has eternal ramifications, eternity with God or an eternity separated from Him. Eternity hangs in the balance with this decision.\n\nAnd this is why Christ condescends and comes down to Thomas\u2019s level and our level, because of the significance of this decision. That\u2019s why the whole testimony here of Thomas\u2019s growing faith is included, because John includes it because that\u2019s his theme, that\u2019s his point, that\u2019s what he wants to produce in us as readers.\n\nAnd we move away from the invitation to now the adoration where Thomas recognizes who Jesus is and finally exercises faith in Him, notice the adoration of Thomas there in verse 28, \u201cThomas answered and said to Him, \u2018My Lord and my God!\u2019\u201d A couple of interesting words here, the first one is \u201cGod,\u201d Theos, who is Jesus Christ; simply put Jesus Christ is God. The second word that is interesting here, in addition to God, actually it\u2019s used first, is the word \u201cLord.\u201d The Greek word for Lord is Kurios; \u201cLord\u201d is a revelation of who Jesus is; it\u2019s His title. It reveals His identity as many things, Creator, Sustainer, Ruler; He is God and He is Lord. Lord, therefore, should be confined to an understanding of who God is in terms of His identity, His title, exactly who it is we\u2019re dealing with here when we talk about this man, Jesus Christ.\n\nAnd I want to camp just for a moment on this word \u201cLord,\u201d because of widespread confusion that has been brought into the body of Christ, largely through this title, \u201cLord.\u201d There is something today, and those that promote this are drawing from Puritan writers and they have brought it back to life and into many churches. It is something called Lordship salvation. Robert Lightner, my professor, who was not an advocate of Lordship salvation in his book defines Lordship salvation as follows: Lordship salvation refers to the belief which says that the sinner who wants to be saved must not only trust Christ as his substitute for sin, but also must surrender every area of his life to the complete control of Christ.\n\nAnd what you find in Lordship salvation is not just faith by itself justifies us before God, but there has to be a second step, the Texas Two Step as we might call this; you must surrender every area of your life to the complete control of Jesus Christ. Generally they\u2019re talking about commitment, perseverance, surrender and things of that nature. Now that statement, as Robert Lightner summarizes it, should make you nervous because thus far in John we\u2019ve taught over and over again that we are saved before God by faith by itself. And when someone says not only and also then are they not adding to the requirement of God to justify the lost sinner. This is what we call Lordship salvation.\n\nAnd people are confused about this because you see these titles of God, like the word \u201cLord,\u201d but let me tell you something about this word Lord, just for a moment, if I can; it is a description of His title. It is not a description of the response that fallen human beings must undergo to enter into a right relationship with God. For example, over in Acts 16:30-31, this deals with the Philippian jailor, who asked Paul life\u2019s most important questions, [30] \u201cand after he brought them out he said, \u2018Sirs, what must I do to be saved?\u2019 [31] They said, \u2018Believe in the Lord Jesus, and you will be saved, you and your household.\u2019\u201d\n\nYou\u2019ll notice I\u2019ve got two words underlined there, \u201cSirs,\u201d and \u201cLord\u201d because in Greek it\u2019s the exact same word; it\u2019s the word Kyrios. So when he says, \u201cSirs, what must I do to be saved,\u201d he is asking them, based out of reverent respect, Paul and Silas, based on their title. And then Paul turns around and gives a title of Jesus Christ, \u201cbelieve in the Lord Jesus Christ, and you will be saved.\u201d You can see, by the way, this word is used two times, it\u2019s speaking of the title; first the title of Paul and Silas and second Paul uses it as the title for Jesus Christ.\n\nWhat then is the problem with Lordship salvation? It confuses the title with the response of people. That\u2019s the confusion. By that logic we can say well, since God is the Creator then for me to enter into a relationship with Him I\u2019ve got to be the creator. These are not talking about here what we as human beings do to enter into a relationship with God, it is merely a revelation of the title of Jesus Christ.\n\nWell then you say, if that\u2019s His title what are we supposed to do? Well, beloved, it couldn\u2019t be clearer, if we just put aside our preconceived ideas and look at what this passage says. Is the word \u201cbelieve\u201d not used here five times? When you look at verse 25 you\u2019ll see the word \u201cbelieve\u201d used once; you look at verse 27 you see the word \u201cbelieve\u201d used there twice. And then you look at versed 29, of course verse 27 says \u201cbelieving\u201d and \u201cunbelieving,\u201d when you look at verse 29 it uses the word \u201cbelieve\u201d here two more times.