Introduction:
Answers from an Empty Tomb (John 20:19-31):
- A Mission . (John 20:21)
John 17:18 - As you sent me into the world, so I have sent them into the world.
Two Ways We are Sent Like Jesus:
- You are sent in the Power of the Sirit . (John 20:22)
Genesis 2:7 - then the LORD God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living creature
Acts 1:8 - But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you, and you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem and in all Judea and Samaria, and to the end of the earth.
- You are sent to Deal with Sin . (John 20:23)
Matthew 16:19 - I will give you the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven.
- A Blessing . (John 20:24-29)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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01:05-01:21
Last week we saw the empty tomb, and we talked about the evidence of the empty tomb, we talked about the significance of the empty tomb, and we saw, like Mary, how your sorrow will turn to joy when you turn to the resurrected Christ.
01:22-01:32
And it's interesting that, speaking of the resurrection of Jesus, the first person to see Jesus alive was Mary Magdalene.
01:33-01:36
Now I gotta be honest with you, that's not how I would have done it.
01:37-01:54
If I would have done it, I would have had the resurrected Jesus first show up at the Sanhedrin and say, "Do you believe now who I said I am?" And then I would have gone to Herod's place.
01:56-02:02
And I would have said, "Look." Then I would have stopped off at Pilate's place, right?
02:02-02:04
I have this whole thing in my mind.
02:04-02:11
But you know, God didn't really ask my opinion on any of this.
02:12-02:19
Obviously, God's wisdom surpasses my wisdom by an infinite margin.
02:20-02:24
And God often does things I really don't expect.
02:25-02:35
Like, the first person to resurrect Jesus showed up to reveal Himself to was, in the world's eyes, a nobody.
02:36-02:37
Honestly.
02:38-02:40
But to God, somebody very significant.
02:40-02:47
Well, the disciples were not expecting a resurrection.
02:47-02:49
We talked about that.
02:49-02:58
They were told over and over and over, Jesus said, "I'm going to be handed over to evil men, I'm going to be crucified, I'm going to be raised on the third day." And it's just always right over their head.
02:59-03:00
They missed it.
03:02-03:05
And we saw last week, they knew Jesus' body was gone.
03:05-03:06
They didn't understand what it meant.
03:06-03:08
They didn't understand what it meant to them.
03:08-03:09
We saw that in verse nine.
03:10-03:20
So finally, here in the passage you were looking at today, Jesus reveals to the group of disciples that he did, in fact, rise from the dead.
03:22-03:35
To understand sort of what's happening in this passage, I want you to think, like, you know how, like, when parents will go away for a few days and leave the kids behind.
03:36-03:41
Now, some of you parents have kids old enough where you've had to give the little speech, right?
03:42-03:46
And some of you are kids here that have had parents give you that speech.
03:46-03:51
Maybe some of you are young enough that you remember back when your parents had to give you that speech.
03:51-03:54
But the parents have to go for a few days, and they're leaving.
03:54-03:55
and like, okay, I'm coming back.
03:56-04:00
But you know the little speech your parents give you, the last instructions before they leave.
04:02-04:03
You know what I'm talking about?
04:04-04:04
I can start over.
04:05-04:09
Look, this is the introduction that I wrote, we're going with this one, all right?
04:11-04:13
But you know what I'm talking about, right?
04:13-04:16
The parents are like, look, I'm gonna be back soon.
04:17-04:18
No wild parties.
04:19-04:20
Do your chores.
04:22-04:23
Take care of your sister.
04:24-04:25
You know what I'm talking about?
04:26-04:28
You're like, no Jeff, I don't leave my kids behind.
04:30-04:34
All right, well, maybe you know somebody that has.
04:35-04:40
But it's sort of the same thing happening here on a more grand level.
04:41-04:42
Jesus is leaving soon.
04:44-04:47
And in this passage we're looking at, he has the disciples assembled.
04:47-04:50
And these are sort of the last instructions.
04:51-04:52
He's like, I'm leaving and I'm coming back.
04:52-04:56
And by the way, here's what you need to be working on while I'm gone.
04:59-05:00
Very important things he was leaving them with.
05:00-05:02
Look at verse 19.
05:02-05:18
It says, "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.' When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side.
05:20-05:23
the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.
05:23-05:25
So this is Sunday evening, right?
05:25-05:28
The same evening when Jesus resurrected.
