Implications of the Resurrection: #1 – “Jesus, Lord and God!”

John 20:24-30

John T. Mabray, Pastor

Rivermont Evangelical Presbyterian Church

Lynchburg, Virginia

April 23, 2006

8:30 and 11:00 A.M.

          What do you say to the person who says, “You couldn’t really, honestly, possibly believe that Jesus was literally raised from the dead. What rational, thinking person could really believe such a thing?” What do you say?

          Well, you might say to that person, “Have you ever read the twentieth chapter of the Gospel of John?” What a gift we have here in the twentieth chapter of John. What a gift we have in the rather embarrassing honesty, or, we might say, brutal honesty of the gospels! Can’t you just imagine – and what I am about to say is purely imaginary – can’t you just imagine the apostle Thomas saying to the apostle John, “Oh, please, please, don’t put that in there; do you have to put that in there?” And, I imagine the beloved disciple, in his gentle and wise way, saying, “Yes, Thomas, it’s very important that I put that in there. Brother Thomas, though it may be very humiliating to you now, in the future you will be a spiritual hero to millions of those who will believe because of your doubt.”

          There he is; and what a gift he is: our brother, Thomas – doubting Thomas. What do I mean? Here’s my point: It is often said that since the Bible is an ancient book, written in pre-scientific times for pre-scientific people who were inclined to believe in mythological miracles such as virgin-births and bodily resurrections, that therefore we really just have to glean the “spiritual meaning” from the stories of the Bible without really believing the actual content of the Bible. So, it is said, we really need to reinterpret the resurrection of Jesus in terms of its spiritual meaning, for example, that it teaches us that “God’s love never dies,” or that Jesus “lives on in the hearts of his believers,” or that “the spirit of Jesus continues to make itself known wherever there is kindness and compassion,” or perhaps that the resurrection of Jesus was an ancient, mythological way of expressing the belief in “life after death,” for everyone who lives a “good life.”

          Now, mind you, that kind of argument is made by people who pride themselves on being “modern,” rationalist intellectuals. The problem is that that kind of argument is illogical and irrational. It doesn’t square with the facts as we have them.

          Exhibit A is “doubting Thomas” himself. There he is: if you will, a thoroughly “modern” person, an enlightenment rationalist, insisting upon empirical evidence perceived by the senses –

“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it!” (John 20:25) –

there he is, in the first century, in Jerusalem, within the first week after Jesus’ death, fully convinced of the reality of Jesus’ death, not a believer in Jesus’ resurrection, not easily inclined to believe and accept such things on “blind faith,” not accepting the testimony of even his closest, most trusted companions but rather demanding empirical evidence of Jesus’ resurrection, and not expecting to see it. Thank goodness, for Thomas – the “modern intellectual” of the first-century.

          But actually, of course, Thomas wasn’t the only one who doubted. This is really the point. None of the disciples expected Jesus to rise from the dead; and, when they first heard the news of the resurrection, none of the disciples believed it. Luke tells us that when the women witnesses first told the apostles, the apostles did not believe because it sounded like nonsense. First-century men and women may not have known everything we now know about the universe, but they knew about death: its reality and its finality. They were not primitive, superstitious fools. And, the so-called “modern” skepticism or doubt about Jesus’ resurrection is not really “modern” at all. There is nothing new about it.  It does not arise from modern scientific knowledge or from insights gained by rational inquiry. Skepticism and doubt about Jesus’ bodily resurrection immediately arose – and, mind you, this skepticism and doubt immediately arose in the minds of those who had loved Him, followed Him, and placed their hope in Him.

And to this, it ought to be added that those first believers were Jews, which means that they were not particularly interested in what might be called a non-bodily “spiritual after-life” or the life of the spirit only after death, or any other sort of figurative or symbolic spiritual life beyond the grave. The “modern” idea of the spirit of Jesus “rising up” in the hearts of His followers, or the “modern” idea of Jesus’ resurrection being symbolic of the victory of love over hatred, the triumph of forgiveness over violence, or of Jesus’ life “continuing on” through deeds of mercy and kindness – anything along those lines would have been of absolutely no interest to those first-century Jews. That kind of spiritual idealism would have never entered their minds. They had hoped that Jesus was the Messiah, the One to redeem Israel. But Jesus had been crucified. He had been killed and buried. He was dead, and so was their hope. They weren’t “spiritualizing” the meaning of His death or philosophizing about the meaning of His life. In their first-century Jewish minds, another would-be Messiah had bitten the dust. They weren’t feeling anything warm and fuzzy in their hearts. Thomas stands as the prime example, but Thomas was not alone. Like Thomas, none of the others believed until they saw Jesus.

          And so, this passage is a great encouragement to our faith. The first-century apostles had a very “realistic” understanding of Jesus’ death; and only the reality of His bodily resurrection could change their minds and convince them that Jesus was, indeed, the Messiah of Israel and the Lord of heaven and earth. His resurrection from death vindicated Him, verifying that He was indeed the Son of God, the Savior, the Lord of heaven and earth. Because they had seen Him, risen from the dead, the apostles could stand unafraid before the chief priests of the temple and the military might of the Roman Empire and declare that “God has made this Jesus, whom you crucified, both Lord and Christ” (Acts 2:36).

          But Jesus’ bodily resurrection was not merely a “resuscitation” of His physical body so that He simply re-gained physical life. His resurrected body was, yes, the same body in which He had lived on earth, but after His resurrection it was also of a different nature; that is, for example, after His resurrection, Jesus appeared to His disciples when they were gathered together behind locked doors. John tells us, “Though the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, “Peace be with you!” (John 20:26). And, Luke tells us, that on the evening of the resurrection day, in the village of Emmaus, after Jesus made Himself known, in the breaking of the bread, He vanished from their sight (Luke 24:31).

