Isaiah chapter 42, and then John chapter 20, as we read the word of God together, let's stand. Isaiah 42, this is a prophecy of Jesus Christ. And we're only reading a brief portion here of the prophecy of the servant of the Lord. This is the section of Isaiah where the servant of the Lord, servant of Jehovah is described. mission, his ministry, but here particularly his character. His character is described. Verse 3 in particular will be pertinent as we read John chapter 20. Hear the word of the Lord, here concerning Jesus. Behold my servant, whom I uphold, my elect one, in whom my soul delights. I have put my spirit upon him. He will bring forth justice to the Gentiles. He will not cry out, nor raise his voice, nor cause his voice to be heard in the street. A bruised reed he will not break, and smoking flax he will not quench. will bring forth justice for truth. He will not fail nor be discouraged till he has established justice in the earth, and the coastlands shall wait for his law." Now John chapter 20. Now Thomas, called the twin, one of the 12, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said to him, we have seen the Lord. So he said to them, unless I see in his hands the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and put my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut and stood in the midst and said, peace to you. And he said to Thomas, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand here and put it into my side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Grass withers, the flower fades, the word of our God endures forever. We turn to John chapter 20. John chapter 20. Looking at the verses 24 to 29 and a little bit in 30 and 31, but we'll look at 30 and 31 in more detail again next week. We'll be studying the reality of doubts and fears in the Christian life. Doubts and fears in the Christian life. Have you ever faced doubts? Have you ever gone through what some of the old writers called the dark night of the soul? Doubts about Christianity. It can happen a different way. Sometimes it can happen because you've heard an intellectual assault on Christianity. Flipping through the channels, which we don't do as much as anymore perhaps, maybe going, spending some time on YouTube looking at various videos, and you can find anything on the internet these days. You can find very edifying things, and you can find people who want to attack Christianity and want to undermine the faith of those who believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, who would mock and ridicule it. Some of these people are bright. They have pretty high IQ. They've read a lot, and they're seeking to undermine the Christian faith. And you watched a little bit and some questions were raised about the faith, your faith. Maybe you were in a college classroom and a professor is there mocking Christianity. And you suddenly felt and understood that you stand out in the world. You believe in a Jesus who lived, died and rose again from the dead. And you wondered for a moment, maybe just in your own mind and heart without any external prompt because of satanic attack as he seeks to undermine the word. You remember his familiar refrain is, has God indeed said, that's what he'd been saying from the beginning. There are doubts and fears. testimony of the apostles concerning the risen Jesus Christ, is it really true? And the Bible confronts this reality of doubt head on in the narrative of Thomas. Thomas here in John chapter 20. But we have a man here who by the testimony of the apostles, and not just the apostles distant from him, but the very band of men with whom he spent the last three years in the service of Jesus, perhaps his closest friends, who tell him that Jesus is risen according to the prophecy that Jesus himself gave. And Thomas doubts that these things are really true. And so the scriptures here face head on the reality of doubt in the narrative of a man who has been called Doubting Thomas. We'll see in a moment that he should be called Believing Thomas as well. But he begins with real doubts. The reality of doubts is where we're gonna begin, even for disciples of Jesus Christ. Then we're gonna see something about Jesus and how he deals with these doubts. And then we're going to see, finally, the result of Jesus' dealings with Thomas' doubts. So the doubts and the reality of doubt, even in a disciple of Jesus Christ, then how Jesus comes to deal with those doubts and fears, and then the result of Jesus' ministry as he deals with doubts and fears. Three very simple things. A little bit of background. Thomas was not with them when Jesus came, verse 24. Well, that is referring to the previous narrative, when Jesus appeared that same day at evening, the resurrection day, the first day of the week with the disciples. and he had spoken to them and he had commissioned them. We studied that last week. Now we know in further detail that there was one of the, now the 11, because Judas is no longer, one of the 11 is missing. So there were 10 there. Thomas wasn't there. He wasn't there. He was missing earlier. And Thomas is going to, Thomas has a bit of a character that perhaps some of you have, perhaps you know someone like this. He's got this kind of pessimistic, if you're familiar children with the Winnie the Pooh stories, there's a figure named Eeyore in there and A.A. Milne has him always, always looking at reality in the worst possible way, the worst possible construction. He's a pessimist. He's