Let's take our Bibles and turn
with me to the Gospel of John chapter 20. John chapter 20. I'd like to look at verses 24
through the end of the chapter. John 20. It's the evening. of the day
of our Lord's resurrection. The Lord has met with His disciples. He has said to them, peace be
unto you. That was exactly what they needed
to hear. They had all forsaken Him at
His crucifixion. They all fled Peter had denied Him three times. Just a few days before. Now you
have to understand, this is... Peter denied the Lord on the
evening before the Lord was crucified the next day. The Lord was crucified on a Friday,
Saturday, Sunday morning, He's raised from the dead. And here's
the evening. I'm talking about just a few
days before. And the Lord walks up to them,
those that were there in that room. Peace be unto you. He showed them His hands. He
sighed. And then the Scripture declares,
now in verse 24, after the Lord had told those in that room,
well, verse 22, He said after He had said, Peace be unto you. Verse 21, As my Father hath sent
me, so send I you. When He had said this, He breathed
on them. saith unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost. Now these were converted men.
They had the possession of the Holy Ghost. But the Lord is commissioning
them. He's going to send them out as
preachers. He's going to commission them
and empower them and gift them. So He breathed on them. And He said in verse 23, whosoever
sins you remit, they are remitted unto them, and whosoever sins
you retain, they are retained. Now, the Lord was not giving
them the power to forgive sin or to retain sin. But what He
was saying, as we looked at last week, the message of the gospel
that I'm gifting you to preach, declares whose sins are remitted
and whose sins are retained. Not that you have the power to
do it, but the message that you preach is going to declare whose
are kept and who are forgiven. And then the scripture says,
concerning that meeting where he gifted those apostles, breathed
on them, Verse 24 says, But Thomas, one
of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus
came. Scripture does not declare where
he was. It doesn't declare why he wasn't
there. Scripture just says that he wasn't
there. But there was a great lesson
to be learned from his absence. He missed the joy of seeing the
risen Lord. He missed hearing the words of
the Lord's comfort and peace. He missed the blessing of the
Lord breathing on his disciples, commissioning them as preachers. He had, it's not told, he just
wasn't told. He isolated himself from the
place where the Lord was pleased to meet with His people. And that isolation had a real
effect upon Thomas. He missed that blessing and doubtful
thoughts entered his mind. Oh, how careful we must be, not
forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some
is, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see
the day approaching. I, I, just even now, I think
about that scripture. The Lord said, two or three are
gathered together in my name. I'm in the midst of it. There's
just something about public worship. Public worship. This is ordained
of God. Well, verse 25 says, The other
disciples therefore said unto him, We've seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except
I see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger
into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. You know, we're not told where
the other disciples met him. I can tell you this, though.
The next verse, verse 26, we'll look at in a second. After eight
days again, his disciples were within and Thomas was with them.
I can tell you, based on that verse right there, being one
week later, verse 25, the Lord had met with his disciples on
the evening of his resurrection. And now he's gone. And now they
find Thomas that night. They found him that evening.
So I know that they met Thomas right after the Lord had breathed
on him. They told him, they said, we've
seen the Lord. We saw the Lord, Thomas. He's risen. You know, they had
the testimony of Mary Magdalene. Mary told them. She said, I've
seen the Lord. They had the testimony of the
other women, they had the testimony of the angels that they'd seen
in the tomb and it was obvious. They were tender toward Thomas. They didn't rebuke him. Rather,
they loved him. They said, Thomas, we've seen
the Lord. The Lord met with us, Thomas.
They related the gracious visit of the risen Savior. What they did, they did to encourage
their friend. Thomas, the Lord. Scripture says,
Brethren, if a man be overtaken in a fault, ye which are spiritual,
restore such a one in the spirit of meekness, considering thyself,
lest thou also be tempted. Listen to the Apostle Paul, Ephesians
4, 32. And be ye kind one to another,
tenderhearted, forgiving one another, even as God, for Christ's
sake, has forgiven you. You know, do we excuse sin in
ourselves and others? No. No. We're all like this. And not a one. Nobody faultless. Nobody without guilt. But, you
know, we don't excuse it in ourselves or others, but we recognize the
tendency. That we all have to fall out
of love for our brethren. What we do? We do everything
we can to encourage and to lift them up. Thomas, we saw the Lord. The Lord was with us tonight,
Thomas. And Thomas, he said, except I see in his hands the
print of the nails. Except I put my finger in the
print of the nails and thrust my hand to his side. I won't
believe. I don't believe that. Do you know this is the only
place in the scriptures where we're ever told that the Lord
was nailed to the cross? This is it. This is the only
place. You know He was. This is the only place that nails
are ever mentioned. But it's a confirmation the Spirit
of God moved upon Thomas. Even in Thomas' arrogance and
in his, you know. Moved upon Thomas to confirm
this scripture right here. Psalm 22, 16. They pierced my
hands and my feet. How would we have known that?