\n\nThere is absolutely nothing in this passage about commitment, perseverance, and surrender. If it becomes commitment, perseverance and surrender, then the focus is on you and myself and what we do rather than simply receiving as a free gift what Jesus has done in our place through simple childlike faith. And in Acts 16:30-31, even though the word \u201cLord\u201d is used twice, when it gets to the condition that the Philippian jailor must satisfy to enter into a relationship with God the focus is not on commitment, perseverance and surrender, it is on \u201cbelieve,\u201d and believe alone, what the Protestant Reformers called sola fide, Latin for sola\u2014alone, fide\u2014faith, faith by itself. And anybody that wants to add anything to that very simple formula of God is, number 1, subtracted from what Jesus has done. What Jesus has done for us is so awesome that the only thing we can do is receive it as a free gift by faith.\n\nAnd number 2, they have added things to the response of people to enter into a relationship with God, they have added verbs that don\u2019t belong, and in the process, unknowingly and well-intentioned in some cases, taught the wrong gospel. The gospel is not what we do to climb up into the presence of God through commitment and perseverance and surrender and sorrow, it is God reaching down to us in the condescension of God, in the person of Jesus Christ and we respond to it. The only appropriate way a lost person can respond to it is to receive it as a gift\u2014free! And the only way to receive a gift from God is to have faith, which means to trust or to believe in the message.\n\nNow some of you are saying I cannot believe what I\u2019m hearing, I mean, I\u2019m at a church here that does not value the Lordship of Jesus Christ. What\u2019s wrong with making Jesus Christ Lord of every area of our life? What\u2019s wrong with commitment? What\u2019s wrong with perseverance? What\u2019s wrong with surrender? And my answer to it is there is nothing wrong with it, if you apply it not to the first tense of your salvation but the second tense of your salvation.\n\nLet\u2019s review the three tenses of salvation: justification, salvation in the past tense; sanctification, salvation in the present tense; glorification, salvation in the future tense. In justification, the past tense of salvation, I am saved from sin\u2019s penalty at the point of faith in Christ. God loves me as I am but He loves me too much to leave me as I am, so He says grow up. He never tells me to grow up in the first tense of my salvation, He tells me to grow up in the middle tense of my salvation. That\u2019s what we call progressive sanctification where we\u2026 and this is not something that happens instantaneously, unlike justification which is instantaneous, it happens in a nanosecond. In sanctification we are gradually being delivered from sin\u2019s power as we learn to walk by faith and appropriate the divine resources that He has given us. And that\u2019s a process that we\u2019re all in, some make great strides in it, others don\u2019t. But God calls us all to move into sanctification.\n\nSo when you want to throw terms around, like commitment, and surrender and sorrow and these kinds of things, they are wholly inapplicable, wholly inapplicable to the first tense of our salvation but they have everything to do with the middle tense of our salvation. People say well, you\u2019re against Lordship salvation. No I\u2019m not! I\u2019m in favor of Lordship salvation if salvation means sanctification. I\u2019m against Lordship salvation if you\u2019re teaching that somehow my personal surrender to Christ is necessary to gain my right standing before God. If I\u2019m teaching that I believe it\u2019s heretical because you\u2019re mixing works and faith together for justification.\n\nAnd then finally in glorification, that\u2019s easy, all you\u2019ve got to do is die, or be raptured, whichever comes first. And at that point you\u2019re delivered from sins very presence.\n\nYou watch how the Lord deals with these characters in the Bible. When they first come to Jesus, investigating who He is He never talks about commitment, perseverance, surrender and sorrow. The whole focus is to believe. And then after they\u2019ve been in the faith awhile then the Lord starts working on Lordship, discipleship, cost, surrender, under the divine powers.\n\nYou watch what He does with this man, Peter. Did you know that in your study Bible, and I\u2019m using the Ryrie Study Bible, which is the Bible of choice of all Spirit-led believers [laughter]. But in those study Bibles what you\u2019ll discover is an order or a chronology in Christ\u2019s ministry. It lays out every single thing that happens from beginning to end, using all four Gospels in chronological order. You look at how Jesus deals with this man, Peter. Peter was justified before God in John 1:40-42. [John 1:40, \u201cOne of the two who heard John speak and followed Him, was Andrew, Simon Peter\u2019s brother. [41] He found first his own brother Simon and said to him, \u2018We have found the Messiah\u2019 (which translated means Christ). [42] He brought him to Jesus. Jesus looked at him and said, \u2018You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas\u2019 which is translated Peter).]\n\nThat is when he was brought by his brother to Jesus Christ. And then Jesus, in Matthew 4 says this to Peter, \u201cFollow Me.\u201d Verses 18-22, \u201c\u2018I will make you fishers of men.\u2019 [20] Immediately they left their nets and followed Him.\u201d Did you know that John 1 and the original calling of Peter unto justification is event 20 in the chronology of Christ? Well, what about all this stuff about following Him and I\u2019ll make you fishers of men? That\u2019s event 35 in the chronology of Christ.