a glass half empty sort of guy. You know the kind of person when you see a beautiful autumn sunset, the sun is going down, you say, isn't that beautiful? And they say, yeah, but the days are getting shorter. And you can't say anything positive only to hear something negative or perhaps critical or doubting in reply. If there's a rainbow in the sky, The same would say, yes, but there is a storm coming, isn't there? In other words, unable to see. And sometimes we have propensity to this in our own character and wiring and makeup. And sometimes we go through periods of this in our life where we go to dark places and we're unable to see. Sometimes it's the power of our emotions that overwhelm our ability to think clearly. It's not foreign. to the experience of believers to have doubts and fears. Thomas has this sort of character. We already know it in the gospel of John in chapter 11, when Jesus is about to head towards Jerusalem, they hear that Lazarus is dead and Jesus says, we're gonna go in that direction. The first thing Thomas says is, well, if we're going there, we're all gonna die and we might as well go and die with him. He's not very hopeful. Now, interestingly, he does say, let us go. He's willing to go with Jesus. He's willing to die with him, but he sees darkness ahead. He has an eye to see darkness. He's loyal, but he's pessimistic. In John chapter 14, where Jesus gives some of the most comforting words in the scriptures. Let not your heart be troubled. Believe in God. Believe also in me. My father's house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare a place for you, I will come again and take you to myself. That where I am, you may be also. And where I go, you know, and the way you know. And Thomas said to him, Lord, we don't know where you're going. How can we know the way? Now here, perhaps he wasn't there earlier at the first upper room gathering because he was disillusioned. Jesus is dead. Matter of fact, in a moment we're gonna see very clearly, he thinks he's dead. He thinks the one who died on the cross is dead. Thomas doubts are clearly expressed in the text in verse 25. The other disciples said to him, we have seen the Lord. So he said to them, unless I see in his hands, the print of the nails, he's saying, I don't want just anybody to show up. You say, Jesus is alive. I'm looking for Jesus who died. I'm looking for the one who has the nail prints in his hands and who has the scar from the sword in his side. And unless I see him and I place my own hand in the wounds, I will not believe. It's a strong statement of unbelief. Show me. Your testimony is that he is risen. These are his own friends. I mean, he must think something terrible about them, that they're hallucinating or lying. I mean, And to think that, you have to understand the emotional state of Thomas. He's probably shattered. Utterly shattered. Disillusioned. And this happens to disciples of Jesus. Now, there are specific ways that people doubt the truth of Christianity. We're going to get into that for a moment. The first one is to doubt its objective testimony, the historicity of the Christian faith. That Jesus isn't alive, that the apostolic testimony carefully recorded in the New Testament is false. It's rejected. That Jesus' own predictions concerning his death and resurrection were either fabricated or they were false. And that Jesus post-resurrection appearances and teaching and his ascension in his present ministry and life at the right hand of God the Father, that these things didn't happen or are not happening. In other words, a denial of the external objective claims of the gospel of Jesus Christ. This is one way in which people doubt. It's plain unbelief. The word of God is rejected totally. The Bible is rejected. The inspiration of the scriptures are rejected. The ministry of the Holy Spirit is resisted. And God and how he has spoken in history, mankind says, no, I know better. There's a second way that doubts and fears come. And that's to doubt. There are people who would say, okay, I can accept that these things happened externally in history, but does God have any interest in me? Is Jesus good and kind? Is he sincere? This is a more subtle kind of doubt. It's like a sickness that has symptoms of disease A. And so people think it's disease A, but it also could be disease B, a different disease. And what I mean by that is this kind of doubt is sometimes people can say, well, does God really love me? Is he really care for me? Is he really kind to me? What Jesus has done, is it really for me? And there's a sense in which that can sound like humility, Condition A, but it might actually be something much more serious, Condition B. Sometimes this comes in times of spiritual depression. This happens in history to some of God's greatest servants like Elijah. It's not foreign to the people of God. Thomas here is doubting something profound about the Christian faith, both the resurrection itself and perhaps also the word and veracity of Jesus. He lived and walked with Jesus. He heard Jesus' predictions. Does God not love me? I don't feel his love, and it goes on. Subtly, this is maybe it's his fault. Maybe Jesus isn't what he said he is, meek and lowly. and the one who gives rest to my sin sick soul. Maybe I can't trust him. And we can descend into misery and others feel it. It reveals our view of God, a mistrust. It can be an externally humble, but a pious sort of rebellion, which at its heart, listen carefully, says this, God