BELIEVING IS SEEING
John 20.19-31
S: Resurrection
C: Belief
Pr: BELIEF IN JESUS BRINGS CLARITY TO OUR LIVES.
TS: We will find in our study of John 20.19-31 where our relationship with Jesus begins.
Type: Inductive
I. PEACE (19-20)
II. MISSION (21-23)
III. UNBELIEF (24-25)
IV. WORSHIP (26-29)
V. LIFE (30-31)
PA: How is the change to be observed?
• Believe in the Lord Jesus (and you will be saved)
• Worship Jesus (He is God in the flesh)
• Go and proclaim the good news.
Version: ESV
RMBC 15 April 07 AM
INTRODUCTION:
1. What do you find unbelievable?
If you are like me, you find yourself saying from time to time, “I don’t believe it!”
Something really amazing happens, but we act like we disbelieve.
“I don’t believe it.”
Just think of the technological changes that have happened over the past years.
Place yourself back into 1980…
Would you have believed at the time that almost every home would have a computer?
We did not even imagine anything like e-mail and the Internet.
It seemed so unbelievable.
Every once in a while, though, we hear a story, and it is too out of this world, and we don’t believe it at all.
It reminds me of a…
ILL Disbelief (H)
… pastor’s small son that was told by his mother that he should wash his hands because there were germs living in all that dirt.
He refused and complained, by saying: "Germs and Jesus! Germs and Jesus! That’s all I ever hear around this house, and I’ve never seen either one!"
Well, some of the disciples were having trouble believing the stories about Jesus that were coming back to them.
They were just too wonderful to be true.
But throughout this day after the Sabbath, people were reporting having seen Jesus.
It was so unbelievable!
After all…
2. It is hard to believe that a dead person can stop being dead.
You can almost imagine the conversations some may have had with Mary Magadalene.
“C’mon Mary – you must be imagining things – you are so emotionally overwrought – you are just seeing things.”
But it was more than Mary.
All the women that went to the tomb had met Jesus.
Cleopas and another follower had met Jesus as they were on the way to Emmaus.
Jesus had also shown Himself to Simon Peter.
It has been a busy day.
There was a missing body, and the unbelievable story of a dead man that had stopped being dead, which leads us to our text today…
3. We will find in our study of John 20.19-31 where our relationship with Jesus begins.
OUR STUDY:
I. PEACE (19-20)
(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.” (20) When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
Even though there is news about Jesus, the disciples are still in hiding.
Some have seen Jesus.
Some have been trying to figure out what is going on.
Nevertheless, they are trying to avoid confrontation.
They are still rightly concerned about the religious leaders.
So, as they are gathered together, who shows up?
Jesus.
There is no knock on the door.
He is just there, and the door is still locked, probably a heavy bolt sliding through rings.
In other words, you don’t get through the door without making a racket.
How does He get in?
Is He a ghost?
We are not told how He was able to enter.
We are simply to understand it as a miracle.
But I think it is fair to say that this kind of appearance is kind of scary.
So…
4. Jesus calms their fears.
He deals gently with them.
“Peace to you.”
You have to appreciate what Jesus does not say.
He does not say, “Where were you guys?”
“How could you let me down like that?”
No…He says, “Peace.”
But we can be sure that after a moment of stunned silence, their hearts are racing, the adrenaline is flowing, and their goose bumps are bumping.
They are filled with joy and amazement.
Jesus is there with them.
Everything was truly all right.
And they discovered quickly, Jesus was not quite done with them yet, for they have a…
II. MISSION (21-23)
…to fulfill.
(21) Jesus said to them again, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.” (22) And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. (23) If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven; if you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld.”
It is interesting that Jesus demonstrates that He trusts them.
Even though they had run scared days before, they have roles to play in the kingdom plan.
So, the assignment is given:
“As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.”
You see…
5. Christianity is designed to be on the go.
Christianity does not simply put out its sign and say “come.”
It puts on its shoes and goes.
We do not sit and wait.
No, we are on the move, for we have a part in sharing the glorious good news of salvation.