\n\nDo you see the order? First you become a believer, and then God begins to, as we grow, put us under the requirements of discipleship where we don\u2019t work it out through human power but we must mature. And maturity is a process. Look at the whole process you went through in this world just to grow up and get out of that crib and start walking and start talking and then become economically independent where you could even move out of your parent\u2019s house and before that you got your driver\u2019s license, and on and on it goes, steps of maturity.\n\nWhat we are called to do in Jesus Christ as newborn babes is to grow and to mature and to develop. That\u2019s where Lordship, perseverance, surrender, obedience, all of these things apply. They do not apply; they have never applied in the plan of God to the first tense of our salvation. And yet it is so difficult today to find theologians and pastors and preachers and teachers who articulate this clear, basic distinction, yet it is so obvious in the plan and the program of God.\n\nAnd whether I make Jesus Lord at all in my life never detracts from His status as Lord. The issue is not my subjective response; the issue is who He is. He IS Lord, He always will be Lord, He has always been Lord, whether a person acknowledges that or not is immaterial. The Lordship of Jesus Christ is not in any dispute at all; the dispute is what must I do to get into the front end of it? And John has told us a hundred times. Do you think a hundred is enough? To believe! Five times in this paragraph to believe.\n\nAnd so Thomas, verse 28, now comes into an understanding of the full deity of Jesus Christ. What do the false religions of this world do with the full identity of Jesus Christ? They always subtract from it. They add requirements to what you must do to obtain salvation initially, but in the end they will subtract from who Jesus is. For example, the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses, not if, when they come to your house, but when, if you really get them into a conversation they will tell you that Jesus is a created being. It\u2019s a recycling of an ancient heresy known as Arianism, which the church responded to all the way back in 325 A.D. through the Creed of Nicaea which says that Jesus is begotten and not made. It\u2019s a response to Arianism which the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses are recycling today.\n\nJesus is NOT a created being, He is the uncaused cause; He always was and He will always be. There NEVER was a time in which He was not. We don\u2019t follow this idea that there was God the Father, the master Creator who created God the Son and then God the Son created everything else. NO! That\u2019s ancient Arianism. Jesus IS Lord and fully God; that has never changed and it never will change.\n\nOr we are all talking today about the rise of Islam all around us. You know, Muslims use the word Jesus too; they pronounce it as Isa, but what they mean by it and what the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses mean by it is quite different than what the Bible says. You see, you can use the same word but the problem is not the use of the word, it\u2019s the meaning. And what we are living in is a society where people are tossing around the name Jesus all the time. The issue is not the name; the issue is what do you mean when you use the vernacular, the terminology, the term, the word Jesus Christ?\n\nJehovah\u2019s Witnesses mean something different by it. Islam means something different by it. Eric Barger summarizes Islamic faith this way: \u201cIsa in no way represents the Jesus of the Bible, but is instead the false Jesus of the Quran and the Muslim Hadith. Isa is the Islamic Jesus, who was but a prophet, who certainly did not experience a sacrificial death on the cross let alone resurrected from the dead. In fact, in Islam the prophet Isa is actually the destroyer of Christianity and not its Savior.\u201d Obviously this is simply not the same Jesus as is the Jesus of the Bible, sometimes known through the Hebrew word Yeshua.\n\nYou look at what Thomas says here and it\u2019s very clear that he has the proper understanding of Jesus Christ, not as some created being but as both Lord and God, full deity. Now Thomas, people like to dog pile on Thomas because he\u2019s known as Doubting Thomas. But let me just say to you one thing (I\u2019ll say something else later but right now just one thing): For him even to acknowledge this publicly risked him of being stoned to death. Now being stoned, I\u2019m not talking about what they do in Colorado; I\u2019m talking about rocks thrown at you until you\u2019re dead.\n\nLeviticus 24:16 says this: \u201cMoreover, the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death; [17] all the congregation shall certainly stone him.\u201d Jesus claimed to be God in John 10:30, it says this; \u201cI and the Father are one.\u201d [31] The Jews picked up stones again to stone Him.\u201d He asked them, why are stoning Me?\u2019\u201d [33] \u201cFor a good work we do not stone You, but for blasphemy; and because You, being a man, make Yourself out to be God.\u2019\u201d\n\nJohn 8:58-59, Jesus claimed a divine title for Himself, the great I am. [58, \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u2019\u201d] \u201cTherefore,\u201d John 8:59, \u201cthey picked up stones to throw at Him, but Jesus hid Himself and went out of the temple.\u201d You see, to even utter this idea that Yahweh is a man, which is the recognition that Thomas is coming to here, even that coming out of your mouth ran him the risk of capital punishment under Old Testament Israel.