said, yes, but I say no. The Bible says he rose again from the dead in victory, but I doubt its veracity. The Bible says that if I place my faith in Jesus Christ, that I'll be saved from my sins and that saving is not dependent on my works or my emotions or feelings concerning that salvation, nothing in me. And that this is the word of the gospel to hell deserving sinners in Jesus Christ. Why do we have these doubts and fears? Satan's fiery darts. He never ever stops asking this question. The word will come and he will, he wants to come right behind it and say, I said a moment ago, has God indeed said, is it really true? And he has no mercy. And I, what I mean by that is no mercy. that the deeper we go and the weaker we are and the harder we are seeking to battle against sin and the deeper the darkness gets, he never lets up. When we're tired and if we're persecuted, if we're weak, if we're emotional like Elijah again long ago, he is only too happy to keep pressing us down. And this seems to be Thomas' category. perhaps a tendency in his character not to be able to see John chapter 11, John chapter 14, John chapter 20, beyond his present circumstances or even feelings to the objective truths of the gospel. He's discouraged easily. There's other reasons we can be filled with doubts, however. Sometimes we doubt because we're holding on to a particular sin. You have to remember, we're spiritual creatures. We're created in the image of God. You can't live a disconnected life. You live all of life under God. It's all connected together. If you're here this morning and you are holding on to a particular secret sin, something that you love to hold on to, and you don't have any interest in letting it go, and at the same time doubts are creeping up concerning the kingdom and glory of Jesus Christ, you should expect the two to go together. Because Jesus, as the King of glory, who places a claim on your life and your conduct and all that you are and all that you have, one or the other will be your master, your sin or Christ. And there's a war going on in your soul. Doubts will again be swirling in your heart and mind if you're not willing to repent of sin. because there needs to be some way to get out of the lordship of Jesus Christ. This is spiritually dangerous. Perhaps it's simply pride. My intellect and my reason are the final arbiter of all truth in history and everything is under me and under my judgment. My intellect is over the testimony of the apostles who are inspired by the spirit. The inscripturated word is under me, not over me. As long as you hold to that, you will have doubts. There's a danger here because all doubts, and I'll say this plainly, some people don't like to hear this, are great sins against God. Great sins against God. God has said, He is risen. He told Mary, Jesus said, Mary, go tell the disciples that I'm risen. This is the message from Jesus. Thomas says, no. unless I see, touch, I will not believe. How does Jesus deal with this? Well, you could imagine that this did not please the Lord Jesus. It doesn't when we doubt. So he appears, he appears, look at verse 26, after eight days, His disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. And if you count using the inclusive counting, in other words, day one is the day that they were last meeting. That's day number one, two, three. We're talking here a week later. It's the next Lord's day. It is the next Sunday. And interestingly, the apostles are gathered together again. And interestingly, Thomas is there again. Thomas is there this time with the assembly, and it's interesting that he missed the last assembly, so he missed the presence of Jesus Christ. Now he's with the next assembly, and he's going to have the blessing. And Jesus appears alive in the presence of Thomas and the apostles. Now note here, this is important for the historical record concerning the resurrection of Jesus. This is another appearance. I'm gonna sound like I'm beating, it's a broken record, beating the same drum all the time. But again, 1 Corinthians chapter 15, the sequential resurrection. historical narrative of the multiple appearances of Jesus to Mary and then to the disciples. And then the disciples with Thomas are part of the apostolic witness to a living Jesus. And here is another one. Note, it's a week later, it's the next Lord's day. And note again, be aware of where Jesus has a habit of showing up on the Lord's day in the assembly of his people. Be encouragement to come on the Lord's day. Now the apostles were not jointly hallucinating here. Some apparently think so. Thomas, perhaps from the last week, what possibly could he be thinking when he said, no, he's not risen? They all saw him. Thomas, until this point is still thinking that he's dead, but now he realizes suddenly with the appearance of Jesus Christ, that he is alive. This becomes part of the New Testament witness of multiple people, multiple occasions, multiple locations, all testifying to one unified reality, the risen Jesus Christ. He is risen, he is risen indeed. As an aside, if you're here this morning and you're visiting with us, Christians by fundamental definition believe in a risen, living Jesus Christ. And if you are ever in a place that calls itself a church, that says something like this, the resurrection means the ideals of Jesus live on. That's not Christianity. Christianity is this. He is risen. He is risen indeed. Paul 1 Corinthians 15, he says, if this isn't true, we have nothing. He