Sermon by Pastor Brent Kompelien
February 11, 2024
INTRO
Good morning! I’m glad to be back. I missed last week because I surprised my sister with a visit for her 40th birthday. It was very meaningful for her and a special time.
I also want to say thank you to the women who attended the one-day conference on spiritual gifts two weeks ago. Thank you for the kind notes and encouragements you left me and also Pastor Steve on our office door. That was very meaningful. Thank you!
Well, we now have come to the climactic chapter of the gospel of John. The most profound statements are made in this passage, and this is an exciting account to study together! So, let’s just jump right in! Open with me to John 20:19-31.
ORG SENT — John 20 is the account of the resurrection of Jesus through the eyes of his closest followers as they process that he is alive in real time. This whole chapter is centered on a key word: “believe.” John 20 has four examples of people who came to believe that Jesus rose from the dead, and came to trust in him and have faith in him. The four examples in this chapter experience shock, confusion, fear, and doubt, and yet they come to believe in the risen Jesus.
Two weeks ago we looked at the first two reactions from verses 1-18: shock and confusion. This morning we are going to encounter the next two in verses 19-31: fear and doubt, which can often describe us as we come to believe that Jesus rose from the dead.
Let’s read our text for this morning. This is the account of the resurrection of Jesus, and the reactions of his disciples when he appeared to them. READ John 20:19-31.
Remember, we are going to look at the early believers in real time as they encounter the risen Jesus. We are going to see their fear and their doubt.
MAIN 1 — The disciples’ fear (vv. 19-23). (SLIDE 2)
It was Sunday evening and by now word had spread to the other disciples that Jesus’ body was gone from the tomb. They had heard from Peter and John that the burial cloths were just lying there, and they heard from Mary that she had seen Jesus and reported what he had said.
So, what do they do? (SLIDE 3) They lock themselves in a room because they are afraid that the Jewish leaders may accuse them of stealing Jesus’ body to pretend that Jesus had risen from the dead.
We know from Matthew 27 that the Jewish leaders tried to prevent this by putting the stone and a guard in front of the tomb. Pilate, the Roman governor, had already condemned Jesus to be crucified as a traitor, and the disciple feared that they would also be handed over by the Jewish leaders to be sentenced to death too!
APPLY — Let me ask you: Have you ever been afraid of admitting that you know Jesus? Or have you been afraid to trust him and believe that he rose from the dead?
At this moment, the disciples feared for their safety, they feared to be known, they feared to be found out as a person who knew Jesus and followed him.
But something changed.
This was what happened that evening in the locked room:
Jesus walked through the locked door and said, “Peace be with you!” Jesus looks at these frightened disciples and brings a message of peace! (SLIDE 4)
He showed them his hands and side: his hands that were nailed to the cross, his side that was slashed with a spear when the blood and water flowed out of him after he had died.
KEY: When Jesus shows up, the most profound change happens in the disciples. Their fear turns to joy! Then Jesus commissions them to be his representatives of forgiveness.
Don’t miss this: What is the key to their peace? What is the reason they do not need to be afraid? (SLIDE 5) READ vv. 22-23. They have the Holy Spirit! (SLIDE 6) They have the intimate, personal, empower presence of the Triune God himself within them!
APPLY — If you are afraid, my prayer for you is that Jesus would invade the locked door of your heart, that you would know he is real, that you would see him working in your life, that you would come to know him personally, that you would know his powerful presence, and that your fear would turn to joy as you come to trust him as your risen Savior!
MAIN 2 — Thomas’ doubt (vv. 24-29). (SLIDE 7)
Apparently Thomas was not with disciples on that Sunday evening. He heard later that Jesus had appeared to all the other disciples. His response reveals a lot about how some of us respond to Jesus’ resurrection.
Who was Thomas?
Thomas (Aramaic), Didymus (Greek), means “twin”.
ILLUST: I’m a twin (younger twin!), and I can relate to Thomas’ response here. I bet that Thomas was the younger twin, because we younger twins gain a thick skin after being pushed around by our older siblings!
Thomas desires proof. He wants to see physical evidence himself.
Thomas was a bold and devoted disciple. (SLIDE 8) He previously had urged the other disciples in John 11:16 to follow Jesus back to Judea to help Lazarus who was very sick, even if it meant facing death. (SLIDE 9) So Thomas was an eyewitness to the raising of Lazarus, and yet when he was told that Jesus was alive, he wanted to see Jesus’ resurrection also with his own eyes.
Thomas also was a bit practical and took things literally. He was the one who questioned Jesus about where he was going to prepare a place for them in heaven. In John 14:5 he said, “Lord, we don’t know where you are going, so how can we know the way?” (SLIDE 10)
ILLUST — Thomas was passionate, inquisitive, and wanted the straight truth. He was a mixture of engineer and philosopher. He would have worked really well in an R&D department. He’s the kind of person who says, “Don’t just guess, prove it!”