          What was Jesus teaching His disciples through these kinds of miraculous appearances and disappearances after His resurrection, and what do we have to learn from these accounts? Well, first off, Jesus was surely impressing upon His disciples the reality of His resurrection. He wanted them to know that it wasn’t their imagination, it wasn’t a mystical vision, it wasn’t a delusory apparition. He wanted them to know and to be sure that He had in fact risen from the dead, as the true Messiah of Israel, the sin-bearer and death-conqueror, the true Savior, the Lord of heaven and earth. He wanted them to know and to be sure that He was who He said He was, and that He had accomplished all that He had set out to accomplish. He wanted them to know and to be sure that He was completely worthy of their absolute allegiance, obedience, trust, and even their worship. And all of that applies to us as well – the apostolic witness of the Scriptures grounds our faith in the reality of Jesus’ resurrection.

          But there’s something else to be learned from this passage. Jesus was preparing His apostles for the time when He would ascend into heaven, when they would no longer be able to see Him. He was teaching, showing His disciples that as the risen Lord, He would be with them always, even though they would not be able to see Him. And of course that has immediate application for us; we cannot see the Lord with us physically, but nonetheless we have His promise that He is with us. And this is precisely what He was teaching the apostles after His resurrection. Look again at what John tells us. On the night of the first Easter, the disciples were gathered together behind locked doors. Jesus came and stood among them; He appeared miraculously to them, He made Himself visible to them. Thomas, however, was not with them on that first Easter evening. When the other disciples told Thomas that they had seen the Lord, Thomas declared, “Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe it” (John 20:25).

          Then, John tells us, one week later, the next Sunday evening, the disciples were again locked behind closed doors, and Jesus came and stood among them. And, Jesus said to Thomas (to Thomas!) “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it into my side. Stop doubting and believe” (John 20:27). What does that tell us? Jesus heard Thomas’ doubtful declaration! Jesus was there – though not visible – when Thomas said, “Unless I see the nail marks … and put my hand into his side …  .” Jesus had been there, though not visible.

          You see, by answering Thomas’ doubts directly, Jesus was showing not only Thomas but all of the disciples, that He was with them and would be with them always. The divine nature of Jesus is omnipresent – present in all times at all places. The divine nature of Jesus is omniscient – all knowing. Jesus was simply demonstrating to the apostles that as the risen Lord He would be with them always and everywhere, even though He would not be visible to them. The fact that Jesus has now ascended into heaven does not mean that He is far away from us, removed from us, distantly detached from us; no, to the contrary, the fact that Jesus has ascended into heaven means that by His Spirit He is within us and with us in all times in all places.

And when Thomas realized that He was in the presence of the Jesus, risen from the dead, when Thomas saw the nail-prints and the wound of the spear, when Thomas realized that Jesus had heard his declarations of doubt and now was there to call him into a life of faith, then Thomas exclaimed, “My Lord and my God!” (John 20:28).

And we have to understand the significance of Thomas’ words. For a first-century Jew to refer to another man as “my God” would be utter blasphemy, if it were not true. John the apostle himself never would have recorded those words of Thomas for future generations to read, if he himself did not believe them to be true. The apostles faced their doubts, and came face-to-face with Jesus Christ, risen from the dead. Because of their experiences and encounters with Jesus after His resurrection, the first Christians were convinced that Jesus was no mere man but The Man, The Man, in whom they came face-to-face with the eternal God.

We, two-thousand years after the cross and resurrection, we, who perhaps most of our lives may have lived as Christians, we may take it for granted that we affirm the deity of Christ. But we should never take that for granted. The resurrection of Jesus Christ reveals Him to be the only hope for humanity, the only Savior of sinners, the only Lord of heaven and earth; for He, and He alone, is the One whom we may rightly worship, together with the Father and the Holy Spirit, as very God of very God. It is not blasphemy for us to respond to Jesus, saying, “My Lord and my God!” Indeed, this is the expression of true and saving faith. John tells us that he wrote these things – his Gospel – so that “you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you might have life in his name” (John 20:31).

John knew that he was writing this Gospel, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, for the sake of the whole world, for the sake of you and me here today. And his Gospel presents to us convincing proofs that Jesus Christ is the Son of God who came into the world, and died, so that we, you and I might live. And this life to which John refers, is not only, not only, life eternal beyond our death, but life, eternal life, in fellowship with, in relationship with Jesus Christ even now, in the assurance of His presence, in the assurance of His grace and mercy, in the assurance of His atoning death for all our sins, and the assurance of His victory over death.

And I want to point this out to you, and I hope that you will lay hold of it in faith and be encouraged by it: this Man whom we may and must rightly acknowledge as our Lord and God, Jesus Christ, bears the marks of His suffering for us. Even in His resurrected body, He bears the marks of His suffering for you and for me. He suffered the punishment due our sins, He suffered the injustice and hatred of the world, He suffered the humiliation and shame of the cross, He suffered the curse of death under the condemnation of the world’s guilt heaped upon Him. All your pain, all your sorrow, all your sin, all your guilt and shame, was laid upon Him on the cross, so that you need not bear it any longer, so that you might not perish but have everlasting life. And He rose victorious over all that; those wounds of suffering and death are now symbols of victory and salvation and life for all who believe in Him.

Just as His death was real, so His resurrection was real, His victory over sin and death was real, His power today is real, His presence with us today is real, and His call to faith – His call to you – is real, and the promise of the gospel is real …that by believing you may have life in His name.

He is risen! Let us fall down and worship Him, saying, “My Lord and my God!” Let us arise and follow Him in faith, saying, “My Lord and my God!”  Amen.