appears alive to Thomas. Secondly, with a specific mission, to deal firmly but graciously with Thomas' doubts. Now look at the character of Jesus. Jesus came, the doors again being shut, he stood in the midst. Again, there's an allusion here to this supernatural appearance. And the first thing he says is not a rebuke, but, peace be with you, again. Peace be with you. Then he approaches Thomas. Now these words should be electrifying, because he suddenly appears, and then he says, exactly what Thomas needs to hear. If you're here this morning, Jesus knows exactly what you need to hear. He knows exactly what you need to hear. He knows it all. He's the one who knows the end from the beginning. He knows the word before it is out of your mouth, when it's still in your mind. He's the God of Psalm 139. He says to Jesus, reach your finger here and look at my hands and reach your hand and put it into my side. You were looking for signs. Here they are. You want to see, you want to touch, you want to feel the physical reality of my resurrection. Thomas, peace be with you. Here I am. There's no record here, actually, of Thomas actually doing this. Jesus continues speaking, and he gives a rebuke. It's a gentle rebuke, but it's a rebuke that, again, exactly matches Thomas' words. He says, unless I do this, I will not believe. Jesus says, come, do this, and then he says, do not be unbelieving, but believing. In Mark chapter 16 and verse 14, one of the appearances that Mark records in the gospel is that Jesus had to come to his disciples and rebuke them for their hardness of heart. This is a rebuke to Thomas. It's a general rebuke, but it's a rebuke. Thomas, here I am. Don't be unbelieving, but believe. I gave Mary a commission, Thomas, to tell you all that I was ascending to my father and your father, that I was alive and you didn't believe. I appeared to the other disciples and I gave them a commission to preach my resurrection to the ends of the earth. And Thomas, you didn't believe. And now I'm here and I'm addressing your doubts and fears, Thomas. Do not be unbelieving, but believe. Now, what can you learn from the appearance and offer and even rebuke of Jesus Christ? J.C. Rowe puts it this way, how kind and merciful Christ is to dull and slow believers. Jesus does not reject Thomas. He does not dismiss Thomas. He does not excommunicate Thomas. He deals with him according to his weakness. And he does so, as he does so, he demonstrates a love that passes all knowledge and a compassion that passes understanding. The resurrected glorious Jesus comes and he says, Thomas, peace be with you. Come touch, see, don't be unbelieving. but belief. The work of the Holy Spirit in the scriptures for us this morning is to do two things. To provide for us incontrovertible testimony that Jesus Christ is risen. To say again to us the inscripturated word and now the preached word proclaimed in history that your savior lives. And at the same time, If you're here this morning with doubts and fears and sadnesses to tell you that the Savior who lives is full of kindness and compassion for the weak and weary, that he does not break the bruised reed or quench the smoking flax, but that this is the character of Jesus Christ in his resplendent glory. And this is the way that he deals with all of his people in our weakness and our fears. He draws near. If you're here this morning with doubts and fears, then you look to this Jesus who came to Thomas this way, and you hear his word that says, do not be unbelieving, but believing and say, yes, Lord. The second thing is if you ever run into a fellow believer, that's going through the dark night of the soul and is filled with sadness and cannot see at that moment the Lord's goodness, don't forget how Jesus dealt with Thomas before you begin to speak and deal with them. Remember the compassion of the Lord Jesus Christ. Now, the result of this ministry, what happens? Well, what happens in Thomas is remarkable. an explosive confession of faith in Jesus Christ. And Thomas answered, do not be unbelieving, but believing. And Thomas obeyed. He obeyed dramatically. He obeyed with one of the great confessions of faith recorded in human history. This is why he should be called Believing Thomas. My Lord, and my God." Those were his words, my Lord and my God. He confesses him again as his master, Lord and master. Now, in Jesus' day, this word Lord was used in the Greek translation of the Old Testament scriptures to describe the Lord, the God of the Bible, Yahweh, the God of the Old Testament, Lord. It has the broader sense of master. of the one of whom I confess myself to be a servant. It's the phrase, it's the title that becomes the title of the Lord Jesus Christ. When we read Lord Jesus Christ, that's a formal title. By the way, you would do well to use that regularly when you pray. We can speak of Jesus as Jesus, his personal name. We can speak of him as Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, the anointed one, the promised Messiah. But when we say Lord Jesus Christ, we're gathering these titles together. The first one, which speaks to his majesty and his glory and his rights to command us as our Lord. The same title where Paul says, I am a bondservant of the Lord Jesus Christ. It places him over us and us beneath him. This is what Thomas is confessing. And then he says, and my God, and this is important. The first already has hints of what comes to full light and glory in the second. In other words, you