3/31/24 “My Lord and My God!”

“My Lord and My God!”

John 20:24-30

Has anyone ever heard of Easter Island?

It’s a relatively small island in a very remote part of the Pacific Ocean…and since 1888, it’s been a territory of Chile, which lies about 2,000 miles to the east.

It was given the name ‘Easter Island’ by Dutch explorer Jacob Roggeveen who encountered it on Easter Sunday back in 1722…that’s 302 years ago.

About 6,000 people currently live on Easter Island with its nearest inhabited neighbors being the 50 people who live on Pitcairn Island…1,300 miles away.

…Not exactly a day trip to visit the neighbors!

Despite being in such a remote and inaccessible part of the world, Easter Island experiences more than 100,000 tourists a year.

Any idea why so many people flock to this island?

The come to see the Moai.

The Moai are giant stone carved figurines of human bodies from the torso up.

There are over 1,000 Moai on the Island with some of them being over 30 feet tall.

Many of the Moai that you see in pictures are just from the head up with the rest of their bodies actually being buried underneath the soil.

The Moai remain a mystery as we don’t know how the ancient Rapa Nui people were able to transport the gigantic stone statues from their carving site to the places where they would eventually stand.

One interesting fact that I stumbled across while I was doing some research on Easter Island is that it is illegal to touch the Moai – and if you get caught touching one – you will get slapped with a serious fine.

One person I read about was fined $17,000 for leaning on a Moai while taking a selfie – that turned out to be an expensive picture!...

AND he was an American – go figure!

AS much as the Moai are a mystery, our passage for today describes an encounter between Thomas (one of Jesus’ disciples) and the resurrected Jesus……

An encounter involving mysteries that go far beyond that of the Moai statues.

Our passage for today begins the weekend after the events of the cross and the resurrection.

Just 10 days earlier, Jesus was drawing his last breaths of air while nailed to a cross…fulfilling the Father’s plan of salvation for all who would place their faith and trust in Jesus as Lord & Savior of their life.

It was on this Roman instrument of death that life would be offered to mankind…

Jesus had fulfilled his mission of bridging the infinite gap between a holy God and sinful humanity….something that none of us could have ever accomplished on our own.

God placed our sin upon Jesus, so that by faith in him, we can receive His righteousness…we can be forgiven…and we canhave eternal life.

When John the apostle records the words “It is finished” in the 30th verse of the19th chapter of his gospel, Jesus is proclaiming with his last few breaths that the sacrifice of his life has paid our sin debt in full.

…that his sacrifice on the cross has now made it possible for man to approach God directly, because Jesus is now our high priest interceding for us before the Father.

Matthew, Mark, and Luke all record a powerful event that occurred in the Temple as Jesus took his final breaths on the cross.

Matthew 27:51 says “At that moment the curtain of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom….”

This was extremely significant because the torn curtain was a physical demonstration of a spiritual reality that was now taking place.

The 4” thick temple curtain was used to keep everyone out of a certain room  – a place called the ‘Holy of Holies.’

It was in this ‘Holy of Holies’ that God’s Spirit was present, and only the high priest of Israel could enter the room once a year – on the day of atonement – to present a sacrifice for all the people.

But now, atonement for sin had been accomplished once and for all through the blood of Jesus Christ - the perfect, unblemished, sinless sacrifice.

No more would people of faith need to bring animal sacrifices to the temple…no more would men need to approach God through a priest…no more would God’s Spirit be confined to a room in the temple.

..His spirit would now dwell within those who place their faith & trust in Christ.

I love how Matthew also tells us that the curtain was torn from top to bottom, signifying that man could not have done this on his own – it was done directly by God.

You’re all familiar with what happens next.

The body of Jesus is taken off the cross and transported to a tomb nearby where it is sealed with a large stone.

The chief priests and Pharisees convinced Pilate to place Roman guards at the tomb for 3 days to make sure that no one tries to tamper with the body…

Since Jesus had taught that he would die and be raised to life in 3 days, the religious leaders who had him put to death were undoubtedly anticipating a “mic-drop” moment if Monday came without a resurrection.