Thomas demanded to touch the nail holes in Jesus’ hands and the slash in Jesus’ side. He didn’t want to merely see the wounds, he wanted to touch them with his own hands! Apparently Jesus heard him!
So, here what happened:
Jesus shows up again the following Sunday evening, walks straight through the locked door again, and tells Thomas to touch the holes in his hands and his side.
APPLY — Thomas was on his way to “despairing unbelief”. (SLIDE 11) But Jesus challenged him to carry out the test that he proposed: touch my hands and my side! Here’s your evidence you demanded!
Thomas had not seen the grave cloths like John, he had not heard Jesus’ voice like Mary, and he was not there when Jesus appeared to the other disciples the week before. Like so many of us, Thomas said, “I want to see it for myself.”
In an instant, Jesus was there in the room and he looks straight at Thomas and says, “Stop doubting and believe.”
All the characters in this chapter had physical evidence, each with an intensification of the revealing that Jesus is truly alive:
John saw the grave cloths
Mary heard Jesus speak her name
The disciples saw Jesus and his wounds
Thomas touched Jesus’ hands and side
KEY: Let me pause here to say, it was a privilege for these early believers to see Jesus face-to-face after his resurrection. But there’s a reason this chapter intensifies and culminates in Thomas.
APPLY — Thomas becomes the template for all of us who read the story of the Jesus from a distance. We have not seen the grave cloths, we have not heard the audible voice of Jesus, we have not seen him, and we haven’t touched his hands or side. Like Thomas, have heard the reports from the eyewitnesses and we are challenged to believe.
Thomas gets his wish: he wanted to touch the wounds himself.
But Jesus says, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” (v. 29) (SLIDE 12) That is YOU AND ME!
KEY — There is a blessing in believing that Jesus rose from the dead without having the ability to see the physical evidence ourselves.
This reminds me of 1 Peter 1:8-9 — (SLIDE 13) “Though you have not seen him, you love him; and even though you do not see him now, you believe in him and are filled with an inexpressible and glorious joy, for you are receiving the end result of your faith, the salvation of your souls.”
You see, we have not seen the grave cloths, we have not heard the audible voice of Jesus, we have not seen him, and we haven’t touched his hands or side.
But we are called to something greater than merely agreeing that the physical evidence is accurate: we are called to TRUST in him.
As Hebrews 11:1 says, (SLIDE 14) “Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.” (it is trust!)
KEY — This is what Jesus taught Thomas in this moment: (SLIDE 15) Your heart is involved in belief. What you love, what you worship, what you live for is involved in belief.
IMPORTANT — (SLIDE 16) Jesus wants you to trust him. He wants to transform your heart! He left to return to heaven, and he gave you the Holy Spirit, in order to teach you to live by faith and to surrender your life to him as an act of trust! You see, he desires your heart and your devotion!
Thomas, the one who doubted, becomes the one who expresses the most profound and the clearest profession of who Jesus is in all of John’s gospel: (SLIDE 17) “My Lord and my God!” (v. 28). This is the climax of the whole book!
APPLY
Here’s my challenge for you today: Trust in Jesus! Believe that he rose from the dead!
His hands were nailed to a cross for you, to pay for your sin.
He was pierced in his side, and his blood flowed to wash away your guilt.
He rose from the dead to conquer sin, death, and evil!
He freed you from slavery to sin and he is offering you new life, to become a new creation, to be renewed and redeemed!
When you trust in Him, you will be blessed. God wants to lavish you with his grace, with the free gift of forgiveness and with the gift of his presence. In Jesus, you will find peace.
This is the whole purpose of why John wrote his gospel. We’ve been studying this book for more than 18 months, and verses 30-31 make plain the purpose: READ vv. 30-31.
This is the blessing: Life in his name. New life today through the forgiveness of sins and rebirth to be a new creation, and life tomorrow in the resurrection body in the new heavens and new earth.
You need to know this: Jesus’ resurrection is not merely a resuscitation of his body. It is a transformation. 1 Corinthians 15 compares our current bodies to our resurrection bodies as a seed to a beautiful plant. 1 Cor 15:42-43 says, “The body that is sown is perishable, it is raised imperishable; it is sown in dishonor, it is raised in glory; it is sown in weakness, it is raised in power; it is sown a natural body, it is raised a spiritual body.”
Meanwhile we await the resurrection body. As Paul writes later in 2 Corinthians 5:1-2, “For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile we groan, longing to be clothed instead with our heavenly dwelling.”
In this we walk by faith. And after we have walked this life of faith, we will be in the presence of our risen Savior Jesus on the new earth.
Friends, I don’t want you to miss this: Jesus has a resurrection body, but did you notice in the our passage today that he still has the nail holes and the slash in his side? This is astounding!
Here’s why: In the new heavens and new earth, we will eternally be in the presence of our risen Savior Jesus who will forever have the nail holes in his hands and feet and the slash in his side. You will be able to see them, to touch them, and to cry out as Thomas did, “My lord and my God!”