John 20:19-31

 

Have you noticed how significant biblical names often are? The name Jesus means, “the Lord saves,” and is derived from the Hebrew name of Joshua. Just as Joshua led the people of Israel into the promised land of Canaan, so Jesus leads his people into the promised land – the heavenly Canaan.

 

Or consider the name Abraham, meaning “the father of a great multitude”. The Lord promised Abraham that his descendants would be more numerous than the grains of sand on the seashore and more numerous than the stars in the heavens. And we read in Galatians 3 how if we have saving in Christ, we are Abraham’s children, the Israel of God. If we believe in Christ, we are part of that great multitude that cannot be numbered, that will live in the glorious presence of the Lord forever, justified by faith in Christ just as Abraham was justified by faith.

   

Biblical names often carry a great deal of significance, and the same is true for the name Thomas. The name Thomas, and the Greek rendition, Didymus, means “twin”. Thomas was a twin by physical birth. But he was also a twin spiritually. Over the centuries how many multitudes of people have doubted the resurrection of Jesus Christ, just as Thomas did?  Unfortunately, the doubt that Thomas expressed in the resurrection of Jesus Christ has been expressed by so many others over the centuries and continues to be doubted today.

 

What leads to that skepticism and that doubt? After all, Thomas was one of the disciples. He was one of the original twelve. He had been called and appointed by Jesus himself, so why is it that Thomas would doubt the resurrection of Jesus Christ?  Especially when all the other disciples told him the good news, recorded there in verse 25, “We have seen the Lord!”

 

One reason why Thomas had doubt is because he was not there when the Lord initially appeared to the other disciples. As verse 24 explains, “Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came.”

 

Where was Thomas when Jesus first appeared to the disciples? The Scripture doesn’t tell us, so we don’t know exactly why he wasn’t with the other disciples when Jesus appeared to them. But from his doubt, which arose because he was not there when the Lord appeared to the other disciples, we see that when we separate ourselves from other Christians, we are prone to doubt.

 

It is very hard to be a Christian in isolation. In fact, biblically speaking, it is impossible. The reason why is that as Christians we form a body. We form, as part of the true church, the metaphysical body of Christ here on earth. We see that clearly in passages such as 1 Corinthians 12 which teaches how each member is vital to the body.

 

That passage explains that because each member is vital to all the others, “The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ And the head cannot say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’ On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable...” Since we are all part of the body of Christ, it is essential that we keep the unity of the body. Because when we don’t, we are more prone to doubt the promises of God, including the resurrection of his Son, Jesus Christ.

 

Consider what happened to Peter when he separated himself from the other disciples. It was the tragic night of the betrayal of our Savior and Lord. When Jesus was arrested in the Garden of Gethsemane, all the disciples fled. Even Peter, who had promised that he would never desert the Lord, turned and fled.

 

Peter came slinking back. He warmed himself by the fire as Jesus was being tried by the chief priests and rulers of the law who would turn him over to Pilate. None of the other disciples were with Peter. He was all alone among unbelievers, skeptics and cynics. And then that servant girl took a good look at Peter, and said, “Surely you are one of his disciples...”

 

You know what Peter did. You children among us know, as do those who are older, how Peter denied knowing Jesus three times over before the rooster crowed.

 

Whether you look at Peter, or whether you look at Thomas, or whether you look at yourself, you cannot help but see that when you separate yourself from the body of believers – when you separate yourself from the church – you are prone to doubt.

 

There is strength in numbers and in unity. As Christians we all need each other. It was when Thomas was not with the other disciples that he missed seeing the resurrected Savior. Because he was not with the other disciples, he was more prone to doubt. And the same is true for each one of us.

 

In that sense, each one of us is a twin to Thomas. Each one of us needs to be in the body of Christ to be fed, to be encouraged, to be equipped to live out our faith day by day so that as we go out into a hostile world, we are supported by the prayers of other believers and encouraged through the fellowship that we have within the family of God, the true church.

 

A second way that many people are a twin to Thomas is in their setting of a standard which God must meet in order for them to believe. Thomas did that when he said, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe” (25).

 

Twins of Thomas come up with many other conditions in order to believe: “I would believe in Jesus if this world wasn’t so messed up.” Or, “I would believe in Jesus if he would heal me of this on-going issue I struggle with.” Or, “If that new job that I really desire materializes, then I will believe in Jesus.”