05:29-05:33
And your Bible says the disciples, they locked themselves in.
05:33-05:34
They were afraid they were next.
05:34-05:36
Okay, they just crucified the Lord.
05:36-05:37
They're going to come after us.
05:38-05:41
So they kind of barricaded themselves in the room, right?
05:42-05:46
And Jesus just, he just shows up.
05:48-05:52
Even though the doors were locked, all of a sudden, Jesus is standing there.
05:54-05:54
And what does he do?
05:54-05:58
He proves his bodily resurrection to the disciples.
05:59-05:59
Did you see that?
06:00-06:02
He shows them the crucifixion wounds.
06:02-06:05
Look at my hands and look at my side.
06:06-06:10
This is the same body that was put in the tomb and it is resurrected.
06:12-06:17
I don't know, I kind of chuckled just kind of reading this and studying this this week.
06:17-06:25
It says, "Then the disciples were glad "when they saw the Lord." I'm like, could that not be like the understatement of the millennium?
06:26-06:29
It's like, oh, you rose from the dead, well I'm glad.
06:32-06:40
Okay, the reason it's worded that way is because when you study the other gospels, initially they were terrified, which I totally get that.
06:40-06:48
But John here is adding, they weren't just terrified, There was actually some excitement about that.
06:48-06:51
But we see here that this wasn't just a quick hello.
06:52-07:04
Jesus, like the parents leaving for a while and coming back, Jesus wanted to leave the disciples, them and us, with two things in light of his resurrection.
07:04-07:07
So jot this down if you're taking notes, which we always encourage.
07:07-07:10
Here's two things that Jesus left us.
07:11-07:11
All right?
07:12-07:13
Two things Jesus left us.
07:13-07:14
Number one, write this down.
07:15-07:16
He left us a mission.
07:16-07:20
This is Jesus' last charge to the group of the disciples.
07:20-07:24
This is, in John's Gospel, this is the Great Commission.
07:25-07:25
All right?
07:26-07:27
You're gonna see that here in a second.
07:27-07:35
And this is to all the disciples, to them and to us, and Jesus gives a three-verse sermon.
07:36-07:39
And you're like, man, Pastor Jeff, why can't you be more like Jesus?
07:42-07:43
I'm a work in progress like you.
07:44-07:46
But a three verse sermon, all right?
07:46-07:47
Look at verse 21.
07:47-07:52
It says, "Jesus said to them, again, "'Peace be with you.
07:53-08:00
"'As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you.'" Does that sound familiar at all?
08:01-08:15
Actually, in John 17, Jesus, high priestly prayer before the betrayal and arrest and crucifixion, Before all of that, Jesus was praying very specifically to his father.
08:15-08:21
He says, "As you sent me into the world, "so I have sent them into the world." We can't miss this.
08:22-08:23
Why was Jesus sent?
08:25-08:31
Jesus says he's sending us the way he was sent, so we have to ask, why was he sent?
08:33-08:35
He was sent to save the lost, wasn't he?
08:36-08:39
Wasn't Jesus sent to bring salvation to sinners like us?
08:40-08:41
Isn't that why he came?
08:42-08:43
Pretty clear.
08:44-08:46
But let's look a little deeper.
08:47-08:59
Because Jesus said, "As the Father sent me," not just for the same purpose, in the same way that the Father sent me, that is the way that I am sending you.
09:00-09:01
Like, what do you mean?
09:01-09:02
Here's what I mean.
09:03-09:07
When you study your Gospels, We've been going through John for the last three years.
09:08-09:09
I'm sure you've noticed this.
09:09-09:13
Jesus saw his whole life as always being on mission.
09:13-09:14
You notice that?
09:16-09:19
Jesus never deviated from the message.
09:21-09:25
Jesus never talked about early sabbatical or retirement.
09:25-09:29
Jesus never let frustration sideline him.
09:29-09:32
He's like, "Look, I'm here for a mission.
09:32-09:33
"I'm here to glorify God.
09:33-09:39
I'm here to bring the message of salvation, and nothing is going to derail me from that.
09:40-09:42
His whole life on mission.
09:44-09:48
And I have to ask you, do you see yourself on mission?
09:50-09:51
Listen to me church.
09:51-10:02
Are you constantly, actively, conscious of the fact that God wants to reach lost people through you.
10:03-10:06
Is that something that you carry with you 24/7?
