If you've ever had doubts about Jesus' resurrection, you're not alone. Even the Apostle Thomas remained skeptical he wanted to investigate the evidence for himself. On Truth for Life weekend, we're getting a head start on Easter by examining the proof of Christ's resurrection and the testimony of witnesses.
Here's Alistair Begg. When you read chapter 20 of John's Gospel, you wonder why it wasn't the last chapter almost. It seems to tie a bow around it quite nicely, especially with the concluding two verses. Jesus did many other miraculous signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name. It's a reminder to us, isn't it, that the Scriptures have been given to us in order that we might meet Christ and in encountering Jesus that we might become believers. And some of us tonight are believers, in the truest sense of the New Testament understanding of that—that we have moved beyond the position of the demons and the devil, which is an orthodox view of Christianity and who Jesus is and why he came, to the place where, by God's goodness, we have laid hold on his great and precious promises and his Spirit has come to live within us, and we have become members of his family.
But probably in a room like this, there are some who are unsure of where they set with that issue, some who are perhaps even doubting concerning the foundation upon which faith is built, some young people brought up in Christian homes and kept buoyant largely by the faith of their parents and surrounding family members, but who in the quiet of their own bedroom, in the silence of their own thoughts, would be honest enough to say, I'm not sure that I truly believe in the Lord Jesus Christ. Well, the Gospels were written in order that we might come to believe. And here in the Gospel of John, which is so evangelistic in its thrust and particularly in this chapter, which is all about the resurrection, we have essentially four little sections—and don't be alarmed, we're not going to go through them all—but four sections that identify the evidence that has been presented to individuals and their testimony on the basis of that evidence. First of all, in verses 3–9, the record of Peter and the other disciple. John refers to himself in that quite humble way, the other disciple. He doesn't say, Peter and myself started for the tomb, although he is referring to himself.
And you have these two fishermen confronted by the empty grave and the burial clothes that have all been found lying as if the body had simply passed directly through them. And then in verses 10 and through to verse 18, we have the record of Jesus' appearance to Mary Magdalene, as it says there in the heading in the NIV. You have the story of a tearful and fearful woman in the garden, and the encounter that she has with Jesus leading to her testimonial in verse 18, I have seen the Lord.
And she told them that he had said these various things to her. And then in verses 19–23, the fearful disciples in the upper room with the door locked for fear of the Jews and the evidence that is presented to them. And finally, in verse 25, the disciples make their testimony to Thomas saying, We have seen the Lord. And then finally, in verses 24–29, the record of how this hardened skeptic, none other than Thomas himself, finally reaches the point where he declares in verse 28, My Lord and my God. And then John wraps it up by saying, There were all kinds of miraculous signs done in the presence of the disciples, and these are written that you may believe.
J. B. Phillips, in a book entitled The Ring of Truth, which is an old book now, says, Over the years I've had hundreds of conversations with people, many of them of a higher intellectual caliber than my own, who quite obviously had no idea of what Christianity is really about. This I find pathetic and somewhat horrifying. It means that the most important event in human history is politely and quietly bypassed. For it is not as though the evidence has been examined and found unconvincing.
It has simply never been examined. Now, here in chapter 20, you have the examining of evidence on the part of all these individuals. And what I want to do is focus directly on Thomas this evening and the place of Thomas in these events. We're used to referring to Thomas as the doubter or the pessimist. I've just referred to him as the hardened skeptic. However, Thomas is a good fellow to have around on account of his straightforwardness and his honesty.
This kind of person usually asks the question that everybody else wishes they were brave enough to ask. So, for example, classically, in John 14, Jesus has said, You know the way to the place where I am going. And you remember it is Thomas who says, Lord, we don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way? You know the way to the place where I'm going. We don't know where you're going, so how can we know the way?
Thus eliciting from Jesus the wonderful statement in John 14, 6, Well, I am the way and the truth and the life, and no one comes to the Father but by me. Humanly speaking, we wouldn't have that fantastic verse were it not for Thomas. Were it not for the fact that Thomas put up his hand and said, Excuse me, I don't get it. And for those of us who became adept at school and nodding in the right way, at least we thought we were, our teachers could see through us all the time. I know they told me afterwards, they used to tell my parents, Alistair does a good job of nodding.
He has no clue what's going on at all. He thinks that I don't know, but I know entirely. And I got through a lot of classes on account of brave souls who were prepared to do what I was unprepared to do—namely, raise their hands and acknowledge their complete cluelessness—so that I was able to say, My, my, that's terrific.
There are at least two of us in the class. So before we jump, as it were, on top of Thomas here, let us be honest enough to thank God for him. And what I'd like to do is just examine these three little pictures that are given to us that begin on verse 19. The first picture takes place when Thomas is missing. It's on the evening of the first day of the week. The disciples are together, and we're told that the doors are locked for fear of the Jews.
