039 - So That You May Believe

You pick up your Bible and wonder, is there more here than meets the is there something here for me. I mean it's just words printed on paper right it may look like just print on the page but it's more than a join us for the next half hour, as we explore God's word together as we learn how to explore it on our own.

As we ask God to meet us there in its pages welcome to more than would you like to be remembered in history as doubting Thomas so that's a really well really hit that today I think we can correct the history about Thomas is correct, Jesus today on morning saw Linda Springer happy about that to the table at a coffee and stuff and look about them is just as beautiful God.

God renews life out of death of winter here. We are what we are. We're still in. John and I were in the second half of John 20 and in fact we are going to take a look in the second half what John writes to us, which is which is an expanded version of what Luke writes about beginning of acts in acts 13 where he says that Jesus presented himself alive to them after his suffering by many proofs, appearing to them during 40 days and speaking about the kingdom of God and in that little phrase right there. Luke that's our teaser for today is exactly what happened, Jesus will quell them in this passage is largely concerned with with the events of Thomas poor doubting Thomas for a bum rap tradition, but there's something else going on in this passage that fascinates me about breathing.

The Holy Spirit himself will yeah will get into that. And so, remember we are in John 20 we are on the on the first day of the week after the Passover after the Sabbath weekend and stuff like that in the previous part of John 20, Mary Magdalene has come to the tomb. She finds that it's empty. She tells the apostles Peter John come running back. They check it out, but John himself admits in the in the passage that they didn't quite understand what is going on the Scriptures and so and then we had that wonderfully touching interchange between Mary Magdalene. Jesus. But still, at the end of that what we were last week.

Jesus has not appeared to the apostles.

He has so that entire day.

I would've been a fly on the wall that entire day, you know the word went around even you. Here is a fun little fly on the wall action with the guys walk to Emmaus as they relate to the of the hidden Jesus got you know we thought he was the guy and then Believe it or not.

The women told Stacy so that's will read here. Now it's in the evening around dinnertime or something like that and we come back and Jesus finally appears to the disciples after that long, frustrating.

They had all been together all day. They probably probably evening is when they finally all got back together maybe at all except Thomas wasn't very well beginning with Thomas is Thomas doing well read this and more in chapter 20 verse 19. Let's let's have Jesus the apostle. So on the evening of that day. That's the first in the week. The fourth was a Thursday week being locked where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace with you, and when he said this, he showed them his hands and his side. The disciples were glad when they saw the Lord Jesus said to them again, peace be with you as the father sent me.

Even so, I am sending you.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said them receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them and if you withhold forgiveness for many it is withheld. Stop right there. Yeah. So here's the first appearance of Jesus with the disciples after they probably gave the women a hard time all day long we don't know but probably because after all they were the apostles of Jesus. And at this point, Jesus had not appeared to them, but he had appeared to the women. How frustrating for them. So here is succumbs in his first words are peace be with you okay there in the room and the doors locked and the doors locked right. How does that work so he ate of the other Gospels.

I think it's a link that says they they thought he was a ghost as well. Have you got anything to eat yet sure I'm not a goddess here tells me watch me. I have a body and it shows in his his hands in his and his side so he said yes so it is a lot. Here's to the worked up about Jesus being just a spirit writing, and not a physical one, and only if you can see the marks in his hands and his side.

Three times in this chapter John says he sent. Peace be with you just a couple nice to forget that I'm giving you peace not like the world Giving You Peace. It Can't Be Taken Away. This Kind of Peace Is a Fundamental Confidence That All Is Right with God. Going According to God Has It All Can Settle down and Got Sovereignty. I Also Chuckle, Because I Think about the Fact That When Jesus Enters That Room When He's Not Seeing His Peace Will Probably Sing a Crazy Mixture of Fear and and I Don't Know the Certainty Uncertainty and Disbelief. Yeah, I Mean Adjuster Probably the Whole Room Is like a Little Tornado Arguing Arguing Out Of Anger, but, but Playing It Back and Forth. Yeah.

Could This Be True, Could It Not Be Treated. They Really Say It Today Really See What Really Have What Is Going on Here Just Roiled As We Say or Maybe Just Yeah.

I'm Sorry.

I've Always Found It Funny That Bloom Shows up in the Room Says in Our Vernacular, He Says She'll Tell Guys He's These Be with You. And so When He Said That Course There Wondering Whether He Is a Ghost, and Then He Shows Him His Hand Again. Peace Be with You, You the Atmosphere in the Room Must've Been Just Sort of Crazy Sick Two Times in a Row like in about 30 Seconds or Minutes of Just Astonishing but Then after He Says Peace. The Second Time. Yet Something Really Interesting. So I'm Sending You and for This Is As the Father Sent Me.