10:08-10:15
If yes, then you're being sent by Jesus the way the Father sent Him.
10:16-10:19
If no, then you missed something.
10:22-10:28
And I think we, especially in our culture, I think we tend to compartmentalize our lives.
10:29-10:30
You know what I mean by that?
10:32-10:35
I mean when I'm at work, I'm the worker.
10:35-10:38
And when I'm home, I'm husband and dad.
10:38-10:44
But when it comes to the religious stuff, that's church, right?
10:44-10:49
All the Jesus and prayer and Bible stuff, that's Sunday morning.
10:50-10:52
And that's small group.
10:52-10:56
But I don't take that stuff with me to work.
10:56-10:59
And I don't really make a big deal of that stuff at home.
10:59-11:01
We have these little compartments.
11:05-11:20
When the reality is, if we are sent by Jesus the way the Father sent Him, that means you are on mission every single day, listen to me, in every arena in which the Lord places you.
11:21-11:24
You are the missionary.
11:27-11:28
in your workplace.
11:30-11:33
Like man, those people could use some Jesus down where I work.
11:34-11:34
Well, guess what?
11:34-11:36
They have a missionary there.
11:36-11:37
It's you.
11:38-11:39
God has you there.
11:42-11:44
For His light to shine through.
11:45-11:49
Like man, I just wish my home was more about seeking the Lord.
11:49-11:50
Guess what?
11:51-11:52
God has a missionary in your home.
11:53-11:53
And that's you.
11:55-12:00
What would our church look like if everybody here embraced that?
12:00-12:08
If everybody here was like, "I'm embracing the mission that Jesus is sending me, the way the Father sent Him." What would this church look like?
12:09-12:15
I guarantee you we wouldn't be meeting in here unless we went to like six services immediately.
12:17-12:24
But sadly, too often, Christians, we just do the Christian thing in our holy huddle, right?
12:26-12:28
I came across a great quote this week.
12:28-12:30
Great because it was like super convicting.
12:31-12:41
Somebody said, "Christians are like people with colds sneezing on each other." Nobody's catching it because everybody got it.
12:42-12:43
Jesus gave us a mission.
12:44-12:46
He's sending you out the same way He was sent out.
12:48-12:52
You're like, "Well, how was He sent?" Well, He elaborates on this three-verse sermon.
12:53-13:00
"Two ways we are sent like Jesus." Underneath the mission, letter A, "You are sent in the power of the Spirit." Look at verse 22 with me.
13:01-13:03
"You are sent in the power of the Spirit.
13:03-13:11
And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" Stop there.
13:13-13:16
It says, "He breathed on them." Does that sound familiar at all?
13:18-13:20
That sound like a callback to Genesis 2?
13:21-13:22
Remember Genesis 2?
13:22-13:32
It says the Lord God formed the man of dust from the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life and the man became a living creature.
13:33-13:39
See, the first man, Adam, became a living being when God breathed the breath of life into him.
13:41-13:53
And in a parallel sense, now we have God breathing the breath of life into those who will be born again, right?
13:55-14:04
Right now, maybe you're asking the same question that I asked this week, and I spent a lot of time studying.
14:06-14:10
You're like, "Well, what exactly happened in this passage?
14:11-14:14
Because I thought the Holy Spirit didn't come until Pentecost, right?
14:15-14:17
Acts chapter two, 40 days later.
14:18-14:20
So what exactly was happening here?
14:21-14:22
Like, that's a really good question.
14:25-14:26
What did happen here?
14:26-14:27
Well, look again.
14:29-14:42
It says, "Jesus, He breathed on them "and said to them, 'Receive the Holy Spirit.'" And the actual act of receiving the Spirit did not happen in this moment.
14:43-14:45
This was the announcement.
14:46-14:49
Pentecost was the fulfillment.
14:51-14:56
And you're like, "Well, how do we know that?" Again, good question. Here's how we know that.
14:58-15:03
First of all, all John says is Jesus made this statement, right?
15:03-15:09
You don't see anything in the text indicating that this was the moment that it actually happened.
15:10-15:13
But the Bible is crystal clear when it actually did happen.
15:13-15:15
Acts chapter 2, Pentecost, 40 days later.
15:18-15:28
But another interesting thing is if this is the moment that they receive the Holy Spirit, why does Jesus, in Acts chapter 1, verse 8-- you know Acts 1, 8?