 

Many people set standards – foolish and sinful standards – that they say God must meet before they will believe in him. They do so, even though God’s identity is clearly seen by what he has created, for the heavens declare the glory of God and the skies proclaim the works of his hands, leaving all humanity without excuse for knowing him. He has also revealed himself in the sixty-six books of the Bible. By the Holy Spirit’s inspiration, we have all that we need to know for salvation from sin and eternal life through faith in Christ Jesus. We need no further proof than what we have in Scripture.

 

By contrast, a twin of “Believing Thomas” (28) trusts that through the resurrection, God the Father put his “stamp of approval” on the redeeming work of his Son. The resurrection of Jesus assures us that reconciliation has truly been made; it assures us that we have peace with our triune God.

 

We read the first of three greetings – greetings of great comfort from Jesus – in verse 19: “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’”

 

What music that must’ve been to the disciples’ ears! They had been sleeping in the garden. They had all deserted Jesus when He was arrested. Peter had denied his Savior three times before that rooster crowed. How harsh would Jesus admonish them? But instead, he said three times over, “Peace be with you.”

     

The open tomb, and these words of our risen Savior, “Peace be with you,” remind us that the resurrection is the stamp of approval by God the Father on the redemptive work of Jesus the Son. And therefore, we have peace with God!

 

The disciples of Jesus, including Thomas, only found true peace by focusing with faith on their resurrected Lord. Why is that? Why is true peace only found through saving faith in the resurrected Savior?

 

The reason is that because of our sinful nature we are at enmity with God. By our nature we are law breakers, and by our nature we are prone to deny our Lord just as Peter did. And we are prone to doubt our Lord’s power just as Thomas did.

 

That denial and doubt springs from fallen nature. It is a result of the fall and the disobedience of Adam, and it gives us no peace. As long as Thomas doubted the reality of the resurrection of Jesus, he had no peace. But when he trusted in the Lord and believed in the reality of the resurrection, he found perfect peace. He found peace that surpasses and transcends all understanding.

 

And the same is true for you and for me. We only have peace with God through faith in Christ and his redeeming work. And the resurrection is the stamp of approval, given by the Father, on all the redeeming work of his Son, the risen and triumphant Lord Jesus Christ.

 

On the cross Jesus paid a debt beyond the ability of any mathematician, of any theologian, of any one of us to comprehend. He paid the full penalty for your sin and mine, and the sins of all who by his grace have saving faith in him alone.

 

Theologians refer to that as his passive obedience. He could have called more than twelve legions of angels to deliver him, as he said to his disciples. But instead, he did his Father’s will. He laid down his life to propitiate – to cover – the sins of all who have saving faith in him alone, and thus appease the righteous and proper wrath that our triune God has against our sin.

 

Seeking his Father’s will, Jesus passively surrendered himself to the authorities, who in turn would hand him over to be crucified, to shed his blood to cover your sins and mine, if we truly have saving faith in him alone.

 

The resurrection is the stamp of approval by the Father declaring, “Paid in full.” The debt of sin, so great that none of us can calculate or comprehend it, is paid in full.

 

That in itself is a wonderful gift beyond description! If you have been in debt and then made the last payment on whatever debt you had – whether a mortgage, a car loan, student loan or other debt, you know the great feeling of being debt free.

 

But when Jesus rose from the dead, he didn’t just pay the debt of our sin. He didn’t just leave your spiritual bank account, or mine, with a zero balance, wonderful as that would be. But by his resurrection, God the Father put his stamp of approval on what we call “the active obedience” of Jesus Christ.

                                    

Christ actively obeyed every law that you and I have broken. Christ actively obeyed with his inner thoughts and motives, not just with external brush strokes. He actively obeyed every jot, every tittle, every iota, every minute aspect of the law of God. And by raising him from the dead, God the Father put his authoritative stamp of approval on that active obedience of Christ which now is your justification and mine as it is credited – imputed – to the account of everyone who has saving faith in Christ alone.

 

You see, not only did Christ pay the debt of sin, but he also imputes to us his perfect record of righteous obedience. And because God the Father has put his stamp of approval on the resurrection, we are justified by the resurrection. In the words of Romans 4:25, “He was delivered over to death for our sins and was raised to life for our justification.”