Except the Spirit of God moved on Thomas to say, unless I see
the print of the nails. Didn't know nails were there
until Thomas said it. The amazing thing is that Thomas,
a regenerated man, he witnessed the raising of Lazarus. He saw
Lazarus. He saw the Lord call Lazarus,
come forth. The scripture says he came forth
from the dead and the Lord told him, he said, Lucy, Lucy, He
heard the Lord say that he would rise from the dead. And now he's
got the eyewitness account of ten of the Lord's apostles that
he was risen. They didn't make this up. Thomas,
we saw the Lord. The Lord met with us, Thomas.
He was just here. Thomas said, unless I have the
physical proof, I'm not going to believe. Oh, the great sin
of unbelief and the stubbornness of our old heart. Oh, this just,
I mean, right now I think to myself, Marvin, you're standing up here preaching
this and just as convicted as you can possibly be. I am not
without guilt. Stubborn? You don't know stubborn. I'm stubborn. There is nothing
about Thomas of which I'm not guilty. But for the grace of
God that would recover us, what hope would we have And here's
some comfort for God's people. Here's 2 Timothy 2.13. If we
believe not... Now, we've got the evidence of
the Scriptures here. We've got the witness of the
Spirit of God to our heart. We've got the witness of other
believers, of the grace of God that has been shown God's people. If we believe not, yet He abideth
faithful, He cannot deny Himself. Can't do it. If I don't see him,
I'm not going to believe. Thomas, we saw him. Thomas, you
know, you know, we ain't lying about this. Verse 26. After eight days, again, his
disciples were within. Another week passed, and Thomas
was with them. Then came Jesus, the doors being
shut, and stood in the midst and said, Peace be unto you. And the Lord spoke with him again
and gave him the same word of encouragement. One week later
on the Lord's day, he met with him one week before on the evening
of his resurrection. And now here he is, the Lord
appears on the Lord's day again. Without a doubt, I don't doubt
for one second that the tent that had seen Him the previous
week rejoiced the whole week. Can you imagine? They'd gone
just a few days, just... He was crucified, but they've
seen Him. They met with us. They thought all, you know, and
they come back to the same spot. After eight days, the disciples
were within. Thomas now is with them. And
the Lord comes in and gives them that word of encouragement. I kind of wondered, I just wondered
about Thomas all week. He'd had the witness of those
apostles. He told them, he said, Thomas,
we saw the Lord. Probably wondered that whole
week. Doubt, anxiety, wonder, Questions? Oh, but now they're
all assembled together and Thomas is with them and who knows? But the Lord Himself, what they
were all thinking. But now just let's consider for
a moment the words of the Lord before us. Thomas is standing
with the rest of them. They're all there. He knows and
remembers what he said. He knows what he said. Unless
I put my finger in the prince in his hand. Unless I put my
hand in his side. Unless it's proven to me I'm
not going to believe And Thomas hears the Lord walk
in and speak and say, Peace be unto you. Now, there's no mention
that anybody said anything to the Lord about what Thomas was
said. There's no need to. What are we going to tell the
Lord? But the Lord knew. He knew. And here the omniscient God of
all grace speaks after he gave them that gracious salutation,
peace be unto you. And the scripture says, then
saith he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. and reach hither thy hand and
thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing." Our Lord's visage, the scripture
says, was marred more than any man. Isaiah said we were astonished
speaking of this. We were astonished. We were shocked
at how he looked. There was no way to describe
how the Lord was beaten. But here's the only mention of
the marks that had been put on him. The nail prints in his hands,
his side, his feet. Those prints. The scripture bears
out Revelation speaks of the lamb as one that had been slain. The marks of his victory over
death held in the grave. He had them right here. And he
said to Thomas, Thomas, I thought to myself, I just read
the words again. Again, he didn't reprimand him. Did Thomas deserve being reprimanded? Absolutely. Yeah, but so do I. He wasn't rebuked. Did he deserve it? But the Lord said to Thomas,
Reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand
and thrust it. I just think. Put your hand inside