15:29-15:32
Because some of us here, we spent a whole year on this verse.
15:32-15:35
But you will receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you.
15:35-15:39
And you will be my witnesses in Jerusalem, and in Judea and Samaria, and to the ends of the earth.
15:40-15:41
Excuse me, the end of the earth.
15:43-15:48
Jesus said this right before His ascension, and it was after this event here.
15:48-15:53
Why did He promise them the Holy Spirit if they already received the Holy Spirit?
15:55-16:09
And another reason, I believe, that this was the announcement, Pentecost was the actual fulfillment, is this - when the Holy Spirit comes in Acts 2, the Bible says that the disciples were completely transformed.
16:11-16:16
And in this passage, they weren't transformed at all, yet.
16:18-16:24
Because we're going to see in verse 26, eight days later after this event, where are the disciples?
16:25-16:30
They're again holed up in a locked room, barricaded, scared, afraid, no comfort, no peace.
16:32-16:37
We don't see the Holy Spirit transforming them here in the way that happened at Pentecost.
16:37-16:47
So I believe for all of those reasons that Jesus was simply here announcing the coming of the Holy Spirit and preparing them.
16:50-16:51
And you see there's a definite parallel here.
16:54-16:57
Because Jesus' ministry began when?
16:59-17:02
When the Holy Spirit descended upon Him like a dove, right?
17:02-17:03
Right after His baptism.
17:05-17:11
Our ministry begins when by faith in Jesus the Holy Spirit comes and entwels us.
17:14-17:19
It's important that Jesus mentions this here because this is truly the only way our ministry is effective.
17:22-17:31
Without the Holy Spirit guiding us and empowering us and teaching and loving people through us you see we can make a lot of things happen.
17:31-17:35
We have the talent and creativity and people network stuff in this room.
17:35-17:37
We can make a lot of stuff happen.
17:41-17:51
But if what's happening here isn't powered by the Holy Spirit and directed by the Holy Spirit, if the Holy Spirit isn't behind the work happening here, it's not going to matter for eternity.
17:54-17:59
So Jesus is reminding here, to do the mission, you have to receive the Holy Spirit.
18:01-18:11
sent in the power of the Spirit. Another way that we're sent like Jesus, write this down, letter B, you're sent to deal with sin. You're sent to deal with sin.
18:12-18:22
Like whoa, what do you mean deal with sin? Because didn't Jesus pay the penalty once for all for sin, right? It is finished. Tetelestai, right Matt? Call Tetelestai.
18:23-18:36
So like what do you mean we got to deal with sin? Look, yes, it is finished. But Verse 23, He says, "If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.
18:36-18:44
If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld." Like, what in the world is He talking about here?
18:46-18:50
Well, this verse has been extremely misunderstood.
18:52-19:02
In fact, the Roman Catholic Church teaches that this verse means the priest has the ability to grant forgiveness or to withhold forgiveness.
19:02-19:09
You go to confession, you confess your sins, and it's up to the priest as to whether or not you're good with God or not.
19:11-19:42
And I knew a lady one time who told me she had a really rough background and she was really trying to get her life on track with the Lord and she went to this Catholic church and she went to the confessional and she said, "Hey, I've made a lot of mistakes "and I really messed things up and I'm trying to get my life on track with God, and I just want to know if I can be forgiven." And the priest said to her, "No." He said, "You are a..." I'm not going to repeat the word, but it's a very derogatory word for women.
19:42-19:53
He said, "You are a blank, and there is no forgiveness for you." And she walked out of that church going, "What am I supposed to do?
19:54-19:58
I thought that I could go to God and He would change things.
19:59-20:02
And the priest sent me on my way and said I can't be forgiven.
20:03-20:07
That is a gross misinterpretation of this verse.
20:09-20:12
You're like, "Well, what does it mean?" It means this.
20:15-20:19
This is so important. Please mark this down.
20:19-20:26
It means by the power of the Spirit, We have the authority to declare God's message.
20:26-20:27
That's what this means.
20:28-20:32
Now understand the Bible was not written in English, right?
20:33-20:42
We have Hebrew and Greek and Aramaic, and specifically here as we're talking about Greek, there were different figures of speech and things that we don't understand.
20:46-20:52
When we just read certain verses like this, We have to dig a little deeper.
20:54-20:57
Back in Matthew 16, verse 19, Jesus said this to Peter.