But even here, Jesus reminds us that…
6. Our mission is not accomplished on our own power.
His words, here, are a prelude to the events that will happen at Pentecost, some fifty days away.
He tells them to “Receive the Holy Spirit.”
It was a reminder to them that He was still going to send the Comforter.
It is a reminder that the Spirit is the Breath of Life to us, enabling us to live in His strength, fulfilling His mission for us.
This next text is more difficult to understand because it infers that believers have an intrinsic power and duty to offer forgiveness or hold it back.
One could take that position if this was the only biblical text on the subject, but since it is not, and we know that it is only God that can perfectly give forgiveness, we must come to understand it differently.
The key to understanding this is that we hold the keys to the truth of the gospel message – a message that changes lives.
By speaking the truth of the message, under the influence and guidance of the Spirit, we reveal what has been determined in heaven – forgiveness for those that follow Jesus and its lack for those who do not.
Next we find…
III. UNBELIEF (24-25)
…from the missing disciple.
(24) Now Thomas, one of the Twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. (25) So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”
7. Thomas was left out.
When the ten disciples testified that they had met Jesus, we can be sure that he was feeling left out.
Thomas was probably one of those analytical, melancholy types of personalities.
Even more, missing this big event probably struck him to the core.
After all, he had been zealous for Jesus.
But his worst fears had been realized, and the crucifixion had broken his heart.
I can also imagine Thomas saying, “Very funny, ha, ha, ha…, tell me when the joke was over.”
He was not about to succumb to any fantasy.
Dead was dead, and that was that.
So…
8. He asks for evidence.
He wants physical evidence.
He wants proof it was Jesus.
He wants proof that this was no ghost.
He was not going to put up with some spiritual resurrection.
It was a real body, or it was untrue.
This was a thorough skepticism that Thomas is showing, but it is a skepticism that leads to…
IV. WORSHIP (26-29)
(26) Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” (27) Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.” (28) Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” (29) Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
It is exactly a week later, and everything is as before, and again, Jesus just shows up.
It has to be both disconcerting and wonderful all at the same time.
This time…
9. Jesus offers to Thomas what he desired.
Notice, though, what Jesus did with Thomas’ unbelief.
He didn’t scold Thomas.
He didn’t say, “Here, put your hand in my side, you skeptical jerk!”
He didn’t shove his hands in Thomas face and say, “Look, now do you believe!?”
No, He gently invites him to believe.
Thomas returns this gentle exhortation with a greater faith than he had before.
He has every reason to respond, for he understands that Jesus came back for him.
Thomas may have been slow to believe the good news of Jesus’ resurrection, but he was not slow to grasp its implications.
Mere men do not raise from the dead.
So, when he sees Jesus, he really believes!
And…
10. Thomas responds with a testimony of Jesus’ deity.
It is Thomas’ finest hour, for he is a worshiper.
“My Lord and my God!”
He has surrendered to the Lordship of Jesus.
He has acknowledged His divinity with absolute clarity.
Thomas teaches us for all time that an encounter with the risen Christ changes everything.
The absurd becomes a new reality.
The rules which once governed our believing - and our disbelieving - are blurred.
And even the lines between life and death, which once seemed so absolute, are crossed.
For we understand…
V. LIFE (30-31)
…in a new light.
(30) Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; (31) 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.
11. The relationship with Jesus begins with belief.
This is why the apostle John has written this biography about Jesus.
It is an evangelistic purpose.
It is so you and I will believe in Jesus, even though we do not see Him.
It is so that we will understand that God has acted, and He has acted supremely in and through Jesus.
John would have us advocate more than a vague trust in Jesus.
It is not enough to say that Jesus was a good man.
It is not enough to say that Jesus was an incredible teacher.
It is not enough to say that He was a founder of a tremendous movement.
For John, Jesus is nothing less than the promised Messiah.
He is the Mighty God and Everlasting Father that was promised in Isaiah.
He is “God with us.”
He is the perfect Son of God, the Word made flesh.
And this is a sufficient Word!
For when we believe…
12. The relationship continues in receiving life.
God offers life, not just a life that lasts forever.
It is much more than quantity.