can use the word Lord broadly for master. You can't use the next word broadly. It's Theos, God Almighty. Thomas' response to the gentle ministry of Jesus and the command, do not be unbelieving, but believe. is to confess Jesus Christ as the God of the universe, the maker of heaven and earth, the word who became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld his glory. The glory is of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth, that in the beginning was the word, and the word was with God, and the word was God. Thomas says, Lord, I see you in your resurrected glory. I hear your rebuke, and I believe everything about you, that you are my master and that you are the creator of the heavens and the earth, my God." Notice what Jesus does here. He doesn't rebuke him. Jesus receives it. This is the same John who in Revelation chapter 19, when he falls on his face before the angel, the angel says, get up, don't worship me, worship God. The apostles, when they were going to be worshiped in Acts, on two different occasions, said, no, we worship God alone. Don't worship us. We're not gods. Jesus says, yes, Thomas, I receive your confession. As it were, I am your Lord and your God. Jesus receives the confession. Thomas, because you have seen me, you have believed. He affirms the fullness of that confession. And with those words, certifies that this is who he is. This is what coming to faith looks like. Do not be unbelieving, but believe. And we say, Lord, you are my Lord and my God. the crucified, risen Jesus. Well, Jesus adds one timeless statement for us, a beatitude, the end of the passage. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. What is he talking about here? Well, what's the backdrop of the blessing? The blessing is that Thomas has believed, that Thomas saw Jesus the physical Jesus, flesh and blood, with bearing the wounds of our redemption, that he saw Jesus in the flesh before him, and that when he saw and he heard the word of Jesus, he believed. Now, that's a great blessing. That's a Holy Spirit-worked reality. There are other people who heard the ministry of Jesus, didn't believe in it. Thomas believed. This is a great blessing. But Jesus particularly says, There will be people later who will not see Jesus in the flesh, me in the flesh, but will believe. And we know that because he just commissioned the apostles to go out to the ends of the earth to preach the gospel. The gospel of Jesus who died and rose again from the dead. We also know from the New Testament, well, clearly from the book of Acts, but explicitly in 1 Peter 1, when Peter is writing to the pilgrims of the dispersion of Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, far from Palestine, people who never saw Jesus in the flesh, he writes this to them. He says that one day he's praying that you will be found a glory and honor at the revelation of Jesus Christ, whom having not seen, you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith, the salvation of your souls. In other words, when the apostles go out, they're preaching to a world that didn't see Jesus in the flesh risen again. But having not seen Him, believed in Him and loved Him, and wait for the day that He comes again on the clouds from glory. Now Jesus says to you, believer, blessed are you when you have not seen, but still believe. Now you have to see how this all works together. D.A. Carson in his commentary beautifully says this. Our faith comes by Jesus' gracious self-revelation to the apostles. In other words, we believe because of the witness of Peter, James, and John, and Thomas, and others who have gone out into history to testify to what they believed, that they saw a risen Jesus. But Jesus says, now remember, blessed are those who take this testimony and believe. For faith comes now by hearing, and hearing by the word of God. Romans 10, Paul would say, he saw the resurrected Jesus. And in verses 30 and 31, surely Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that you may believe and be blessed in believing, Jesus says, that Jesus is the Christ, the son of the living God, and that believing you may have life in his name. If you're here this morning, weak and weary, on the stormy sea of doubts and fears. You need to lift your head up. You need to look to Jesus. You need to look upon him not only in his risen glory, but in his compassion, love, and mercy for weak disciples like Thomas, like you, and like me. And you need to see that this was recorded so that Thomas might see for you and confess to you, my Lord and my God, so that you can read and say, Lord, I believe, help my unbelief. This narrative calls again for you to place your trust in and rest in a compassionate, triumphant Savior of sinners, Jesus Christ. Let's pray. Lord our God, we come to You this morning thankful for the testimony of Your Word, which is so plain and clear to us. Lord, we are here to confess that... Lord, we're here to give You thanks that in Your Word, You come to us with such grace and mercy. even to testify to us through the weakness of Thomas, of your compassion and grace and your interest, to work in us faith that is able to confess my Lord and my God. And so we confess again this morning, Lord Jesus, before you, that you are our Lord and our God. And that we see again in you this morning, compassion, grace, and mercy for the weak and the frail and the weary such as we are. And Lord, our restless hearts again find our rest in you. We pray in Jesus' name, amen.