\n\nAnd yet this statement here, \u201cMy Lord and My God,\u201d [verse 26] I believe is inserted at the end of John\u2019s Gospel as the climax of the gospel, because what is the point of this book? To identify who Jesus is so people might exercise faith in Jesus, so as to be saved. Thomas is not the first to articulate this. As you move gradually through John\u2019s Gospel you\u2019ll see many, many people coming to a proper identification of who Jesus is.\n\nJohn 1:34, John the Baptist calls Him \u201cthe Son of God.\u201d John 1:49, Nathanael, remember Jesus said I saw you under the fig tree; Nathanael, as a result, calls Jesus the Son of God, John 1:49. Jesus Himself even claimed to be the Son of God, John 5:25; John 10:36. Peter figured it out and he called Jesus the Holy One of God, John 6:69. The man born blind that was healed calls Him the Son of Man, John 9:35. Martha, John 11:27 calls Him the Son of God. And of course, like we next week will see, John, the apostle, writing it down, referring to Jesus Christ in John 20:31 as the Son of God.\n\n[John 1:34, \u201c\u2018I myself have seen, and have testified that this is the Son of God.\u2019\u201d\nJohn 1:49, \u201cNathanael answered Him, \u2018Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.\u2019\u201d\nJohn 5:25, \u201cTruly, truly, I say to you, an hour is coming and now is, when the dead will hear the\nvoice of the Son of God, and those who hear will live.\u201d\nJohn 10:36, \u201cdo you say of Him, whom the Father sanctified and sent into the world, \u2018You are\nblaspheming,\u2019 because I said, \u2018I am the Son of God?\u2019\u201d\nJohn 6:69, \u201cWe have believed and have come to know that You are the Holy One of God.\u201d\nJohn 9:35, \u201cJesus heard that they had put him out, and finding him, He said, \u2018Do you believe in the\nSon of Man?\u201d\nMartha, John 11:27, \u201cShe said to Him, \u2018Yes, Lord; I have believed that You are the Christ, the Son\nof God, even He who comes into the world.\u201d\nJohn 20:31, \u201cbut these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of\nGod; and that believing you may have life in His name.\u201d]\n\nAnd so this doctrine is being unfolded to us, and now we come to the climax of the whole thing where we clearly know that He is not just God but He is Lord and everything that that title conveys, that\u2019s who Jesus Christ is. And if Jesus is that, then certainly He has the power to have custody over your soul, doesn\u2019t He? Certainly He can do what He has promised to do, which is to do what? It is to keep your soul safe the moment you trust in Him; to keep your soul secure the moment you trust in Him.\n\nAnd it\u2019s not just titles, in other ways John has communicated this point. He has referred to, throughout this book, as Jesus using names that belong only to God. Jesus claimed to be the great I AM in John 8:58, the Jews didn\u2019t like that one bit and they picked up stones to kill Him. They knew exactly what he was saying when he used that title. [John 8:58, \u201cJesus said to them, \u2018Truly, truly, I say to you, before Abraham was born, I am.\u201d]\n\nAnd then the attributes of God are ascribed to Jesus, things that only belong to God, things that only God can do or be are ascribed to this man, Jesus Christ. Jesus makes a statement about His own holiness in John 8:46, He says, \u201cWhich one of you convicts me of sin?\u201d Can you imagine any of our politicians today standing up in front of a hostile crowd and say \u201cwhich of you accuse me of sin?\u201d As a matter of fact, Gary Hart, sometime back tried that; the results weren\u2019t too good for him.\n\nBut Jesus stands in front of a hostile crowd and says, \u201cWhich of you convicts me of sin.\u201d He is claiming holiness, which is an attribute that belongs completely and totally and perfectly to God. He is claiming omniscience when He saw under the fig tree Nathanael. Jesus even says in John 11:14, Lazarus will rise again. How could He know that, because Lazarus was in the grave? Omniscience! [John 11:14, \u201cSo Jesus then said to them plainly, \u2018Lazarus is dead,\u2019\u201d]\n\nAnd then there are certain prerogatives of deity which Jesus claims for Himself; the ability to raise the dead, John 5:28-30; Jesus says this, \u201cDo not marvel at this; for an hour is coming, in which all who are in the tombs will hear His voice, [29] and will come forth; those who did the good deeds to a resurrection of life, those who committed the evil deeds to a resurrection of judgment. [30] I can do nothing on My own initiative. As I hear, I judge; and My judgment is just, because I do not seek My own will, but the will of Him who sent Me.\u201d\n\nJohn 11:43, Jesus says, \u201cLazarus, come forth.\u201d Who do you think you are, Jesus? God or something? How can you claim the authority to raise the dead? How can you speak into a grave and somebody is going to come out? What audacity\u2026 unless, He was exactly who He said He was.\n\nHe claims in John 5:22 that He will judge all men. It says, \u201c\u2026but He has given all judgment to the Son.\u201d John 5:27, \u201cHe gave Him authority to execute judgment,\u201d how could He claim the authority to judge all unless He Himself is God. See, beloved, there is no doubt who Jesus is, no doubt at all, if we have been following along with John\u2019s presentation. John has skillfully, under the Spirit of God\u2019s influence, weaved all of these things together to reveal that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, so that people might believe in this message, trust in this message and have the gift of life.