THRU THE BIBLE EXPOSITION

John: Believing On The Christ, The Son Of God, For Eternal Life

Part XLVIII: Trusting In Christ For His Resurrection Evidence To Thomas

(John 20:24-31)

I. Introduction

A. John's Gospel presents Jesus as the Son of God Who was full of grace and truth, and the events surrounding His death, burial and resurrection reveal His grace and truth in His claim to be the Son of God and Messiah.

B. For our edification, we view the evidences of His bodily resurrection in His meeting with "doubting" Thomas:

II. Trusting In Christ For His Resurrection Evidence To Thomas, John 20:24-31.

A. In the early days of Christ's earthly ministry in John 1:47-48a when Jesus first met Nathaniel, Christ told Nathaniel that he was an Israelite in whom was no guile, and Nathaniel wondered how Christ would thus know him when they had as not yet humanly met one another.

B. Jesus had replied that before Philip had called Nathaniel to tell him about Jesus that Jesus had seen Nathaniel under the fig tree, supernatural knowledge for sure, to which Nathaniel had replied, "Rabbi, thou art the Son of God; thou art the King of Israel," claims that Christ was God (cf. John 5:18) and Messiah, John 1:48b-49.

C. The reason Nathaniel was so impressed by Jesus is that while Nathaniel had been under the fig tree, he had been thinking about Old Testament Jacob's guile when he ran from his brother Esau and of Jacob's dream of God's angels ascending and descending on him while he slept, and Jesus' reference to Nathaniel not having that guile stunned Nathaniel. Jesus then referred to that very thought Nathaniel had under the fig tree, saying that in the Kingdom, Nathaniel would see God's angels descending and ascending on Jesus, John 1:50-51!

D. This capacity of Jesus as GOD to know His people so intimately while humanly physically absent from them is repeated in the incident involving "doubting" Thomas, further revealing the risen Jesus is indeed the same Jesus and Messiah and God who had appeared to Nathaniel early in His earthly ministry, John 20:24-28:

1. When Jesus appeared to the disciples in John 20:19-23, one disciple, Thomas, was not present, John 20:24.

2. Though the other ten men told Thomas that they had seen Jesus, a claim any Jew under the Law was bound to believe as more than two or three witnesses had testified of the risen Lord's appearance (cf. Deut. 19:15), Thomas refused to believe! He said that except he were to see in Jesus' hands the print of the nails and put his finger into the print of the nails and thrust his hand into the open spear wound of His side, he would not believe Christ had risen from the dead, John 20:25! Thomas was a true skeptic!

3. Eight days later the disciples and Thomas met behind closed doors and Jesus appeared in their midst to say, "Peace be unto you," the same greeting He gave the past time He appeared unto them, John 20:26, 19.

4. However, to Thomas' amazement, Jesus revealed He had heard Thomas' claim of doubt in referring to that claim, urging Thomas, "Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side: and be not faithless, but believing," John 20:27! Note Jesus' detailed observation of Thomas' initial remark repeated here by Christ to show His total awareness of what Thomas had said.

5. Without making the physical examination he had initially said he would need to make to believe Jesus was risen, Thomas replied, "My Lord and my God!" (John 20:28) Jesus had heard Thomas make his claim when Jesus had not been physically present, revealing the same thing Jesus' claim about Nathaniel's being under the fig tree before Jesus and Nathaniel physically met -- that Jesus as God new all about them!

E. Jesus then reached out across the centuries of time to communicate with John's readers -- with us -- that just as He knew Nathaniel as God, just as He knew Thomas as God amid his doubts of His resurrection in Jesus' physical absence, so He intimately knows all about the thoughts and deeds of us His people who read this account now, and He promises to bless us who have never seen Him but trust in Him today, John 20:29.

F. John added that Jesus truly did many other signs to prove He had risen that are not recorded in John's Gospel, but that he had written these things that we might believe that Jesus was the Messiah, the Son of God, that by faith in Him we might have eternal life through His name, John 20:30-31.

Lesson: The risen Christ revealed in His interaction with "doubting" Thomas that He was the same GOD INCARNATE who SUPERNATURALLY knew all about Thomas just as He knew all about Nathaniel, and that He as GOD ALSO thus knows all about and blesses US TODAY who BELIEVE in HIM for salvation!

Application: (1) May we believe in Christ to be saved, John 20:30-31. (2) May we revere and rest in the infinite OMNISCIENCE that Christ has of EACH of US TODAY who trust in Him, (3) and so may we heed His Word.