I want to direct your attention
tonight to John chapter 20. And we'll begin our reading in
verse 19. Then the same day at evening,
now the Lord had resurrected from the dead and had met Mary
Magdalene, and she went and told the disciples all that He had
said. And our story picks up right
after that. It says, the same day at evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled, for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst, and saith unto them, Peace be unto you."
Now this is the first day of the week after the Lord's death,
the day of His resurrection, and we find the apostles, except
for Thomas, locked into a house. Doors were shut, locked, You
see, the Jews had taken their master's life. They had walked
with him for some three years plus. He had told them time and
time again what he must suffer, what he must go through. And
the Jews had taken their master's life, but we know that he laid
his life down. No man took his life, he laid
it down. Why? for His chosen sinners,
His chosen elect, His chosen sheep. And I'm sure that these
disciples felt as though they'd be next. I can't imagine the
fear that they must have had. And it had also been rumored
that they, the disciples, had stolen the Lord's body. And these
men being no different from us, we're afraid. I'm positive of
that. You see, the trials of life are
burdensome and there are many, but to a man or a woman who has
Christ as their provider, they will seek their Lord for
comfort. There's no doubt in my mind that
these men who had walked with the Lord were together in this
place praying and seeking their God. You think about the traumatic
experience that they had just gone through. They were seeking
their Lord for comfort. They were praying. They were
praying for some assurance, some peace. And you know what? That's exactly what they got.
Our Lord came, according to verse 19, and stood in the midst and
said, Peace be unto you. Oh, but a word from the Master
can calm the heart. It can cause the heart to rest
in the Lord Jesus Christ. Many of the commentators that
I read on this verse deliberated whether he walked through the
doors, walked through the walls, or just appeared out of nowhere. But knowing the answer to those
things will do nothing for a man or woman's soul. Our Lord could
do whatever He wills to do. So to me, That really doesn't amount to
a hill of beans, how he got in. But herein, this verse reveals
the truth of the Gospel. And as for reasons I mentioned
earlier, these men were scattered sheep. Their Lord had been crucified. They felt as though they were
probably next. Wild rumors ran that they had
stolen the Lord's body. And I'm sure each one thought,
we must be on a most wanted list somewhere. And what these men were wanting,
needing, and were praying for was deliverance. Deliverance. Lord, deliver us. These men who were without their
Lord, they needed guidance. They needed direction. And most
importantly, they needed their Lord. I think about my deliverance.
How I was lost without hope and without God in this world. No
peace I was able to find until the Lord crossed my path in mercy
and grace. Oh, the beauty of this verse
is not that the Lord walked through a wall or a door, or He appeared
like some magical illusionist. The beauty of the Gospel is in
the words I just read, Then came Jesus. Then came Jesus. And He stood in the midst. Oh, I can just picture that in
my mind's eye. And He said unto them these words,
Peace be unto you. Scripture talks about a peace
which passes all understanding and keeps our hearts and our
minds through Christ our Lord. God saves sinners, not the righteous. God saves the needy, not the
independent. God hears the prayers of His
sheep and He never, ever forsakes them. He's the Great Shepherd. He's not a harling. He's not
one that runs when the sheep are in trouble. No. He's the
Great Deliverer. And in this time of their tremendous
trial, the Lord Jesus came. And in the time of my deepest
trial, when I sought the Lord, He came. He heard my cry. And He spoke peace to my heart.
And if He hadn't, I'd still be a madman like the one at Gadara. And you think about that in your
own life. Is that not so with you also? You say, well, what else would
he have said? Well, I don't know. Peter had
denied him three times. They all that went into the garden
with him to pray fell asleep. And he asked Peter, he said,
you can't watch with me for one hour? Would he not be just and justified
in reproving them if he saw so fit? Wasn't anything in them. that
caused Him to come, to stand in their midst and speak peace
unto them. It was sovereign grace and mercy
that caused it to be so. You see, grace is me getting
what I don't deserve, and mercy is me not getting what I do deserve. I don't deserve the blessings
of God Almighty. But if I did, they wouldn't be
grace. And God showing His mercy is
me not getting what I do deserve, and that's death and condemnation. Why have the disciples been so
afraid? And why are we often afraid?