Yes, If I Was in Any That's Really Important. Yes so so This Is Kind of What We Mentioned Last Summer about the Fact That the Appearance of Jesus Doesn't Mean That the Old Plan Is Reinstated Means That Were Turning the Page to a New Plan. Jesus Is As Intimately Involved in the Ministry Is Ever before.

But in a Different Kind of Way You Know the Father Had Sent Him in Those Last Three Years and Now He's Saying and This Is the Switch Now. I'm Sending You, Just As the Father Sent Me so He's Really Is Trying to Get Them to Understand All This Turmoil, a Page Has Been Turned Here Just Because You See Me Does Not Mean Were Going Back to What We're Doing Last Week It's Going Be Ready Different Well and They Had Heard Him Pray Couple Nights before When He Said in John 17 You Sent Me into the World. I've Sent Them into the World. Sanctify Them in Their Truth so It It Has To Do with the Truth about Who God Is. His Son Is and That's Their Message. Is This One Came What He Accomplished Right in His His Identity in Terms of Being God Is Key to That Message. So Right Here He's Proving His Identity.

Paul Says That Another Places He Says Walking off You Want to Improve about the Divinity of Christ.

You Know He Didn't Raise from the Dead. He Is so Exact Stuff Was Rated Himself Conquered up Himself, and If That's Possible. Were Talking about Something Really Important about Who This Jesus Is Not Just a Nice Profit or a Teaching Guy, but There's Something Much More Extraordinary Going on Here and If You Need Proof. You Only Need the Death and Resurrection of Jesus the Soundproofing so He Says As the Father Sent Me. I Am Sending You and Then He Breathed on Them and Says Receive the Holy Spirit. What Do You Make, He Breathed on Them and Says Receive the Holy Spirit, Which by the Way, Again to Peter's Writings Later and Paul's We Know Is Holy Spirit Is the Essential Element That Makes Their Sending Works Well and the Holy Spirit Is That the Wrath of God. That's Very Clear All the Way through.

Even the Old Testament. I Think We Bring We Mentioned This a Little While Ago on the Broadcast. But, I Mean the Actually If You Look at the Etymology of the Words for the Holy Spirit in the Other Room. Yeah, Sounds like a Breath As yet What Actually Is Doing Purposes.

The Word Breath.

It Can Be. Breath It Can Be Windows Air in Russian Right so When They Wanted to Capture the Idea of What This Weird Concept of the Holy Spirit Is the Invisible Force They Said Well It's Kind of like Air.

You Can't See It but Is Definitely Real. There's No Question about That and Jesus Even Goes on One Point Says You Know What's with Just like You Look at a Tree and See If Arrangement Is Effective and You See the Effect of That You Don't See It Directly so That This Seem like a Really Good Parallel in Terms of Borrowing Words from a Culture so and I've Always Marveled at the Fact That in the Old Testament and the New This Air That We Live in. We Live in a Sea of This Air Is Something That Not Only Completely Surrounds Us.

It Is Pervasive around Us. Which Is True, the Holy Spirit, but We Also in Breach of Her and so We Talked about Being Filled by the Holy Spirit As Well so so There Is No Good to You. This Just outside of You Have To Take It in Such a Great Peril and Told Them That Night Couple Nights before We Are to Come to You. My Father and I Will Come to You and Will Make Our Own Any Right to Send You Another Comforter. He Will Be in Leave You so You Know This Is He's Just Any Is Direct Link When He Breathes on You. I Am God in the Flesh, and I Am Breathing My Life into You. It's a Very Visual yet, I Can't See the Breath Is a Very Visual Idea. Yeah, He's a Communicate and I Am Breathing Life of God in That Action. He's Referencing All Mentioned the He's Doing It Visually Adjusted to Tell Mrs. What Was Promised and This Is What I Was Going to Give in Some Doing It Right Now Makes the Connection with Sin and Forgiveness. But the Translation Here Is Hard This Tree with the Reading Again. So He Says You'll Receive the Holy Spirit. If You Forgive the Sins of Any, They Are Forgiven Them and If You Withhold Forgiveness for Many It's Withheld. This Is the ESV Translation Am Not Happy with That Translation Is a Particular Place, Because That on the Surface Reading That Would Give the Impression That It's Going to Be Their Responsibility to Grant or Withhold Forgiveness Just like to Be the Judges of That Is in Error.

That Is Not Communicated Anywhere in the Scripture Know How Is the One Who Found A Lot Of Modern-Day Heresy Comes Out Of This.

