It’s good to meet a proper sceptic.
In the Bible, the Bible doesn’t whitewash its heroes. The four Gospels are honest as we watch Jesus’ disciples struggle to believe and mess up spectacularly. In fact, this is yet another reason to back up why we believe these things to be true, and to really happen — to have really happened — as written. If the disciples had invented their account of the life of Jesus to give a reason for their preferred religion, they surely would not have come up with an account that leaves themselves looking very slow to get to the point and often spectacular failures. They would have written themselves into the narrative with a slightly more favourable position in the story, I think.
But regardless of that, it is good that the Bible is honest. As we watch Thomas address his doubts and come to faith, he helps us, since many today struggle at exactly the same points, and the result is a more robust faith. In Thomas, he inspires us all, and in this account he articulates one of the most breathtaking statements of faith found in the whole New Testament.
As we look at this story together this morning, I want to be guided by the last verse of that reading. If you’ve ever heard me teach on John’s Gospel before, you will know that that last verse — verse 31 — is a really important verse, because it’s where John tells us why he wrote his book.
“Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book, but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”
As well as summing up the whole of John’s Gospel and bringing it to a conclusion, that verse also sums up this passage that we’ve just heard read, and the chapter 20 that we’ve just been looking at for a few weeks now, and brings that to a conclusion. So it seems that a good way to make sense of and explore the passage together — the story — is to use verse 31 as a guide as to what we should be looking for. So I’m going to draw three headings out of verse 31 and then use those headings to unpack and apply for us what is happening in the story as a whole.
1. The Messiah and the Son of God is Jesus.
Is Jesus the Messiah and the Son of God?
“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.” So John has written his book, he tells us, that we might believe certain things — and what he wants us to believe is that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. Or, more accurately, that we might believe that the Messiah and the Son of God is Jesus. Both grammatically, that’s the way around that the sentence has its emphasis, but also historically: the question on people’s lips at the time of Jesus was not “Who is Jesus?” but “Where can I find God’s Messiah?” — to which John’s reply is, “The Messiah is Jesus.”
This is the conclusion that Thomas reaches in verse 28, where Thomas says to Jesus, “My Lord and my God.”
Let me just draw attention to a few details in that short sentence from Thomas.
“My Lord and my God.” The first detail is that he calls Jesus “my Lord” — not just “Lord.” “Lord” would be a mark of respect, and that’s all. A little bit like today in English, you sometimes call someone “sir” or “madam” simply as a title that indicates some respect. That happens less often than it used to, but for example — if you remember aeroplanes, remember those things that you used to go on holiday — if you go on an aeroplane, they might say, “Would you like some apple juice or orange juice to drink?” And if you booked on a classy enough airline, they would put the word “sir” on the end. For that extra word “sir,” you paid an extra ten pounds on your ticket price. But it’s just simply a way of being polite as you address people. Or, in the kind of old days of the Scottish clans or the English feudal system, you might speak of somebody as a lord simply to reflect the fact that they happen to own more land around here than other people do, and so you respect them. And that’s what “Lord” means.
But Thomas doesn’t stop at “Lord.” He goes further: “Jesus is my Lord.” He recognises that Jesus has a claim over him, and Thomas owes him total loyalty. That’s the first detail to notice.
The next detail to notice is that Thomas calls him “God” — “my Lord and my God.” Now, it may be utterly unremarkable for us to hear Jesus being called God. We’re so used to it. Even children with no interest in any of the world’s religions have to study RE at school, and they learn that Christians worship a God called Jesus. It’s obvious that Jesus is God; we expect it; it’s not remarkable. Except it is remarkable, because the Jews of his day were so ingrained with the fact that there was only one God that to address any human being as “my God” would be nothing short of blasphemous. So actually this stands out a mile as the most extraordinary thing for Thomas to say.