\n\nYou\u2019ll notice here Thomas says, \u201cMy Lord and My God,\u201d [John 20:28, Thomas answered and said to Him, \u2018My Lord and My God!\u201d] He repeats the personal pronoun, the possessive personal pronoun, twice he says, \u201cMy.\u201d In fact, it says that two times as I just indicated, \u201cMy Lord and My God.\u201d Again, this is not a condition for salvation, submission to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, it is to believe. That\u2019s why Jesus commends him for believing in verse 29. [John 20:29, \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.\u201d]\n\nBut rather when He says \u201cMy\u201d it\u2019s a personal relationship. Jesus is something more to me than words on a page in Encyclopedia Britannica. He\u2019s more to me than data. He\u2019s more to me than facts. He\u2019s more to me than information. He is MY Lord and MY God. My soul rests in His hand, I know Him personally. He speaks to me, I speak to Him. And how tragic it is that many people believe that they\u2019re saved, or Christians, because they have an information level about Jesus. They rattle off facts and figures about Jesus. You know what? I know atheists that can do that; they can give you all sorts of information about the birth of Christ, how He died, the historicity of Christ, who His disciples were. But see, that\u2019s not the issue; the issue is: Is He YOUR Lord and God? Are you in a personal relationship with Him, which becomes available to you completely and totally on the basis of faith alone.\n\nMany people feel that if they go to church that makes them a Christian. That doesn\u2019t make you a Christian any more than sitting in McDonalds makes you a quarter pounder. The location has nothing to do with it. What it all relates to is a personal relationship between you and God. You see, the moment I got saved everything was different. I was no longer talking about Jesus, I was talking to Jesus. Has that happened to you? Do you understand that the God of the universe wants to be your friend, personally, and that you can grow and develop in that personal relationship with Him.\n\nI fear sometimes we present Christianity as some kind of generic classification, \u201cGod so loved the world,\u201d which is sort of an impersonal classification. Yes, God loves the world but let me tell you something else, He loves you as a person. He loves me as an individual. In fact, in John 20:16 it says this, \u201cJesus said to her, \u2018Mary!\u2019\u201d He knew her, He knew her name, He knew her tempera\u00acments, He knew her likes and dislikes and strengths and weaknesses, and shortcomings. It\u2019s not just a generic \u201cfor God so loved the world,\u201d it\u2019s Jesus loves Mary. This is a personal relationship that we are talking about. We are not simply talking about the accumulation of data. I\u2019m not against data, I teach it at the college for crying out loud, I dump more data on people than what they care to accept most of the time. But the fact of the matter is at the end of the day we\u2019re not talking about data, we\u2019re not talking about information. Information is great but it\u2019s just step one; it\u2019s a vibrant personal relationship with the maker of the universe. That\u2019s what Christianity is.\n\nThe Greek word \u201cknow\u201d is used constantly to describe our relationship to the Lord. \u201cKnow\u201d means intimate knowledge of somebody, God knows you; you know Him. And Thomas is coming to this realization of who Jesus is. Jesus condescends to Thomas\u2019 level, satisfies his tests, in fact, Jesus knows exactly what\u2019s on Thomas\u2019 mind because of omniscience. And Thomas sees the evidence and responds with the proper title of Jesus, Lord and God. [20:28, \u201cThomas answered and said to Him, My Lord and my God!\u2019\u201d] He fulfills the only condition God has ever asked lost people to fulfill, which is to believe. And he is in a personal relationship with Him because of this repetition of the personal pronoun, \u201cMy.\u201d\n\nThis is vintage Christianity here. As I said before there\u2019s a reason why this is put at the end of the book; this is the climax, this is the apex, this is the zenith. This is where everything is moving towards. And it\u2019s not just in this book; it\u2019s what everything is moving towards in your life. How sad is it to go through life and not understand why you exist? You exist to love God and enjoy Him forever; to glorify God, and to enjoy Him forever. That\u2019s the purpose of your existence.\n\nThat\u2019s why Jesus, as the unique God-man, who in His incarnation did not subtract anything but added to eternally existent deity, came to bridge that gap between fallen human beings and the God that made them. And coming to that awareness of who He is and exercising faith in Him brings something into your life that nothing else can fulfill. You can\u2019t find this in your career; you can\u2019t find this in your savings account. You can\u2019t find this in your status in the world; you can\u2019t find it in pleasure. You can only find it in a relationship with Him. As saints of the past have said, our souls are in a state of restlessness until we find satisfaction in Him.