Her Purse Right Here, You Know, Saying, Basically We Have the Power to Pronounce Judgment and the Power to Forgive. No, Actually, Only God Has a Part so I Really Prefer the New American Standard Translation. At This Point Which Says If You Forgive the Sins of Any, Their Sins Have Been Forgiven. In Other Words You Have Recognized That Their Sins Been Forgiven and If You Retain the Sins of Any, They Have Been Retained Taming Is a Little Different Than Withholding Right When You Hear Us As Withhold Forgiveness. The Most Literal Translation Is the Retaining of the Seizing of Sin Right If You Don't If You Don't Let Someone See Him Go. You Hold onto That Same Note Note Don't Wiggle Out Of the Tank onto This and Call Them to Account so That That's Something of the Holy Spirit Does through Them in Terms of Holding People to Account You Don't Let Their Sins Go You Season and That's What He Means by the Second Half Is Not Withhold Forgiveness Is like No I'm Not Going Let Your Sin Go Well.

And Jesus Said to Them, Now Here's Where We Put This Passage Right Alongside Everything Else Jesus Said about This. He Said in John 16, the First Thing to Tell You about the Holy Spirit When He Comes Is That He Will Convict the World of Sin, Convict in the Meaning of That Conviction Is to Persuade the Truth.

Yes, so You Know There's Something about This Breathing of the Holy Spirit That Gives Insight into Understanding the Truth of Sin and Forgiveness Yes and so That Is Something We Can Say for Certain, Yeah, and That's That That's the Key First Step When It Comes to Salvation.

Step One of the Two Steps. Step One Is You Have To Come to Confess and Repent Yourself and You Acknowledge and and Claim That You There's Nothing You Do about It. And Then Secondly Call out to God to Save You Any Does the Scripture Says It's Your Sin Separates You from God, Exactly, Is Not the Arm of the Lord Is so Short That He Cannot Raise It Say I Hear You Track Those down Using Your Concord Eyes Is Not That the Army Order so Short That He Cannot Write a You Separated Yourself so That Clear. That's What's Going on, and so Is Jesus Came in the World Original. If You Look at the Beginning of His Ministry He Went around Saying Literally Replenish the Kingdom of God Is at Hand or It's near so Repent Is the First Step. So When It Comes to Repentance. The First Thing These Guys Going after Doing the Spread All around the World Is Convicted of Sin, Which the Holy Spirit Allows Call Them to Turn and Go Another Direction. Tell Him That You Got a Problem, and Says That so That's All He Saying Writers Is up to This Point, You Watch Me for the Last Three Years I've Done I've Called People out Myself in Ministry, but Now That's Going to Be Your Job Is to Call People on Their Soon As I Was Thinking about This. I Was Thinking Great Examples in X5.

When You Have People He Is Confronting Ananias and Sapphire If You Don't Know That Story Just Flip over Next Five and Take a Look at It but in a Very Supernatural Way.

Peter Has Insight into the into the Hearts Motivations of These Two People and and and That's the Holy Spirit Working As a Perfect Example What Jesus Is Talking about Right Here As He Had Said the Spirit Is Good and Guide You into All Truth Right the Holy Spirit Confirms the True Nature of Things. So That's so Jesus Saying That's the New Page in the Ministry for Returning That Page Today Just Because You See Me Today Doesn't Mean We Can Do Next Week. What We Did Last Week.

What Comes Next Week. Now Is on You Guys, with the Holy Spirit Is Different Radically Different Was Move on to Thomas.

He Said He Would Reinforce a 24 Sure Thomas, One of the 12 Called the Twin Was Not with Them When Jesus Came so the Other Disciples Told Him We Seen the Lord. That's the Same Thing That Mary Mag I Know the Lord, but He Said to Them, Unless I See in His Hands. The Mark of the Nails Place My Finger into the Mark of the Nails, and Place My Hand and His Sign on the Belief Eight Days Later His Disciples Were inside Again and Thomas Was with Them. Although the Doors Were Locked Just Came and Stood among Them and Said, Peace Be with You Michelle. Please As Jesus Initiates This Put Your Finger Here, and See My Hands and Put out Your Hand and Place It in My Side, Not Disbelief, but Believe and Thomas Answered Him, My Lord and My God. Jesus Said to Him, Have You Believed Because You See Me. Blessed Are Those Who Have Not Seen and yet Have Believed. There Is Stick with Thomas for a Minute. Yeah Yeah Because Thomas Thomas Is Deliberately Not through the First and When I Say Deliberately, Not Because He Standing Them up, but I Think God Wants to Make up Only God's Purpose.

Yeah.