20:58-21:01
He said, "I will give you the keys to the kingdom of heaven." Look at this.
21:01-21:18
He says, "Whatever you bind on earth shall be bound in heaven, and whatever you loose on earth shall be loosed in heaven." And this is the exact same thing here that Jesus said to Peter back in Matthew 16.
21:20-21:28
What he's saying is this, you are authorized to repeat the message of heaven.
21:30-21:37
Meaning we have the authority to declare forgiveness and unforgiveness.
21:40-21:44
It can be translated this way, literally, those who sins you forgive have already been forgiven.
21:45-21:48
Those who sins you do not forgive haven't been forgiven.
21:49-21:51
We have the authority to announce it.
21:51-21:53
We do not have the authority to make it happen.
21:55-21:56
Like I don't understand.
21:57-21:58
It's just simply this.
21:59-22:12
Somebody comes to me, and they're like, "You know, I've really made a mess of things in my life, and I want to get right with God." And I share the gospel with them and say, "Look, God sent His Son to die on the cross for your sins.
22:12-22:14
He rose from the dead to give you eternal life.
22:14-22:20
He calls you to turn from your sin and to receive Him." And the person says, "You know what? I want to do that.
22:21-22:23
I'm turning from my sin.
22:23-22:39
I want to pray right now to receive the gift." So I pray with that person, and I can say to them, "Your sins are forgiven." And somebody might say, "What gives you the authority to say something like that?" Right here, this is exactly what Jesus is talking about.
22:40-22:47
He's like, "I'm giving you the authority to declare heaven's message." But the other side of the coin is true too.
22:47-22:58
If somebody comes to me, or I go to them and say, "Hey, you need to receive Jesus Christ "for the forgiveness of sin, because He's the only way." And they're like, "Not interested.
22:59-23:00
"Not interested in Jesus or Bible.
23:00-23:01
"I'm gonna live life my way.
23:01-23:12
"I do things on my own terms." Then I say, "Well, there's no forgiveness for you." And the best thing you have to look forward to is an eternity separated from God.
23:14-23:22
And somebody might come along and say, "What gives you the right to say something like that?" Jesus right here, that's exactly what He's talking about.
23:23-23:25
I have the authority, and so do you.
23:26-23:32
Under Jesus Christ we have the authority to repeat Heaven's message, saying if you receive Jesus, yes, you're forgiven.
23:32-23:34
And if you reject Him, there's no forgiveness.
23:36-23:37
Who do you think you are saying that?
23:37-23:38
Well, Jesus made it happen.
23:40-23:48
I want you to see here, getting beyond the technical explanation, I want you to look at the subject matter.
23:50-23:53
So Jesus tells the disciples, "Look, you're going to be powered by the Holy Spirit.
23:53-23:58
For what purpose?" He says it's to deal with sin, right?
24:00-24:09
So why are so many churches and Christians, why are they so content to avoid talking about sin and instead let's focus on something else?
24:09-24:12
I don't get it. I mean, I kind of get it, but I don't get it.
24:14-24:28
I've heard pastors say very proudly, "We don't talk about sin at our church because we don't want people to feel bad." And look, I love you guys.
24:29-24:34
And when we remodeled, we bought the most comfortable chairs that we could find.
24:36-24:39
But I love you in the Lord, but I gotta tell you, that's all the further I care about.
24:39-25:02
your comfort. I don't care if you're not comfortable here. In fact I think here you should be uncomfortable and leave here going you know the Holy Spirit wants me to make some changes in my life I'm not honoring God in certain ways but so many churches we just want you to be comfortable what can we do to make you happy what can we do to make you feel good about yourself.
25:05-25:07
Jesus said that's not why I'm sending you out.
25:08-25:12
He didn't say I'm sending you out by the power of the Holy Spirit to make people feel good about themselves.
25:14-25:15
It's about sin, right?
25:16-25:27
Some churches focus on other things, social justice, let's talk about the economy or education, or let's do our eighth sermon in a row about COVID or whatever.
25:30-25:31
What are we doing?
25:35-25:42
I mean, could Jesus be more clear on the subject matter that we are to address?
25:45-25:49
Our job is to minister the gospel and deal with guilt and sin.
25:50-25:51
That's the mission.
25:52-25:52
Period.
25:55-25:57
Jesus didn't leave much wiggle room there.