It is a gift of life that is about quality as much as it is about quantity.
You see, belief in Jesus changes everything for the good.
Belief in Jesus truly is seeing.
APPLICATION:
ILL Belief (S)
In 1957, Lieutenant David Steeves walked out of the California Sierra Mountains fifty-four days after his Air Force trainer jet had disappeared. He related an unbelievable tale of survival after parachuting from his disabled plane. For almost three months, he said he had eaten berries and dug snow tunnels to sleep in, had seen no one during the entire time and finally walked out on his own.
By the time he showed up alive, he had already been declared officially dead and his story was viewed with much skepticism because during that same time frame his assigned unit had been sent to the Korean front. When further search failed to turn up any wreckage, a hoax was suspected and Steeves was forced to resign under a cloud of doubt. He lived for two decades branded as a deserter and possible spy.
One story had him selling the plane to the Russians, another shipping it piecemeal to Mexico. Steeves died in 1965.
In 1977, a troop of Boy Scouts hiking through Kings Canyon National Park discovered the wreckage of Steeves’ plane and his story was confirmed. His family was issued an apology from the military and was told that Lt. David Steeves’ name was reinstated with honor.
One of Steeves’ friends, Eugene Junett, after the ceremony told the Associated Press. “This is nice,” but then he added: “I just wish someone would of believed Dave back then.”
This certainly was what the early disciples faced.
They were telling of experiences that were so unbelievable.
What is so interesting, of course, is that they banked their whole lives on this belief.
They invested the rest of their lives on the belief that Jesus raised from the dead.
It did not matter to them if it sounded foolish.
It did not matter to them if it sounded ridiculous.
It did not matter to them if it sounded idiotic.
They believed it.
And they put their lives on the line because of it.
Ten of the eleven disciples died of unnatural deaths because of this unbelievable story!
Why?
Because they knew it to be true!
Because they knew that…
13. BELIEF IN JESUS BRINGS CLARITY TO OUR LIVES.
The truth is is that it is not seeing that is believing.
It is that believing is seeing.
When faith takes hold in us, life makes sense.
It comes together.
We have insight that we did not possess before.
It gives us perspective.
You see…
14. When we believe, we understand who we worship.
Thomas got this.
He got to his knees before Jesus and humbly proclaimed, “My Lord and my God!”
He understood what the death and resurrection of Jesus meant.
He was rightly filled with awe.
This was not about what he wanted anymore.
It was all about Jesus.
And, now he had good news to tell.
For…
15. When we worship Jesus, our mission comes into focus.
Jesus is worth telling about.
How about you?
Who have you told lately?
Who have you been giving the opportunity to believe?
Because when you believe, you will see.
Count on it.
For Further Study: Genesis 2.7; Isaiah 9.6-7; Ezekiel 37.1-14; Matthew 28.18-20; Luke 24.36-43; John 16.20-22; Romans 10.17; Philippians 4.6-7; I John 5.9-13
BENEDICTION:
Now to him who is able to strengthen you according to the good news and message of Jesus, to the only wise God, be glory forevermore through Jesus Christ. Amen.
RESOURCES:
SermonCentral:
Hoke, David Resurrection Implications
Metcalfe, Russell The Path of Life: Faith in the Presence of Fear
Nickles, William A Bout with the Doubts
Pankow, Joel Peace Be with You
Patterson, Allen After
Schultz, Don Easter – Fact or Fiction? The Cure for Doubt
Smith, Timothy What About My Doubt?
Tow, Richard Messages from our Resurrected Lord
Books:
Hughes, R. Kent. John: That You May Believe. Preaching the Word. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books, 1999.
Keener, Craig S. The Ivp Bible Background Commentary: New Testament. Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1993.
Morris, Leon. The Gospel According to John. The New International Commentary on the New Testament, ed. F. F. Bruce. Grand Rapids, MI: Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 1977.
Stern, David H. The Jewish New Testament Commentary. Clarksville, MD: Jewish New Testament Publications, Inc., 1992.
Wiersbe, Warren W. The Bible Exposition Commentary: New Testament. Colorado Springs: ChariotVictor Publishing, 1989.