When I had not been here very long, we used to have a church hall at the back before it burned down, and we had our children’s groups meeting just over there — it was really handy. And there was a session one week where I think they were looking through bits of Matthew’s Gospel and some of the miracles, and they noticed this thing: that lots of the miracles had Jesus doing things that actually only God has the right to do. Only God can calm storms — Jesus calmed storms. Only God can raise the dead — Jesus raised the dead. And so, to help reinforce this lesson, there was a little song — a short song — that the children were taught, which contained the line, “Jesus can do what only God can do.”
And one parent after the session objected to this. They said, “Why, that’s an odd thing to tell the children, because it’s obvious that Jesus can do what only God can do, because Jesus is God.” To which the reply is, “Yes, he is — just in case you thought any of us doubted the fact that he was God.” But actually, it may be obvious to you and me that Jesus is God, but there are a lot of people in Britain and all over the world for whom it is very far from obvious that Jesus is God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses do believe him to be a son of God, but not God. Muslims, in their religion, do make mention of Jesus of Nazareth, but he certainly isn’t God. The Unitarians don’t believe in Jesus as God either. They all deny that Jesus is God. And yet Thomas came to believe it: “My Lord and my God.”
And so John’s Gospel ends echoing and reflecting the way with which it began — the words we hear every Christmas. Thomas himself came to believe: “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. The Word became flesh and dwelt among us.” And Thomas is there with Jesus in front of him — flesh and blood — and he says to him, “My Lord and my God.”
Third little detail to notice from Thomas’s sentence in verse 28: Jesus is “my God,” not just “God.”
Now it’s fashionable today to avoid talking in absolutes. So someone becomes a Christian and what their friends say to them is, “I’m so pleased for you — you’ve finally found something that makes sense of life. You follow your path; this clearly works for you and helps you a great deal, and I’m thrilled for you.” And it’s tempting to hear Thomas through that filter — so that Thomas has now chosen, from all the possible deities that are perfectly legitimate choices, and Thomas has finally landed on his choice: “My god is going to be Jesus. You choose the one that works for you.”
That’s not at all what Thomas means. Because if you’ve read John’s Gospel attentively, you know that to speak of God in John’s Gospel is to speak of the Creator of all, the one to whom we all must give an account. And therefore, for Jesus to be Thomas’s God is to say that Jesus is the God of every human being. And what the word “my” does is very similar to what it does to “my Lord” — it recognises that the God of heaven and earth, the maker of everything, is not just “God out there.” Thomas is saying, “You are my God, and I bow before you.”
So he’s my Lord. He’s God. He’s my God.
Last little detail to notice before we move on is Jesus’s response. You see, Jesus was an orthodox Jewish rabbi. What do you expect an orthodox Jewish rabbi to do if someone falls down before you and says, “You are my God”? You recoil in horror and you say, “No, no, no, no — I am here to point you to God. Do not worship me. Only worship the one true God.”
So does Thomas get a telling off from Jesus? Verse 29: “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.” He tacitly and gently agrees with and approves of Thomas’s response, and he’s delighted to accept Thomas’s worship.
The Messiah and the Son of God is Jesus.
2. Believe in Jesus
Back to verse 31. The second thing to draw out from this story is: believe in Jesus.
“These are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God” — that you may believe.
Notice, as this story unfolds between Thomas and Jesus, how there are two key themes playing out that reflect off each other: the theme of seeing and the theme of believing. Verse 25: the other disciples tell Thomas, “We have seen the Lord,” to which Thomas’s reply is, “Unless I see, I will not believe.” Verse 26: Jesus comes and stands among them. Verse 27: he says to Thomas, “See my hands. Stop doubting and believe.” “My Lord and my God.” Then: “Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
In other words, Thomas believed Jesus to be alive because he saw Jesus alive. It would have been better for him to believe Jesus to be alive without seeing him for himself — not because seeing Jesus is a bad thing, or is unimportant, but because Jesus had been seen alive by the others, and therefore Thomas didn’t need to see him for himself. Which means we can believe in Jesus without seeing him for ourselves, because other reliable people did see him alive.