So He Keeps Thomas Out Of This Original Viewing and an End and You See Is Our Decision on the Site Must Have the Same Advantage You Guys Unless I See His Hands on Them and the Marks the Nails and Psychonomic. I Believe Luckily A Lot Of People Look at That and They Put the Put Thomas down for That but Come on. The Other Apostles Had That Advantage Right and This Raises the Question from Jesus's Response to Him. We See That There Is Difference between Honest Doubt and Willful Refusal to Believe Exact and Actually the Book of Hebrews Gets into That in Some Detail, but You with Some People, Regardless of How Much Evidence You Give Them, They They Will Not Believe, Will Not Let I Know Myself.

I If You Take Your Concordance and Look for Thomas in the Gospels and See Who He Was, What He Was like We Have A Few Other Places Where He Is Recorded As Saying Things Right Thing on the Let's Go along with the Lord.

So We Do We Can Die and We Think Is Foolish Right and He Said Just a Couple Nights before Lord Where You're Going. My Sense Is a Very Concrete Cutting Guy Yeah We We Know A Lot about Him Not As Much As We Know Peter and John, but for Thomas Is Probably Unknown Number Three on the List We Know A Lot about Them so Yes These Interesting Guys Were Take a Look at Some Pieces I Self I Unless I Have the Same Evidence You Guys Had to Struggle with This All My Life in Him in Monte Modern-Day Parlance, We Many, Many Times Say When Someone Makes an Extraordinary Claim. It Demands Extraordinary Evidence in in a Way That's Sort of What Thomas Is Saying Is Let's Be Fair about This. This Is an Extraordinary Thing. If This Is This Extraordinary. I Want the Same Expert Because Am I One of You. Our My Second Class Guy Right Right. Jesus Lets Him Struggle with This for an Entire Week for a Week. Think of Those Three or Four Days That Lazarus Was in the Two Jesus Lacked That Family Grieve and Wrestle and Struggle for Those Days, Knowing Full Well That He Was Raising and in That Delay. There Is Great Gold Being Made. Guy's Lives so Eight Days Later, Which by the Way, Is at the End of the Feast of Unleavened Bread's Were outside. It's a Whole Cycle of the Week from Samples Cycling in the Next Day and It's like Déjà Vu All over Again Either inside the Room with the Doors Locked. But Now Thomas Is There. Jesus Comes in Déjà Vu. Peace Be with You and Then He Turns Directly Said Put Your Finger Here. I Know It's As Though He Came to Say I'm Just Here for Thomas Here for You. I'm Here for You. He Respects Thomas's Desire to Have That Same Extraordinary Evidence. And He Says Don't Disbelief but Believe I Live Really Love That Line Don't Diss but I Don't Want to Disbelieve and If You If You Ever Wonder about It. Does God Want You to Believe the Truth He Does and He'll Do, He'll Do Whatever It Takes to Bring You Your Honest Doubt Yeah I Think That's an Extraordinary Thing That's an Extraordinary Thing. A Lot Of People Say No That's Gonna Second Class Spirituality. You Know the People Who Believe without Any Evidence at All. They're the Ones That Are Really Something.

Well That There's Something to That, but but He's but What Jesus Saying Here Believe without Evidence. Right. I Think That's Testing This Is the Evidence of the Verbal Eyewitness like the Other Alignment You Attend. At This Point and I Think I Think We Need to Make up, I Would Have Enough Time to Really Delve into It Here, but Faith Is Really an Evidenced Based Belief. Yes It's It's Not a Blind Faith in Here You See Jesus Saying I Want to Believe. By the Way, the Word Believe in Faith Are Almost Synonymous in the Greek, so I Want to Believe That I Just Want You to Believe. However, If You Willfully Will Not Believe There Is No Amount of Evidence.

Even If Someone Comes Alive from the Grave. Jesus Told Him, There Still Are, If They Willfully Not Going Directly but Thomas Wants to Believe He Does Want to Keep Wants to Believe in God Believe He's Had a Really Difficult Week. Yeah, Exactly.

He Wants to Believe, and Then His Statement after He Does That Is Astonishing.

He Says My Lord God Is He Calling Jesus God, Yes. And A Lot Of People Trying Dance around so I Really Saying That Well Know He Is Saying Absolutely. He Does Is Saying That so This Is so. He Believes He's Right There and and Then Jesus Is That Marvelous. They Have You Believe Just Because You See Me Well That's a Piece of It Pleases What This People Are Never Been Bill Seeming to Have This Bench but Still Got Believe about That and so That's That's Jesus Speaking to Us 2000 Years Later Saying That You Guys Week He Had Given Thomas the Opportunity to Believe without Seeing the Same Way) That We As All of Those That They Were Entrusted to Take the Gospel to Would Be Asked to Believe without Seeing the Corporeal Body Right. She Says so.