\n\nAnd trying to fill this void with something else always seems to bring us up empty, doesn\u2019t it? That\u2019s the problem with the woman at the well, you recall in John 4. She was seeking to fill this ache or this void in her life through promiscuity and pleasure. She had had five husbands and the one she was with currently she wasn\u2019t even married to. And Jesus says if you drink from that well you\u2019ll thirst again, but if you drink from the living water which I will provide you\u2019ll never be thirsty. Why is that? Because she\u2019ll be living for the purpose for which she was created. You cannot find any lasting fulfillment or significance in life until you press into the reason for your existence. Why do you exist? To have a relationship with God, to know Him, to come to Him on His terms, not our own, based on His ability to give us these things because of His title and who He is as Lord and God. Thomas has arrived. Have you?\n\nVerse 29, and with this we\u2019ll finish. Thomas\u2019 adoration leads to an observation. Jesus makes a statement here in verse 29, \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.\u2019\u201d Thomas believed with the evidence that he had. In fact, Thomas\u2019 conversion in John\u2019s Gospel is the last recorded personal faith encounter in John\u2019s Gospel. That\u2019s why it\u2019s at the end, to leave us on a very high note of faith and what faith in God looks like, what faith in God results in.\n\nBut Jesus makes this statement here that\u2019s very interesting, He said, \u201cBlessed,\u201d the Greek word for \u201cBlessed\u201d is the word makarios, which simply means beatitude. In fact, when you study the Sermon on the Mount in Matthew 5:3-12 you\u2019ll find Jesus using that word quite frequently, \u201cBlessed are the peacemakers,\u201d and those sorts of things. In fact, this word, makarios, has been used earlier in John\u2019s Gospel; you might remember it from the Upper Room. John 13:17 where Jesus said, \u201cIf you know these things, you ae blessed,\u201d makarios, \u201cif you do them.\u201d The blessing in the Christian life does not come simply from acquiring the data; it comes from living out the principles of God in progressive sanctification after we have come to know Him by faith alone.\n\nMakarios, or blessed, does not mean happy. What it means is acceptable before God; we have favor before God. What gives a person acceptability and favor before God? It is responding, by faith, to the claims of Christ. That\u2019s what gives you the blessing of God; that\u2019s what gives you His acceptance. That\u2019s what gives you His favor. That\u2019s what gives you a relationship with Him. That\u2019s what gives you the purpose for your very existence. I don\u2019t really care how famous you are and how rich you are and how powerful are. The fact of the matter is if you don\u2019t have a relationship with Jesus Christ you are poor. You are empty. You are unfulfilled and you are going to spend your waning days on this earth trying to fill that void with something that only God can satisfy.\n\nConsequently, Jesus says in verse 29, \u201cJesus said to him, \u2018Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.\u201d Thomas had evidence right there staring at him in the face and he responded to it. But the fact of the matter is, most people believe without this evidence. The vast majority of people that have come to Christ in the last 2,000 years of the age of the church have never had evidence like this, have never had Jesus in His resurrected state show up exactly where they are, inviting them to see and to touch Him and look at His wounds.\n\nIn fact, John, the author of this book, came to Christ just seeing the empty tomb. He came to believe in who Jesus was simply seeing the empty tomb. He hadn\u2019t even seen Jesus in His resurrected body yet. John 20:8 says, \u201cSo the other disciple,\u201d now that\u2019s always John, he likes to be anonymous, \u201cSo the other disciple who had first come to the tomb then also entered, and he saw and he believed.\u201d Most people that come to Christ by way of faith will never have the evidence that Thomas had.\n\n1 Peter 1:8-9, Peter, about three decades later, writes these words to his flock. He says, \u201cand though you have not seen Him, you love Him,\u201d he acknowledges thirty years after Jesus\u2019s ascension that there were those who never saw Jesus but they loved Him; they believed in Him.\n\nI came to Christ not having any of the evidence, Thomas said. You came to Christ in the age of the church not having any of the evidence Thomas had. When Jesus makes this statement, \u201cBlessed,\u201d acceptable in other words, \u201care they who did not see and yet believed,\u201d that\u2019s the crowd he\u2019s talking to. He is not bashing Thomas\u2019s faith and his request for evidence. He simply says that there are going to be many people, John included, who won\u2019t come into a right relationship with God without this evidence; they will come into a relationship with Him under far less than Thomas was given.\n\nAnd Jesus simply promises a blessing to those that will. It\u2019s not taking away from Thomas, it\u2019s just an added blessing to those of us that never saw exactly the evidence that Thomas saw because at the end of the day what pleases God? Doesn\u2019t the Bible say, Hebrews 11:6, \u201cand without\u201d what? \u201cfaith it is\u201d what? \u201cimpossible to please Him. Wow! Impossible means you can\u2019t please Him without faith. So what is faith exactly? Hebrews 11:1 answers that, \u201cNow faith is the assurance of things hoped for,\u201d why is it hope? Because the hope hasn\u2019t been realized yet. Once a hope is realized it\u2019s no longer a hope is it? Gee, I hope I get that promotion. Well, you just got it; you don\u2019t have to hope any longer. Once a hope materializes it\u2019s no longer hope. Once you see Christ face to face it really is no longer faith is it?