25:59-26:01
So we're empowered by the Holy Spirit to deal with sin.
26:03-26:38
finally today two things Jesus left us he left us a mission empowered by the Spirit dealing with sin secondly he left us a blessing and this is specifically for us this is for us and I don't mean in a general generic term I mean us I mean us all right so the scene then turns to Thomas you remember Thomas He shows up a couple of times in John, and we learn a little bit about his personality.
26:39-26:46
Remember in John chapter 11, Jesus is like, we're gonna go raise Lazarus from the dead, and the disciples were like, oh Jesus, you got a big target on your back.
26:47-26:48
I'm paraphrasing here.
26:48-26:52
And then remember Thomas was like, let's go that we might die with him.
26:53-26:53
Remember that?
26:54-26:56
Well, Jesus is gonna die, let's die with him.
26:58-27:00
Like, inspiring little pep talk.
27:00-27:04
And then we see Thomas again in John chapter 14.
27:05-27:23
Remember Jesus said, "I'm going to prepare a place for you "and I'm gonna come again, I'm gonna take you, "you're gonna be with me." And Jesus says, "You know the way where I'm going." And Thomas is like, "We don't know the way "where you're going, how can we know the way?" As we see Thomas, and we're gonna see it again here, Thomas was very loyal.
27:24-27:30
And he was sometimes outspoken, And I think he sort of erred on the pessimistic side.
27:31-27:32
Look at verse 24.
27:33-27:42
It says, "Now Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, "was not with them when Jesus came." Underline that verse in your Bible.
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Thomas, one of the 12, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
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You're like, why do you want me to underline this?
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Listen, Thomas, not being there the previous week, He missed Jesus and he missed the sermon.
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So I say this to you on the authority of God's Word, don't miss church.
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Right?
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Look, Thomas missed one Sunday.
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And they're like, dude, you're not going to believe what happened in church last week.
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Jesus physically showed up!
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Like, oh man.
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Thomas was like, "But there was a stealer game early." But the Lord showed up.
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All right, so don't miss church.
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Verse 25, it says, "So the other disciples told him, "We have seen the Lord.
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"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." Okay, so the others, okay, so Thomas shows back up the next week He walks in and I'm sure there was the first thing out of everybody's mouth like dude last week you missed it We saw the Lord and Thomas says well. Hey unless I see him and touch him. I ain't buying it Now Thomas was being more than skeptical here Okay, Thomas was determined not to believe did you see that?
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How he called the shots the evidence had to be what he determined Thomas is like here it is. Here's the deal unless I see him and touch him and he goes unless that happens I will never believe you so verse 26 says eight days later his disciples were inside again and Thomas was with them although the doors were locked some familiar is just like the previous week although the doors were locked Jesus came and stood and said, "Peace be with you." Then he said to Thomas, "Put your finger here and see my hands, and put out your hand and place it in my side.
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Do not disbelieve, but believe." Okay, so here's the eight days later.
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Again, Jesus shows up exactly like before.
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This time Thomas was with the group, and Jesus obviously knew what Thomas said, right?
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I mean, that's the first thing out of his mouth, like, "Hey, Thomas, by the way, you want to see?
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you want to touch, here you go.
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He met Thomas where he needed, touch and see.
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Verse 28, Thomas answered him, "My Lord and my God." Thomas replies, "Sovereignty and deity, right?
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"My Lord and my God." Everything changed from that moment on for Thomas.
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You know, people like to take shots at Thomas.
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You know that nickname he has?
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You know that nickname?
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What's that thing they call Thomas?
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He's got this nickname.
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Have you heard it?
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Have you heard the name?
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Oh, okay, so you're in on that.
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You're in on that cruelty to poor Tom.
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Listen to me.
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Look.
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Thomas is with a group of people who believe because they've seen the Lord.
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And Thomas is like, "I want to see too." And everybody's like, "Doubter!" All he was wanting was the same thing that everybody else already got.
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So everybody just calm down on that doubting Thomas business.
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Verse 29, "Jesus said to him, 'Have you believed because you have seen Me?
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Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.'" Here it is.
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Jesus said, "Thomas, many will never see what you saw, they're going to believe the witnesses.
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Then Jesus says, "Blessed are they who believe but never got to see." And that includes us.
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None of us here have ever seen Jesus.
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But we have experienced Jesus.