He had plainly told them time and time again what would happen.
In Mark 9, verse 31, listen to these words. For He taught His
disciples. What did He teach them? Well,
on this day He said unto them, The Son of Man is delivered into
the hands of men. And you know what? He was. And they shall kill Him. And
you know what? They did. And after that He is killed,
He shall rise the third day. And this night they saw that
He had. This was known as new news unto
the disciples. In Luke 9, verse 44, He said
these words. I was amazed when I looked at
this. It said, Let these sayings, this is Christ speaking, let
these sayings sink down into your ears. That was His words. For the Son of Man shall be delivered
into the hands of men." Yet, they were afraid. They had
been told by the Lord Himself many times. Luke 24 7, the Lord
saying, the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful
men and be crucified, and the third day arise again. And look at verse 20 of our text. And when He had so said, He showed
unto them His hands and His side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Now when He had greeted them,
He showed them the scars in His hands. He showed them the wound
in His side made by the nails on which He was crucified. It
was the wound from the side from the spear of the soldier. And they were glad when they
knew it was Him. Oh, sinner, have you seen the scars in His
hands? Have you seen the scars in His
feet? If you have, you'll be glad. I can assure you of that. You'll be glad. Have you seen
the deeply pierced hole and scar in His side? If you have, you'll
be glad. Because those nails were meant
for you. That spear in the side was meant
to pierce your side. The wounds and the scars of our
Lord Jesus Christ are and will always remain as proof of His
great love, wherewith He loved those whom He redeemed. Oh, there's
a man in glory and he still has the scars. It's the evidence of our full
salvation in Him. Isaiah wrote many, many years
before, surely He hath borne our griefs, and carried our sorrows,
and yet we did esteem Him stricken, smitten of God, and afflicted,
but He was wounded for our transgressions. Did you hear that? our transgressions. He had none. He was bruised for
our iniquities. He had none. The chastisement
of our peace was upon Him and with His stripes we were healed. All we, like sheep, have gone astray. Does it sound like that we, as
gone astray sheep, deserve any of the credit and honor for our
salvation? No. We've all gone astray. We've all turned, every one of
us, to our own way. Our own way. And the Lord has
laid on Him the iniquity of us all. I tell you, when He showed
them those scars, Scripture says the disciples rejoiced and they
were glad when it finally dawned on them that it was their Lord
and that He was alive. And friends, I find great comfort
this day, great, great comfort to know that my Redeemer liveth
and that He forever maketh intercession for us. We're in good hands. Verse 21, Then said Jesus to
them again, Peace be unto you, as my Father has sent me, even
so send I you. He speaks peace to them again.
He's already said it once. But now He speaks peace to them
again, for they would need His peace. to do the work that He
would send them to do. For after He speaks peace to
them, He plainly tells them, As my Father hath sent me, even
so send I you. What a wonderful work and privilege. Oh, for Christ to send men to
do a godly work. preach the gospel of the Lord
Jesus Christ. The Father sent the Son into
the world to redeem His covenant people. Now the Son sends His
disciples into the world to preach the gospel of Christ to the other
sheep that are not yet of the fold. And how was their mission
like His? He said, even as My Father has
sent Me, even so I send you. Well, I'll tell you this, their
authority is both divine. God sent them. God sent Christ
and God sent them. And they're both sent into the
same place, the world. Sent into the world to preach
the gospel. And I'll tell you, we didn't
know at this time, they didn't know at this time that they would
be treated the same as he was, with hatred. And many of them
were killed. Their ministry, like his, would
be confirmed by miracles and wonders. And they were sent to preach
the gospel, the gospel that heals, delivers, and sets men free.