\n\nBut what pleases God? Faith, \u201cand without faith it is impossible to please Him.\u201d Jesus, because of the nature of faith, because of how faith makes us acceptable unto God, and faith, because of the way it pleases the heart of God, simply without detracting from Thomas and his faith which is very real, promises a blessing on everyone that will come to Christ throughout the ages by faith alone without the same evidence that Thomas was presented with here in these verses.\n\nIs it not interesting that Jesus says, \u201cBlessed are they who do not see and yet believe.\u201d Well, what about commitment? What about obedience? What about perseverance? What about surrender? Jesus says yeah, what about it? I\u2019m not talking about that. What the text simply says is \u201cBlessed are those who did not see and yet believed.\u201d Now once you\u2019re My child, God says, well then we\u2019ll talk a little bit about commitment, obedience and perseverance. As a matter of fact, there\u2019s a lot of stuff in the Bible about that, but let\u2019s wait till later for that one.\n\nIf you want the acceptable blessing and favor of God you have to come to God through God\u2019s term and people today have a Frank Sinatra approach to spirituality, \u201cI did it my way.\u201d You know, it\u2019s a funny thing about the world of Christianity and the word of spirituality. You can walk into a medical doctor\u2019s office and because of his degrees people will recognize him as an authority in the field and submit to him. You walk into a lawyer\u2019s office because of the degrees and training that\u2019s hanging on his wall, people will recognize him as an authority and submit (generally speaking) to his direction.\n\nBut you know what it is when it comes to the Bible, and spirituality, and Christianity? Everybody is their own expert because there is so much pride in us where we think we can just do it our own way. God\u2019s Word says you can\u2019t. There are laws that are in effect that govern the spiritual world just like there are laws in effect that govern the physical world. Objects will fall at 32 feet per second, whether I agree with the law or not, it\u2019s a law. \u201cWithout faith it is impossible to please God,\u201d is a spiritual law. If a person will not honor that spiritual law, beloved, it\u2019s very simple, you don\u2019t come to God.\n\nNow this problem started in Genesis 4, didn\u2019t it? Abel came to God the way God ordained it, through a blood sacrifice he offered through faith alone. Cain, his brother, used the Frank Sinatra approach, I\u2019m not going to come through a blood sacrifice and I\u2019m not going to come through faith. Abel\u2019s sacrifice is accepted; Cain\u2019s is rejected. Didn\u2019t God love both equally? Yeah, but it\u2019s a law. This is not open for negotiation, nor is it open for discussion, nor is it open for a debate, nor is it open to majority rule. It\u2019s a law! It\u2019s a spiritual law, God ordained it. We do not come to God how we want to come to God. We come to God through His terms of very simply put we do not come at all. God\u2019s terms are very clear\u2026FAITH!\n\nYou take this man, Abram, who became Abraham, the father of our faith the Bible says. How did he gain the righteousness of God? Well, God made Him a promise, through your body is going to come seeds (plural) and a seed, when you look at Galatians 3:16, (singular) who will bless the world. [Galatians 3:16, \u201cNow the promises were spoken to Abraham and to his seed. He does not say, \u2018And to seeds,\u2019 as referring to many, but rather to one, \u2018And to your seed,\u2019 that is, Christ.\u201d]\n\nAnd it probably just seemed absurd, that promise, because of Abraham and Sarah (Sarai), their advanced age. And God simply took Abraham outside and He said look at the stars and their innumerable nature; can you count these stars? No, I can\u2019t count them. As the stars are innumerable, so shall your offspring be, coming from your own body. [Genesis 15:5, \u201cAnd He took him outside and said, \u2018Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.\u2019 And He said to him, \u2018So shall your descendants be.\u2019 [6] Then he believed in the LORD\u2026.\u201d]\n\nWhat does the Bible say? Abraham believed God, he put aside logic; he put aside common sense, because the promise made no logical sense. He simply trusted in what God said He would do. He trusted in God\u2019s character, which cannot lie, and he trusted in God\u2019s power to pull it off. I don\u2019t know how you are going to do it Lord, but if You said it, I believe it, and that settles it. And the moment he exercised that simple childlike faith is the moment the righteousness of God was transferred to Abraham\u2019s account. In fact, some of your versions say it was \u201ccredited to him for righteousness.\u201d Why \u201ccredited to him\u201d? Because it hadn\u2019t been paid for yet, that\u2019s why.