Easter Sunday evening, the day of Christ's resurrection, which is very quickly becoming chief among the days of the week. And as you read this little section, you realize two things. First of all, that the atmosphere was charged. It was an electricity about the event. They were not just simply staring at the wall. They were there, and fearfulness had caused them to closet themselves away. Presumably, the events of the day involving the empty tomb, the appearances of Jesus, the story that had come to the apostles from the women themselves that we gave consideration to this morning from Luke's Gospel—all of this would have had an impact on them. And perhaps they said, Well, why don't we get together this evening, and let's just try and hash this out.
Let's discuss it. And if the atmosphere was charged with fear, then it was even more charged with the arrival of Jesus. And this dramatic and sudden appearance of Jesus, pointing to the fact that his resurrection body is in some measure different from the body that he had prior to the resurrection.
He is now described as being able to move in and out of places in a kind of transcorporeal fashion. And so he comes, and all of a sudden he's in the room. Very appropriate greeting, wouldn't you say?
Shalom. Customary greeting, of course. But if they were agitated by fear, they sure are agitated by the arrival of Jesus. Suddenly he's not there, and all of a sudden he's there. And so he says to them, Fellas, please, peace be with you. And after this he showed them his hands and his sign. Jesus is wonderfully gracious.
Let's not miss the obvious. Into their fearfulness he comes to bestow his peace. And into their cluelessness he comes to reveal his purpose. And into their emptiness he comes to grant his power. Incidentally, there is another sermon there, isn't there?
And I suppose we could have stayed with that one if I had only thought. For still this evening into our fearfulness he comes to bestow his peace. And into our cluelessness he comes to reveal his purpose. And into our emptiness he still comes to reveal his power. So that those of us who fear things this evening, imagined things and real things, may know Christ's peace. Those of us who are clueless in relationship to our plans and purposes, we feel ourselves unsettled as a result of the difficulties of life and the things that have been thrown against us, he comes to remind us of his purpose. And those of us who feel empty and alone, discouraged, dispirited, perhaps even completely disillusioned, Jesus still comes to grant his power.
And so, if it's a charged atmosphere, you will notice that that in turn gives way to a changed attitude. In verse 20, after he had shown them his hands and his side, the disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. Of course they were! Up until this point, the two fishermen who had gone to the empty tomb only had the grave clothes and the absence of a body to go on. That's the only evidence that they had that would produce faith within them and instill life within them. And now they were able to take what they had themselves seen, what they had reported to them from the women, and this was combined with the appearance of Jesus himself. Well, does John say, the disciples were overjoyed. They were completely beside themselves when they saw the Lord.
Because amongst other things, they now realize that death is not the end and that the message that Jesus has declared is absolutely true. And it is this, you see, that marks Christianity out from the other religions of the world tonight. And you don't need me to go through this again and again.
I sound like a broken record. But Christianity does stand alone in this, that it is founded on the historic claim of the resurrection appearances of Jesus of Nazareth. Buddhism needs none of this. Islam needs none of it.
Confucius has no interest in it. He's dead and gone, and his followers stumble along in his wake. But Christianity stands or falls on the strength of the resurrection. So their attitude was changed on account of the joy they discovered and on account of the task that they received.
What was the task they received? Well, look at verse 23. It's an alarming little verse on first reading, isn't it? If you forgive anyone his sins, they're forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven. Didn't Jesus somewhere else say that it needs to be known that only the Son of Man has power on earth to forgive sins? So is he here contradicting himself? I'm the only one who can forgive sins, but you go ahead, you can forgive sins now.
No. What he is saying is simply this—that the church, the apostles, the followers of Christ have the right to convey forgiveness to the penitent heart and to warn the impenitent heart that by their impenitence they are forfeiting the mercy of God. It is in that sense that we have every right to say to somebody, Your sins may be forgiven. If you will come with a penitent heart to the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, I want you to know on the authority of God's Word that your sins may be forgiven.
However, if you choose to remain in your sins and to go your own way, then your sins will be retained, and you will not be forgiven. And so, with that promise of peace and that straightforward commission, they go out to let it be known that they have seen the Lord. Now, the second picture—the first one having taken place with Thomas absent—the second picture now provides us with Thomas's response. Verse 24, Thomas, one of the twelve, wasn't with the disciples, so the other disciples told them, We have seen the Lord. But the peace that had been bestowed upon these others made no impact upon Thomas. He remains absolutely stubborn in his conviction.
For Thomas, like the rest, his universe has collapsed. And while he had no reason to doubt the testimony of his friends, he just wanted to examine the evidence personally. Now, I say again, it's good to have somebody like this around, isn't it? Because it's helpful.
You get bits and pieces that you wouldn't otherwise have. And some of you may be here tonight, and that's exactly how you feel. There's perhaps a young person here, and you've been taking on battle loads of this material.