Well…a resurrection-less Monday….never came.

It never came - because Sunday morning had something to say about it!

Sunday morning would reveal the greatest and most important miracle in the history of mankind.

Jesus had been raised to life – just as he prophesied would happen.

Early Sunday morning, he first appears to Mary Magdalene, then a little later, to all of the disciples.

Well…Almost all of the disciples…there’s one disciple missing – Thomas.

This brings us to our passage for today.

Verse 24 (John 20:24) says “Now Thomas (Called Didymus) one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples when Jesus came.”

In case you’re wondering why he was also called ‘Didymus’ – it was because ‘Didymus’ meant ‘twin’…he obviously was born a twin, but scripture doesn’t  tell us anything about his twin sibling – or if they were even still alive.

If you do a study on Thomas, you’ll find that Thomas is a bit of a pessimistic realist…he is one of those people who has their glass half-empty most of the time.

Does anyone remember Eeyore from the ‘Winnie the Pooh’ stories?

He was the gloomy, melancholy Donkey that had a knack for finding the dark cloud in every silver lining.

Eeyore was an introverted loner who primarily stuck to himself.

According to Wikipedia, Eeyore ate thistles and he lived by himself in a corner of the Hundred Acre Wood labeled ‘Eeyore’s Gloomy Place.’…

You get the point – he was a pretty depressed dude.

Well, if the disciples had all taken a ‘Winnie-the-Pooh’ personality test, Thomas would definitely be Eeyore.

(By the way, I once took a Winnie-the-Pooh personality test…It said I was a cross between the Owl and Piglet – not really sure what that means…)

 It would seem reasonable that Thomas would be hanging out by himself at ‘Eeyore’s Gloomy Place’ a week earlier when Jesus first appears to all of the other disciples.

Undoubtedly, Thomas would have been feeling depressed over the horrible death of his teacher…and he was probably the type of guy who wanted to grieve alone…we can’t be too hard on him for that.

But – look at his reaction in verse 25 (John 20:25) when his fellow pupils tell him that they saw Jesus alive.

Thomas says: “…. 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.”

Do you think Thomas had some trust issues with his compadres?

Here they are all telling him that Jesus appeared to them alive…and yet Thomas refuses to believe their story.

Don’t we have people like this today as well?

Folks, the fingerprint of God is all around us – from the complexity of the tiniest cell to the extremely precise laws of the universe…from the miracle of the human eyeball to the delicate balance of the world’s ecosystem – God can be seen in literally everything around us.

…and yet, there are more and more people today who refuse to believe it.

This is called deception…and deception comes from man’s spiritual enemy who goes by the name of Satan.

Thomas was also being deceived in his disbelief as to what the other disciples were telling him concerning the resurrected Christ.

Thomas wanted empirical proof…he needed to ‘follow the science’ on his own rather than to trust the words of his spiritual brothers.

Personally, I know many people in our world today that simply choose not to believe in anything belonging to the realm of the metaphysical.

To these individuals, nothing exists outside of what their five senses can perceive…or what our crude scientific instruments are able to detect.

That would mean that – to them – the love you have for your children (or grandchildren) is nothing more than a chemical reaction in your brain…

…That miraculous healings and answered prayer are never anything more than anomaly or coincidence.

…That lives changed through faith in Christ are simply examples of our own desire & will to change our behavior & beliefs.

It’s funny though, because people who don’t believe in God do believe that everything that happens in the cosmos is simply the result of random external forces.

..and these random external forces mean that all life – including human beings – don’t have any free will (This is called determinism, or fatalism)

Well, if none of us has a free will, how would we be able to use this ‘non-existent free will’ to suddenly ‘will’ ourselves into living a completely different life than we did before –

And to believe in a completely different set of values than we had previously believed…

The entire worldview of atheistic naturalism caves in upon itself when confronted with the power of the gospel of Jesus Christ!

Satan uses humanistic philosophy like this to deceive people into believing that God doesn’t exist – or that if he does exist – He’s some sort of cold, impersonal, deity that could care less about you or your life.