I thought about this passage in Hebrews 2 that says, How shall
we escape if we neglect so great salvation? Which at first began
to be spoken by the Lord and was confirmed to us by them that
heard Him. God also bearing them witness
both with signs and wonders and with divers miracles and gifts
of the Holy Ghost according to His own will. In verse 22, when He had said
this, He breathed on them, and saith unto them, Receive ye the
Holy Ghost. And I'm reminded here of the
words of the Apostle Paul when he said, Who is sufficient for
these things? Our Lord had set before them
this awesome, awesome task. And He breathed on them. Now, if you'll study that word,
breathed, it signifies Spirit. It's God breathed into Adam the
breath of life. Our Lord breathed into His disciples
the Holy Spirit of God. This is the same breath that
breathed life unto you and I. We are dead in trespasses and
sin. Wages of sin is death. And we
are dead in trespasses and sin. And it's just the same as in
Genesis 2. And the Lord formed man out of
the dust of the ground. And what? He breathed into his
nostrils the breath of life. And man became a living soul. We were dead in trespasses and
sin, and God breathed into us a breath of life. God gets all
of the honor and glory. Now verse 23, I have looked at
this verse several times before, and I struggled with it at first.
But then after reading some men on the subject, I think I got
a grasp of it, but he says, whosoever sins ye remit, in verse 23, they
are remitted unto them. And whosoever sins ye retain,
they are retained. Now it almost seems there that
the Lord has given the apostles power to forgive sin, but we
know that's impossible. You see, only God can forgive
sins. Only God has the power to forgive
sins. And Christ being God has the
power to do likewise. But our Lord here never communicated
any such power to His apostles. And I tell you this, they never
did assume any such power unto themselves. To attempt anything
of the kind, the thought that one sinner can forgive the sins
of another is preposterous. But to endeavor to even do so
usurps God's prerogative, and it places the one who judges
in God's seat, and shows himself as if he was God. So that's not
what Christ meant here. I like what John Gill wrote.
He said that these words by Christ are to be understood only in
a doctrinal or ministerial way. He said Christ means by these
words that they were to preach the full and free remission of
sin. through the blood of Christ according
to the riches of God's grace. It is preaching the message to
and for sinners to repent. Repent of your sins. Repent of your sins forgiven for Christ's
sake. In verse 24, this is where I
want to take the meat of the message. But Thomas, but Thomas,
one of the twelve called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus
came. Where was Thomas when the Lord
appeared to the apostles? Well, there's no way of knowing.
No place in Scripture are we told. We just know that he was
not there. But I think there's a lesson
to be learned by His absence and from His absence. He missed
out on some wonderful things. He missed the joy of seeing the
risen Lord. My, what a blessing that would
have been. He missed hearing our Lord's
words of peace. Thomas missed the peace and assurances
evidenced by the next verse in 25. He said, I will not believe
until I see with my own eyes. Why, he missed the breath and
the giving of the Holy Spirit, which was Christ's provision
to them as gospel preachers. And Paul exhorts us by saying,
forsake not the assembling of ourselves together. Unity. Unity. Brother Mahan once said, such
neglect leads to spiritual leanness, snares, temptations, and definitely
missed blessings. Thomas may have a good excuse. I don't know. But I know that
he missed out on some real blessings from the Lord. God's people want
to again and again and again hear the precious story of Jesus
and have it written on their hearts by Him. That's what we
long for. That is the message we want to
hear. We don't want to be told how
to live. That lady asked me one time,
she said, how do believers live? And I said, like they want to.
And oh, they've got a reaction. But God changes how they want
to. Now, I'm not what I ought to be. Far, far from it. But
I'm not what I once was. And that's by the grace and mercy
of God. I want to hear more about Him.