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Because of the power of the Holy Spirit, at work in His Word, believe. Don't we? Now if you take a big step away from this scene for a second and you really think about it, it seems like a bit of a long shot, doesn't it? It seems audacious, this gospel message, doesn't it? I mean we share the gospel with people. The gospel says, We believe that 2,000 years ago, this Jewish man was killed, and we believe that he rose from the dead, proving that he was God.
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Now listen, there's more.
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You have to believe in him and allow him to change the course of your entire life.
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I mean, doesn't that seem a bit audacious in theory?
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That's the gospel message?
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Trust a guy you never met that lived 2,000 years ago?
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Yeah, it seems audacious in theory.
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But I have seen Jesus Christ heal.
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I have seen Jesus Christ save marriages.
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I have seen Jesus Christ give hope.
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I have seen Jesus Christ totally transform lives wherever His message is proclaimed.
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whether it's Shakora or Chicago or Conway or Chiang Mai this one man has changed more lives than anyone in history and he is just as active and he's just as powerful and he is moving in the world today just as he was when and He physically walked on it.
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Now, I've never physically seen Him.
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And neither have you.
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But Jesus promised right here, those who haven't seen Him, but still believe, still come to faith in Him, He promised that we would receive a special kind of blessing.
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What else is there to say that. Look at verse 30. It says, "Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written 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." John's like, "There is a lot more that I could have said. But I wrote a thorough enough account so that you might believe in Jesus.
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Notice he says there's two things you gotta believe about Jesus, though he says he's the Christ, he's the Messiah, he's the promised, anointed savior of Israel.
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He goes, you have to understand that, you have to understand what that means.
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That's why I wrote all of this.
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He says the other thing you gotta get is that he is the son of God, he's God in the flesh.
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He's not just some dude, he's not just some good teacher, not just some famous rabbi. He is God in the flesh.
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You've got to believe he's the Christ, and you've got to believe he's God in the flesh.
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In other words, John says, "I wrote this to get you to the point that Thomas got, where you look upon Jesus and say, 'My Lord and my God.'" John makes it very clear here that he was not writing impartial history.
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John was very biased when he wrote this.
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had a definite agenda in writing what he wrote, the way he wrote it.
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And the agenda is, "I want you to believe." And we've spent the last three years in this church going through this book, line by line by line, understanding, seeking, studying every single word, every phrase, every teaching, every interaction, every conversation, why?
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Because I want you to believe.
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But this isn't just information.
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And if you leave here on a Sunday morning and say, "Well, that was interesting," then I failed you.
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Because John says this is information that you have to do something with.
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Because doing something with this information, he says, it won't even just change your life.
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He says doing something with this information will give you life.
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But when you embrace Jesus as your Lord and Savior, you have life, John says, in His name.
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Born again to live as God intended you to live.
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Living eternally with the promise of heaven.
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And living for His mission for the few days that you have on this earth.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, I wish that I could say as much as Jesus said in three verses.
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Father, we try to understand today, because this is extremely important for us as a church, Father.
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To understand that Jesus left us with a mission to be empowered by the Spirit, to be dealing with sin, to make the work of the gospel the focus of what we do.
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God help us, please!
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deviate from that to understand who Jesus Christ is and what He accomplished, what the cross means, what the resurrection means, and it has nothing to do with trying to better society and it has everything to do with bringing dead people to life.
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Father, keep us on mission.
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We thank you, Father, for the blessing.
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None of us here have seen Jesus, but he has deeply, profoundly affected so many of us.
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Father, we thank you that even if we can't quite articulate, maybe we don't even fully understand everything that that blessing means and entails, we certainly receive it, and we certainly see the effects that it has on us and on so many.
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Father, we thank you for this gospel that you wrote through John.
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And John says he could have wrote a lot more and we would have been happy to preach a lot more but under inspiration this is what you wanted us to know.
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So we thank you, Father.
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And I pray just as John drove us to the place of you got to do something with this, I pray Father, that we would leave here under the same conviction that we have to do something with this information.
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Glorify your name through Jesus Christ, we pray.
Small Group Discussion
Read John 20:19-31
What was your big “take-away” from this passage / message?
Explain John 20:23 in your own words. What does this say about our evangelism? Compare this with Jesus' words to Peter in Matthew 16:19.
How are people who have not seen the resurrected Christ (US), blessed, specifically (John 20:29)? How are we blessed in believing without seeing?
Breakout
Pray for one another.