People have been giving you books, and you've been reading them, and you've been listening to your youth leaders and the pastoral team. But somehow or another, you're at the point where you say, I've got to get this sorted out for myself. And you know what? You're absolutely right. You do, and you must.
And Thomas can be a help to you. Will you notice that the issue is volitional? In other words, he doesn't say, I cannot.
He says, I will not. The problem is not his inability to believe. The problem is his unwillingness to believe.
And that we ought not to overlook. There are those who don't believe on account of never having examined the evidence personally, and there are others who resist the evidence willfully because they don't want any changes in their lives. That's often true for someone who has been around the things of faith.
They know enough of the evidence to be able to sidestep it, and if you press them, the reason that they don't want to believe is because they know flat out it will turn their life upside down. Now, that's the kind of honesty that you get from Aldous Huxley and his ends and means. Huxley, the great atheist, said, I had motives for not wanting the world to have meaning. It allows the philosopher to do what he wants.
It is essentially an instrument of sexual and political liberation. Now, clearly Thomas is not saying any of that. He's not actually laying down reasons for his unbelief. He's actually establishing conditions for belief.
Unless I see the nail marks, put my finger where the nails were, put my hand into his side, I'm not going to believe. Some of us have got a little list like that ourselves, and our pride is a forceful barrier to faith. So picture number one, Jesus' appearance when Thomas is absent. Picture number two, the reaction of Thomas to the record of the appearance of Jesus. And then finally, picture number three, beginning in verse 26, a week later, his disciples were in the house again, and Thomas this time was with them.
Same time, same place. Don't you think it just seems a tiny bit possible that the Lord Jesus waited until Sunday evening to establish a pattern for his disciples to regard this day and not some other day as the day of the new creation, as the day of rest and worship? In fact, when you consider this, there is probably an easier basis for establishing a New Testament pattern for evening services rather than for morning services. But it's just traditional that everyone has to get out of their bed in the morning and do what they do.
Here's a thought, huh? One morning service for the faithful and three evening services for the rest of us. Verse 27 is staggering, isn't it? Jesus came, verse 26, and he stood among them. Shalom, he says. And then he said to Thomas—he might justifiably have rebuked Thomas.
He might have come in. If it had been me, probably I would have come in and said, Now, Thomas, I believe you've been making a fuss about things. I don't know what's wrong with you, Thomas. I preached the same to you.
I told you the same as I told the rest. And somehow or another it's got back to me, and so on, we might have gone. But Jesus deals gently, he deals graciously, and the demands of Thomas are more than met by the commands of Jesus. And the very fact of his knowledge of Thomas's longing would probably have made a huge impact on him. Incidentally, for those of you who are here, and you've got your little list in your mind—and list this and this and this—I want you to know that Jesus knows your list, and that he is more than willing to meet you where you are. He won't come and cater to your intellectual arrogance—pander to it—but he will come and cater to your intellectual integrity. And if you're wired in such a way that you have this kind of Thomas factor going on before you can get to the heart of things, then rest assured that the Lord Jesus is able to deal with that. And he may have a whole series of verbs for you, just as he had for Thomas.
Put, see, reach, put, stop, believe. And confronted by the evidence, Thomas says what he can only say, My Lord and my God. This is a tough little piece for the Jehovah's Witnesses, incidentally. My Lord and my God.
Jesus, you are God. Mere men do not rise from the dead. Mere men do not appear through locked doors. Mere men are unable to speak this peace that comes into our hearts. And then in verse 29, Jesus says, Because you've seen me, you've believed. But blessed are those who have not seen and have yet believed. Faith, in other words, which results from seeing with their own eyes the way that Thomas did, is good.
But faith, which results from hearing alone, is apparently more excellent. Well, I want to stop there. That's enough. I prayed that God would give me clarity and brevity.
And I'm not sure about the clarity, but I can do something about the brevity. Three little pictures. You find your face in any of those pictures. And if you're tempted to run away and put your fingers in your ears, let me ask you whether you honestly think that life without God can possibly satisfy you intellectually, morally, emotionally, spiritually. And why would you want to run from someone whose message is peace, is love, is forgiveness, is life? You're listening to Truth for Life Weekend. Alistair Begg is reminding us that Jesus isn't offended by our honest questions as we wrestle with unbelief.
One of the best ways to overcome unbelief is to spend more time in God's Word. In addition to the teaching you hear on this program, you can study along with Alistair every day when you sign up for the Truth for Life daily devotional email. Spend time each day reading a passage from Scripture followed by a brief commentary from Alistair. The devotional is free.
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Just key in the zip code, the city, or even a local landmark, and you'll find a list of stations in that area broadcasting Truth for Life. Thanks for studying the Bible with us. If you find it difficult to understand why God's eternal plan involved the sacrifice of his son, next weekend we'll take a closer look at the mystery of the cross. The Bible teaching of Alistair Begg is furnished by Truth for Life, where the Learning is for Living.