More about Jesus would I know. more of His grace to others shall. Now we don't know from Scriptures
at this point whether the disciples went and found Thomas, or if
Thomas finally showed up. But the first thing they told
him was, and this is the way it is with the children of God,
they want to talk about their Lord. They want to talk about
Him. And they told him that they'd
seen the Lord with their own eyes. And notice his reply in
verse 25, "...the other disciples therefore said unto him, We've
seen the Lord. But he said unto them, Except
I shall 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." I tell you, that pretty much
describes my state before Christ came to me in grace and in mercy. You've heard that old saying,
I'll believe it when I see it. I'll believe it when I see it
with my own eyes. That's pretty much how we are
by nature. And that pretty much describes old Thomas, doesn't
it? Those were his exact words. I'll believe it when I see it
with my own eyes. Now I thought about that and
I went back in Scripture and you know Thomas walked with the
Lord like Simon Peter and John and Matthew. And he was present
at the raising of Lazarus. You remember the day that the
Lord tarried on purpose so that Lazarus might die before he came. And he was there, Thomas was
there, and he heard Christ Himself say that Lazarus would rise from
the dead. Thomas had heard the conversation
that the Lord had with his dear friend Martha, Lazarus' sister. And in John 11, verse 21, the
Lord said to Martha, said unto Jesus, Lord, if Thou hadst been
here, my brother had not died. Here's Thomas standing right
there with the rest. And she said, but I know that
even now whatsoever Thou wilt ask of God, God will give it
Thee. And Jesus said unto her, Thomas still listening, Jesus
said unto her, thy brother shall rise again. And she said, I know
that. I know that he'll rise again
in the resurrection at the last day. I know that. But he's dead
now and he's been dead four days. And by now he stinks. He stinks. And Jesus said, I am. the resurrection. And I am the
life. And he that believeth in me,
though he were dead, yet shall he live. And he saw Lazarus come forth
from the grave. And now Thomas had the testimony
of his ten best friends. saying Christ had risen from
the dead, yet he did not believe. My, if that ain't a picture of
old David Edmondson, there never was one wrong. Obstinate, stubborn, full of
sin and unbelief. Paul calls it an evil heart. which does not believe the Lord."
Hebrews 3.12. Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an
evil heart of unbelief, and departing from the living God. Thank God
that He overrules our unbelief, that He's faithful to us when
we're not faithful to Him. Oh, what comfort we find In 2
Timothy 2.13 it says, "...if we believe not, yet He abideth faith." He abideth faith. He cannot deny
Himself. He swore by His own name, there's
no higher than that, that He would not lose the one that the
Father gave Him. And not a one He lost. I sat there in my unbelief some
twenty years ago, yet He abided faithful. I didn't believe, but
He abided faithful. He wouldn't leave me alone. He didn't leave me to myself.
That would have been sure destruction. And yet my love for Him is fickle
and faint. Ought not be so. Now look at
verse 26. I thought about this next verse
considerably too in my study. And after eight days, eight days,
again His disciples were within. And notice these words. I almost
chuckled when I read. And Thomas was with them. I tell you, eight days had went
by after the Lord had appeared, after the disciples had told
Thomas of His visit. For eight long days, Thomas must
have put himself through hell on earth. Well, how do you know,
Brother David, what Thomas must have been thinking? Well, I guess
he would have probably thought like all those who doubt and
are like those of little faith. I know a little something about
that. I doubt all the time. My faith
seems so weak at best. And that's something I know a
little about. I'm one who's full of doubt and little faith. But
as I tried to put myself in Thomas' shoes, I'm sure thoughts like
this would have run through my mind. Why wasn't I there? I knew I should have gone. You know, I really don't believe
Bill. Boy, did I mess up. What am I going to do now? I wonder if I'll ever see him. for men like us, Bill. But notice on the day, on this
day, where Thomas was. And Thomas was with him. He wasn't
going to miss out again. He wasn't going to miss out on
the blessings of his Lord. Not this time. No more considering
what he should have done, what he could have done, what he didn't
do. He made it his business to be there with the others. And Thomas was with them. With
whom? With the others that loved his
Lord. With the other servants of the Most High God. where the
people of the Lord was. That's where Thomas was. And that's where all God's saints
want to be. He was with other believers waiting
on a word from the Master, the Lord Jesus Christ. And you know
what? The Lord again stood in their
midst and said, Peace be unto you. Can you imagine how Thomas
must have felt? Oh! Then notice verse 27. He said,
Peace be unto you. 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." Oh, those words! Then he saith
to Thomas, when God saves a sinner, dear friends, He speaks to that
sinner personally. There was a day when He saith
to David, take your hands, put them in
mine, And I saw the scars by faith. He said, take your hand
and your fingers, put it deep into my side. And by faith, I did so. And he said, don't be faithless,
but believe. And he gave me the power to believe. Oh, he saith to Thomas, he saith
to David, he saith to Tyler. Now, our Lord knew, as He knows
all things, the conversation which had taken place with Thomas.