Thomas Had Been Granted a Very Unique Kind of Blessing in Order to Believe without the Concrete Personal Evidence He Had Been Given the Opportunity to Believe on the Basis of an Eyewitness Account and He Still Can Do It Still Couldn't Do It. So the Lord Met Him in That Honest Doubt Yeah and I Just Want to Leave and I Think It Was Important to for Later on When Thomas Goes out Travel across the World. He Can Stand When People Say I Have Seen Him Myself.

I Have Touched to Myself. It Is True.

So in Terms of Being Credible Witnesses Were Not Time a Second and Evidence That I've Seen Myself Right.

I Put My Fingers in His Wounds, so You Wonder If This Incredible Cried My Lord and My God Comes Out Of His Wrestling All Week.

I Think It.Who Is God, Who Is This Man Following for These Years. I Think It Is I Think Definitely Is a Comes Out Of the Comes of That Pressure Cooker That We Could God Put Him through, and He's Cemented and He He Know He Can Go with a Solid Solid Witness and Say I've Seen Them. Yes, We Need to Finish up His Last Spring Going to Know Jesus Did Many Other Signs. This Is John Telling Us in This in the Presence of the Disciples, Which Are Not Written in This Book, but These Are Written so That You May Believe That Jesus Is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God, and That by Believing You May Have Life in His Name.

This Is John Telling Us Why He Wrote the Book and Its Outlook Is Finishing the Book, Little More to Come. And It's an Interesting the 21st Chapters. An Interesting Thing, but This Is This Is Johnson Look, There's A Lot Of Left out, but This Should Be Enough.

This Should Be Sufficient for You to Understand That Jesus Is Who He Says He Is, and That by Believing That You Might Have Life in His Name. So What's in What Is Needed in Order to Have Life. Well Belief in Who Jesus Is, As the Messiah, the Son of God Sent One. And to Believe That You Know and Then We Confess Your Sins to Him and Repent and Cry out to Him and He Saved Us. As You Remember, Jesus Had Said to Them That Night at That at the Last Supper. Don't You Get It yet If You Seen Me You Seen the Father so You Know. The Question Then Is When You Finish Reading the Gospel of John.

You Come to This Point. Is This Enough. What More Wouldn't You Require Need to Persuade You. I'd like to Have A Lot More Information, but This Is an Is What More Could He Have Done to Communicate to You That He Is the One and Only Sent One, the Only Begotten of the Father and I've I've Always Loved the Fact That Later on John Write Some Letters and in John First John 511, He Says. And This Is the Testimony That God Gave Us Eternal Life and That Life Is in His in His Son. And This Is This Is It Right Here, and Whoever Has the Son Has Life.

It's All about Believing in Jesus Is What We Say Often It's Really All about Jesus All about Who You in Here, John Is Given Us a Sufficient Documentation for Us to Believe in the Same Way That Jesus Gave Thomas Sufficient Information to Believe in This Account Is Given a Sufficient Permission. Believe Now It's Not Because You Haven't Been Important Is Not Because You Are Ignorant Is Because You Won't Believe It's a Whole Different Thing. He's Drawn That Line Now so That's an Astonishing Thing. They Even Paul Says in Early Romans. He Says You Know There's Enough Evidence in All Creation, Believes There Really Is No Excuse. If You Don't Believe, Is Because You Don't Want to.

It's Not Right You Don't Have the Right Yeah and and That Harkens Back to What We Talked about Last Week with Mary Magdalene Not Seeing Jesus Standing There Because She Was Looking for a Dead Body Yeah Right. And If You Refuse to Believe That He Is Who He Claims to Be, Well, What Kind of Sent One Are You Looking for Because This Is the One Who Demonstrates Who God Genuinely Is the One Who Loves so Much That He Gives Himself Completely yet Is an Interesting That People Cannot See the True Jesus Because They Have an Expectation Looking for Something Else, Let That Go and Read It with Fresh Eyes and Say What This Is for Out Of Time and Next Week Will Read Chapter 21 Which Is in the Way John's Postscript to This and Its Effects Is Still out Some Wonderful Closing Comment in a Very Personal Thing. You Only See in John's Gospel Not Going to Want to Miss This so You Can Read Ahead Is John 21 Touching Scene There, so, so I'm Jim and We're Just Glad You're with Us. We Hope That You're Finding God As I Am. I Just Read This Again Starting from Scratch Is. Thanks for Being with His Next Week or the