 

And that is also why the Apostle Paul writes three times over in 1 Corinthians 15 that without the resurrection, you and I could not be saved from our sins:

 

1 Corinthians 15:14: “If Christ has not been raised, then our preaching is in vain and your faith is in vain.”

 

Verse 17 of the same chapter: “And if Christ has not been raised, your faith is futile and you are still in your sins.”

 

Verse 19: “If in Christ we have hope in this life only, we are of all people most to be pitied.”

 

When Michelangelo, the well-known artist, visited famous art galleries in European cities, he was surprised by the number of paintings depicting the crucifixion of Jesus. He asked, “Why are art galleries filled with so many pictures of Jesus dying on the cross?  Why do artists dwell on that passing episode, as if that were the last word and the final scene? Jesus’ death on the cross lasted only a few hours, but throughout eternity Jesus is alive, ruling and reigning forever.”  Michelangelo was pointing out that the cross is devoid of power, unless – unless – you see the stone rolled away and empty tomb beyond.

 

By God’s grace, Thomas came to that place of the full acceptance. He accepted the gift of God with a believing heart. There is no other way to have peace with God than through saving faith in Jesus Christ. But so many people, instead of that heartfelt exclamation of belief, “My Lord and my God!” harden themselves against the truth of the resurrection of Jesus from the dead.

     

Someone has pointed out that our individual responses to the resurrection can be likened to the punctuation marks that we see written before us every day. For example, for many people the resurrection is a large question mark: Can that really be? How can that be that Jesus, after being crucified, could be raised from the dead without any decay or corruption in his truly human body? How could I, or anyone else for that matter, believe such a remarkable account?

 

To many others the account of the resurrection is a comma. It’s a pause. There’s Easter Sunday which when combined with Good Friday makes for a three-day weekend. For some, with Easter Monday, even a four-day weekend. And then life goes on. The rat race resumes. The Easter break – that comma in the hectic pace of life – will come again next year and maybe then we will spend a week down south, on the beach somewhere, they reason.

 

To still others, it’s a period. The punctuation mark of one little dot ends almost every sentence. A period is a boring punctuation mark. You can grow up in the church, young people – and us older ones too – and say, “I hear this account of the resurrection so often, not just at Easter. After all, every Sunday marks the resurrection of Jesus.  It’s the same story.  It gets old. And the pews – or the chairs – get harder and more uncomfortable every year.”

 

For those who see the resurrection as a period, there may be acknowledgement in their head that Jesus arose, but no blessing in the heart. They may have “historical faith” – that is, they may believe that Jesus was crucified, dead, and buried, and arose again on the third day. But there is no saving faith in the risen Savior.

   

There is an eternal difference between merely believing that Jesus lived, died, and rose again, and having true saving faith in him alone for the salvation of your sins. James 2:19 speaks to those who say they have faith in Christ but don’t show it by how they live. He writes: “You believe that there is one God. Good! Even the demons believe that—and shudder.”

 

The people who see the resurrection as just a period in the punctuation marks of life can go through all the right motions. They can cross their theological “t’s” and dot their theological “i’s” but there is nothing in the heart. No joy of salvation, no blessing from taking the gospel to heart.

 

But those who believe in the resurrection with a heartfelt, saving faith can exclaim with Thomas, when he touched the nail holes in Jesus’ hands, and put his hand by the wound in his side, “My Lord and my God!”  The resurrection is the exclamation mark of their life! In the resurrection, they see the exaltation of their Lord! They rejoice in his true identity as the eternal Son of God!

 

They rejoice that he is “the faithful witness, the firstborn from the dead, the ruler of the kings of the earth” (Rev. 1:5). They rejoice that their risen Savior is the “Alpha and the Omega, who is, and who was, and who is to come – the Almighty!” (Rev. 1:8) They rejoice that he has the power to forgive sins, that through saving faith in him we are reconciled to our triune God. That through saving faith in him we need not fear death because he has conquered death in all its forms. They know that death – the last enemy to be destroyed – is for the believer the passageway to glory, the passageway to seeing their risen Savior, not through a glass darkly, but face to face. Consequently, they make it the goal of their entire life to live as an exclamation mark to the praise of God’s glorious grace!