He knew the very words which Thomas had spoken concerning
the prints of the nails and the wounded side. But don't miss
the beauty of our Savior's compassion here. Oh, to Thomas he showed compassion
in his weakness and in his infirmities. And he said, I'm sure so gently,
reach hither. I know your heart, Thomas. Reach
hither and touch the scars with your own hands. And believe. Believe. It's as though the Lord said,
Thomas, if it takes touching Me for you to believe, then touch
Me. Touch Me. But in faith, believe. If you must put your hands in
the scars of My hands, feet and side, then do so. But have faith
in Me. Trust Me. Oh, may we never forget, especially
in the heat of spiritual battles, that faith glorifies God and
pleases God. Hebrews 11, 6, "...but without
faith it is impossible to please Him. For he that cometh to God
must believe that He is..." What? God? He's God. "...and that He is a rewarder
of them that diligently seek Him." And this is the title of my message,
verse 28. And Thomas answered and said
unto him, My Lord and my God. Oh, my Lord, to whom I yield
myself in total submission. And my God, whom I worship and
believe. I know I've often been quick
to judge old Thomas, calling him, doubting Thomas. And I just wonder if Peter, Matthew,
or John, the beloved, had been absent that day, if they would
have believed the others. I don't know. I can't answer
for them, dear friends, but I can tell you this. If I was a betting
man, I'd wager a great deal that I would have doubted. It's like
Brother Mahan said, when they picked up stones to stone him,
I'd have been right there with the biggest one in my hand ready
to heave it. We're talking about the heart
of man. Desperately wicked. Deceitful above all things. That's
why God says, I'm going to take out that stony heart, and I'm
going to put in one heart of flesh. You see, we've got heart
trouble. Bad heart trouble. And not just
a bypass or a stent's going to work. God's going to have to
take that old one out and put a new one in. And that's what
He does. Oh, what a picture I see of me
and old Thomas. You see, my will was not to come.
I was obstinate in my belief. I claimed somebody was going
to have to show me. That's exactly what I said. But God's under no obligation
to show or save a sinner. He was under no obligation to
return the second time to His disciples. And under no obligation
to address Thomas, he came because he delights in
showing mercy. He came because he'll be gracious
to whom he'll be gracious. And he'll have mercy on whom
he'll have mercy. Do you see Christ crucified and
risen from the dead? Do you see His nailed, scarred
hands, feet, and side? Do you acknowledge that He is
your Lord and your God? I hear a lot of people talk about
their Lord. But as I listen, He doesn't sound like my Lord.
And you know why He doesn't? Because He no more resembles
God than a man in the moon. But God shows His people that
He's Lord and He's God. My Lord and my God. Is He your Lord and God? If you
believe that He is, I'll tell you this much. Flesh and blood
didn't reveal it to you. but our Father which is in heaven. That's why He gets all the honor
and the glory for the salvation of His people. Oh, maybe next time I won't be
so hard on doubting Thomas because I'm doubting David.