Nothing could be further from the truth…

God displayed His infinite love for us using 3 nails, 2 pieces of lumber, and its all recorded in 1 book – the most important book that the world will ever know.

So, back to Thomas.

Thomas isn’t buying the story that his fellow disciples are giving him – He demands empirical evidence – He demands proof.

Well, in verses 26 and 27 (John 20:26-27) he gets it…boy, does he get it!

We are told that Jesus – in his resurrected body – suddenly appears amongst the disciples in a room where the doors were locked (As I kid, I always thought that was just the coolest thing!)

Jesus walks over to Thomas…

Can’t you just imagine the look on Thomas’ face about now? Priceless!! 😊

In verse 27 (John 20:27) Jesus gives Thomas the proof he wanted.

Thomas….“See my hands”…”Feel my side”…

There’s no $17,000 fine for touching this mysterious torso!

Thomas sees that it is, indeed, Jesus…he is speaking to a man who was raised from the dead!

…But now, Thomas also finally understands that Jesus is no ordinary man.

The next few words out of Thomas’ mouth is – in my opinion –  the most important sentence ever uttered by someone other than Jesus!

John 20:28….. “Thomas said to him, ‘My Lord and my God!’”

MY LORD AND MY GOD!

Thomas – Mr. Empirical…Mr. show me…Mr. I need proof…finally was staring truth in the eye….He was staring God in the eye!!

Thomas finally had realized that – for the past 3 years - he had been a pupil of God in the flesh!

The gospel of John is unique in its emphasis on drawing out the divine nature of Jesus Christ….going all the way back to the first verse of the book:

John 1:1 says “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God.”

13 verses later,  John 1:14 continues to reveal the divinity of Jesus when it says “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the One and Only, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.

Now, through these exuberant, worshipful, and revealing words of Thomas in chapter 20, John leaves the reader with absolutely no doubt as to the divinity of Jesus Christ.

The author of the book of Hebrews concurs when he says “The Son is the radiance of God’s glory and the exact representation of his being, sustaining all things by his powerful word. After he had provided purification for sins, he sat down at the right hand of the Majesty in heaven.” (Hebrews 1:3)

The Apostle Paul says in Colossians 1:15 that Jesus is the “…Image of the invisible God….”

Coming to the understanding that Jesus is God in the flesh ultimately changed the trajectory of not only Thomas, but of all of the disciples.

They would all live out the rest of their lives boldly proclaiming the truth of the gospel message – the good news that Jesus had come to die upon a cross for the sins of the people….

And all of them, besides John…would die for the cause of Christ.

It’s been said that men will die for a lie they believe to be true, but men do not die for a proclaimed truth they know to be a lie.

The disciples knew that the resurrection was indeed true – they saw it (And felt it) with their own eyes…and all but one would give their life in the mission to tell others about Jesus.

Unfortunately, just like today, there will always be people who will hate the message of salvation through Jesus Christ.

They will hate it because it calls for them to confront sin in their life – to repent of that sin – to seek forgiveness from God – and to submit to the authority of Jesus Christ in their life.

It involves turning over the power and the reigns to the savior…we humans have a hard time relinquishing power to someone else – especially us Americans!

Like Sinatra used to sing: “I Did it My Way”….that has been the mantra of our culture through the centuries.

We are a proud and independent people…and sometimes that can work against us – especially when we are told to humble ourselves and submit to another’s authority….even if that authority is God.

Jesus tells Thomas in verse 29 (John 20:29) that those who believe and yet haven’t been given the same empirical proof that he had been given…

 They will be blessed.

The best translation for the word ‘blessed’ in the Bibel is to be ‘happy’…

Brothers & Sisters, that should describe you and me!

Are you happy this morning?

Are you full of Joy this morning because Sunday revealed an empty tomb?

Are you exuberant today because through the blood of Christ and through the empty tomb – you can now live forever with your savior?

He is Risen!  

HE Is Risen!! 

HE IS RISEN!!!

Let’s pray.