of me, Thomas. I can't explain this. I can't
explain that. Put your hand inside. Thrust
it into my side. And the Lord's word to Thomas,
not his rebuke, it was the love of Christ to Thomas, to his own,
that broke his heart. And Thomas answered in verse
28 and said unto him, My Lord and my God, what have I done? What have I
said? How foolish I've been. Thomas' doubts all vanished at
the power of the Lord's word. And consider the answer again
of this doubter, lifted from the slew of unbelief. He said,
my Lord, you're my Lord and my God. Just personal. He said, I'm going to give him,
that's what the Lord said in Ezekiel. I'm going to give him, I'm going
to give you a new spirit. And you're going to be my people
and I'm going to be your God. You're going to know it. My Lord,
oh, how marvelous are the ways of the Lord. Here he comes to
one of his disciples that obviously he had everlastingly loved and
had saved him. And personally, do you know that
was the mark of a disciple, of an apostle? They had to be a
witness. of the Lord. Learned the gospel
from the Lord. The Lord taught them. Those that
heard Him. That was the marks of an apostle. They were called personally by
the Lord. Matthew, follow me. You, follow
me. Peter, James, John, you follow
me, I'll make you fishers of men. taught him the gospel. And here was one that the Lord
had loved and saved and taught. And he comes, not in rebuke,
but he comes in mercy. And Thomas' heart melts. In verse
29, Jesus said unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou
hast believed. Blessed are they which have not
seen and yet have believed. You know, he's talking about
us that believe. What a blessing to see the Lord.
They saw Him. John, you go back in 1 John. John said, we saw Him. Our hands handled Him. We handled
the Word of Life. We heard Him. Thomas, you're
a blessed man because you've seen Him and you believe. But
I tell you what, those that have not seen me and have been given
faith to believe, there's a blessed people. We see him, but we see
him by faith. But oh, the blessing to see him
by faith. What a blessed word to our hearts. Thomas wanted to physically look
at him, touch him. proof of His resurrection. And
the Lord mercifully allowed Him to do that. All but to give us
seeing eyes, spiritual eyes. To be able to see by faith, to
look upon Him. You that believe, you see Him.
I say from the scriptures, you know, putting your fingers in
his hands right here, you saw that immediately in your mind.
I said thrust your hand into his side, you saw it. You saw
it. And by the grace of God you believed
it. When he died, he died for me. That's what he said. My sheep, I laid down my life
for them. By the grace of God, we're convinced
He came in the flesh. We believe that. The Word was
made flesh. When Scripture sets forth the
imputation of the righteousness of the Lord Jesus Christ, that
robe of righteousness, we believe it. Have you ever seen Him physically? No. No, I have not. But do you believe him? Yes,
I do. Do you ever wonder? Oh, my. Do you ever doubt? Oh, my. Lord, I believe. Help thou mine unbelief. But
we agree with Thomas, my Lord and my God. Verse 30, 31, and
many other signs, truly, Did Jesus, in the presence of
his disciples, which are not written in this book, you believe
that? Yes, I do. What else did he do? I don't know. I don't know. But
I can tell you this, there were many of them. Proved to them
who he is, the risen Lord. We don't have them recorded. But just the very fact that the
Scripture says many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence
of His disciples. Verse 31 says these things are
written. What? That there were many other
signs that the Lord did in the presence of His disciples. That
line was written. that ye might believe that Jesus
is the Christ, the Son of God, and that, believing, you might
have life through His name." Whatever was needful, according
to the Lord's good pleasure, to prove to His disciples that
He had risen from the dead, the Lord provided. But He did not
leave us comfortless. That line was written and the
Spirit of God has borne witness to our heart. The Spirit of God
telling us the Lord did many other things. I was not pleased,
says the Holy Spirit. I was not pleased to have them
written. All Scripture is given by inspiration
of God's breath. But the Spirit of God said, though
I was pleased not to write it, I will not leave you comfortless.
I'm going to tell you that these things were written that you
might have peace and comfort. Lord, bless the word to our heart
for Christ's sake. Amen. Let's take a few more.