    

And, by way of application, this passage before us, as well as the gospel of John and the entire Bible, was written so that by believing in Jesus Christ with true saving faith we may have eternal life, and live and reign with Christ over the new heavens and new earth, forever.

  

As the passage concludes, John notes in verse 30-31: “Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”

Over the course of history, many notable doubters have come to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ and have rejoiced in his resurrection. They are like a twin of Thomas when he believed.

 

Notable skeptics include Frank Morrison, the lawyer who set out with precision to disprove the truths of the Bible. The claim of the bodily resurrection of Jesus seemed outrageous to him. But as he set out to disprove the Bible, he found instead that all the evidence points to the reality of the resurrected Lord, as described in his book, Who Moved the Stone?

 

One of the most powerful pieces of evidence for him, and for many other skeptics who have come to embrace the truths of Scripture and have placed their faith in the risen Savior, is the change that came over the disciples. When Jesus was arrested, every one of them turned and ran away. But after they had seen their resurrected Savior and Lord, these same men became fearless apostles who were willing to die for their faith in Jesus Christ.

 

It doesn’t take a lawyer, nor does it take an investigative reporter, to realize that no one is going to sacrifice their own life to perpetuate a myth. It became obvious, just from the change in the disciples, that they truly had witnessed the resurrection of Jesus Christ. They were radically changed by the realization that Jesus had laid down his life for sinners and raised it up again for their justification.

 

The same was true for Lee Strobel, the writer for the Chicago Tribune. He set out to disprove the resurrection of Jesus, but as he studied the Gospels, as he studied the truths of God’s word, and interviewed many Christian scholars, he realized that Jesus truly is the Christ, the Son of God, the resurrected Lord who laid down his life for sinners. 

 

Lee Strobel wrote the popular book, The Case for Christ. He is among the many people who are like a twin of believing Thomas. Lee Strobel also came to accept with a believing heart the truth of the resurrection, that through faith in Christ we have life – eternal life – in his name and by his merits.

 

In both cases those men who were once doubters, twins of Doubting Thomas, came to embrace the truth of “Believing Thomas.” By God's grace both skeptics became believers. Through saving faith they came to believe with certainty that Jesus is the Son of God who was born in human flesh through Mary’s virgin birth, that he suffered immensely, throughout his life and especially on the cross as he bore the righteous and proper rather of our triune God against sin. But after offering himself as the sacrificial lamb for sinners, he rose again from the dead as he redeemed all who have saving faith in him alone. 

 

So many doubters throughout history have come to saving faith in the resurrected Christ. Can the same be said of you and of me? Are we like a twin of Thomas because we still doubt? Are we still trying to make our own standard of what God must do before we will believe in him?

 

Or, are we like a twin, not of doubting Thomas, but believing Thomas? Do we take the Lord at his word? Do you and I accept the truths of salvation with a believing heart? Do we strive to live to the praise of God’s glorious grace?

   

When we take him at his word, we find an even greater blessing than the blessing that Thomas found when he put his fingers in the wounds in Jesus’ hands. As Jesus said to Thomas, in verse 29, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” Or as David expressed it in Psalm 16:11: “You have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.”

 

May you and I be among those who are blessed immeasurably because we have believed in him who died for our sins and rose again for our justification – even our Savior and Lord, Jesus Christ! Amen.

 

 

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                                            John 20:19-31

 

I.  The name Thomas means “twin.” There are many who are like a

     twin to “Doubting Thomas.” Their doubt is increased by:

     1) Separating themselves from other Christians (24)

 

 

 

     2) Making requirements of what God must do for them to believe

         in Him (25)

 

 

 

II. By contrast, a twin of “Believing Thomas” (28): 

     1) Trusts that through the resurrection, God the Father put His stamp

          of approval on the redeeming work of His Son, giving us peace

          with our triune God (19, 21, 26; Romans 4:25)

 

 

 

      2) Seeks to live their life as an exclamation mark to the praise

          of God’s glorious grace (28; Ephesians 1:6, 12; Hebrews 13:15, 16)

 

 

 

III. Applications:

      1) You and I are like a twin of Thomas – either because of doubt

           and skepticism (25), or because of joyful faith (28)

 

 

 

      2) This passage was written that you may believe with saving faith

           in Jesus Christ, and find great and eternal blessings (29-31; Psalm 16:11)