\n\nAnybody here use credit cards? Lying is a sin, let me see those hands; all right, three-quarters of you are still lying right through your teeth. That\u2019s right, you\u2019re not saved by works. We love credit cards because they give us a goodie, without payment. What did Abraham receive 2,000 years before Christ died? He received a goodie, he received the imputed, transferred righteousness of God and he received it totally on the basis of believing what God said, period, end of story!\n\nAnd you look at Abraham\u2019s faith as he began to grow; there\u2019s ups and downs. This guy was not saved by what he did after because he lied about Sarah being his sister, things of that nature. He had high points and low points, like the rest of us, but he was brought into a relationship with God because completely of faith. What does Jesus say? \u201cBlessed,\u201d accepted, \u201care they who did not see and yet believed.\u201d Nothing here about commitment, obedience, perseverance, surrender, but simple child-like faith; if you have that you have the favor and the blessing of God. If you don\u2019t have that you have nothing.\n\nPeople like to dog pile on Thomas, oh gosh, look at this, he demanded evidence and he only believed after he saw the evidence; other people have believed without the evidence. If I were in Thomas\u2019s shoes I would have believed right then and there. You hear this sort of mindset. Before you adopt that way of thinking let me just make you aware of something\u2014the Spirit of God, which convicts the world of sin, righteousness and judgment, had not yet been dispatched into the world to fulfill this unique ministry of convicting us of our need to believe in Jesus.\n\nJesus said in the Upper Room, John 16:8, \u201cAnd He, when He comes, will convict the world concerning sin,\u201d sin, as we have said before, is the Greek noun, hamartia, which is singular, a noun, \u201cconcerning sin,\u201d what\u2019s the sin? \u201cbecause they do not believe in Me.\u201d Believing or not believing is the sole criterion by which we enjoy that relationship with God. We either believe it or we don\u2019t, and the Spirit of God convicts us of our need for that.\n\nThomas didn\u2019t have that, so in a certain sense it\u2019s easier in this age, given the Spirit\u2019s activity, to respond by faith to this person of Jesus Christ. And before we dog pile on Thomas too much let\u2019s remember something about this man. Thomas labored for the gospel in southern India, Indian Christians. We were talking about missions and missiology, and missions programs during our congregational meeting. Indian Christians from the west coast of Corolla, I\u2019m not sure if I\u2019m pronouncing that right, the Corolla area, claim they were evangelized by Thomas. Thomas became a missionary for God, taking this precious gospel into India. And what did he get for his efforts? Fanfare? No, he was later speared to death, near Madras on the east coast. Mount Saint Thomas, close to Madras is associated with his name.\n\nBefore we dog pile on Thomas too much, let\u2019s look at the whole man and have respect for him as a servant of God. And yet God loved Thomas and went right down to his level to give him an opportunity to believe, with full disclosure of who Jesus is. And beloved, that\u2019s the same offer that you have right now as I\u2019m speaking. This is what we call the gospel; the gospel is Jesus Christ stepped out of eternity into time to live a life in our place, which we could never live, to pay a sin debt for our sins which we in an eternity of lifetimes could never pay back. And we may not have all of the answers but He says you know enough about My identity; as Lord and God you know that I have the integrity, the truthfulness, and the power to fulfill My promises if you fulfill your condition, which is to believe.\n\nBelieving is not an emotion, it\u2019s not a euphoria, it\u2019s not sorrow, it isn\u2019t commitment, it isn\u2019t obedience, it isn\u2019t perseverance, it isn\u2019t surrender, what it is, is it\u2019s trust, or confidence, of reliance. You trust exclusively in the promises of Jesus Christ. You don\u2019t understand every detail of it but you trust in the character and the power and the identity of the One who made the promise. And I pray, even as I am talking, you\u2019ll respond to that as that determines whether you have the makarios, the favor of God, the blessing of God, or not.\n\nIf it\u2019s something you need more explanation on, I\u2019m available after the service to talk, but it\u2019s something you can do right now in the privacy of your own mind, the quietness of your own heart as the Spirit of God places you under conviction, respond the best you know how, without raising a hand, walking an aisle, joining a church, trying to work harder, trying to do better, without giving money, it has nothing to do with any of those things. It comes from a heart-felt response of faith that\u2019s pleasing to God. Do that now, even as I am talking, if you are unclear about your eternal destiny. If it\u2019s something you need more explanation on I\u2019m available after the service to talk.\n\nShall we pray. Father, we are so grateful for Your work with Thomas and Your blessing upon him and how You loved him as an individual and seemingly moved heaven and earth to usher him into a right relationship with You. We\u2019re thankful, Father, that You are that sort of God and help us Lord this week to grow in our understanding of these truths; we\u2019ll be careful to give you all the praise and the glory. We ask these things in Jesus\u2019 name, and God\u2019s people said\u2026.","series_sermon_number":""},"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t