Which is why verse 30 is what it is: “Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book.” John is saying, “You would not believe how many bits of parchment there are on the cutting-room floor. There are so many stories of Jesus I could have told you about, but I just chose not to include them all.” So why did he stop at the ones he had? Because “these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God.” “I’ve written more than enough for you to reach the right conclusion about Jesus, so I’ve stopped.”
Which means: if we don’t believe Jesus to be the Messiah and the Son of God, if we don’t believe Jesus to be risen from the dead, it is not because there is insufficient evidence. It’s for some other reason.
The Messiah and the Son of God is Jesus. Believe in Jesus.
3. Have life in Jesus
And then, back to verse 31, the third thing to draw out of this account: have life in Jesus.
As we’ve worked our way through John chapter 20, we have talked over the past few weeks about the life that Jesus came to bring. Our sin has been dealt with. He welcomes us into God’s family. He brings us true peace. Go back further into John and you see even more about the life he came to bring. We find that death is not the end, that Jesus will raise all who believe in him up on the last day, that we will then live with him forever, and that that future will be life lived to the full — symbolised by a miracle at which he produced at a wedding the most enormous quantity of the best quality wine anybody had ever tasted. That miracle was designed to show you how good and how full and how wonderful life will be when Jesus comes back.
Jesus came that we may have life. In fact, we can let Jesus define life for us. In John 17, just before he dies, he’s praying to his Father, and he’s just said that he gave eternal life to the disciples, and then Jesus prays this: “Now this is eternal life” — John 17 verse 3 — “that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent.”
The point of all this is this: John’s Gospel is not an academic book. It was not written that you might study it and reach right conclusions about Jesus, because Christianity is not an academic religion. It is not there for you to have deep thoughts and opinions about God. Now, don’t get me wrong — it’s good to study John’s Gospel, it’s good to reach right conclusions about Jesus, it’s good to think deeply about what God has revealed about himself. But we do these things as means to an end. We do them so that we can come to Jesus and enjoy the life that he came to bring.
In John 5, Jesus is in discussion with various people objecting to various things, and in verses 39 and 40 he says this to them: “You study the scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life.”
It’s possible to be very wrong about Jesus. But it’s also possible to be very right about Jesus and yet still be far from him.
Conclusion
Let me draw all of this together.
There is an important epilogue to John’s Gospel — chapter 21, more next week — but apart from that, John’s now finished his book, and he wrote it for a reason. He wants you to have life, which is so much more than being physically alive, so much more than having loads of money, a good job, and a good house, so much more than having fun with your friends, so much more than returning to the freedoms we had before the pandemic.
Jesus came that we might have life — in full colour, in four dimensions — which is all about being rightly related to the God who made you, about knowing God as your heavenly Father who cares for you and provides for your every need, about being included in God’s family, about knowing that all of this that is so wonderful does not end when we die but gets better instead. Jesus will come back and take us to live with him in his perfect new world and with his Father forever. This is l-i-f-e, life in capital letters, in neon signs. This is why Jesus came, and it’s why John wrote his book: that you may have life.
But let me ask, just before we finish: where is it with you?
Chances are there’s probably a scale — a spectrum — of people in this room. Down one end, there are people who are convinced that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God. You believe him, you trust him, and you have life in his name. If that’s you: keep going. It can be tough being a Christian. This passage was designed to strengthen your trust in him and keep you going, so press on.
Down the other end, we have people who are still looking, or into all of this — you’re not yet a Christian, you know you’re not, you just have too many questions. And if that’s you, I’m so pleased you’re here. Please keep coming. Please keep asking those questions. But let me just ask: what is it exactly you’re looking for? Or, to quote Jesus talking to Mary Magdalene: “Who is it you are looking for?” It’s worth searching, because the pot at the end of the rainbow is not gold — it’s life itself. So it’s worth the search.
But if what you’re looking for is conclusive proof, let me tell you: you will never get to see Jesus for yourself in this life. He has not promised you that. You’re going to have to make your mind up based on the evidence we have. And John tells us he’s given us more than enough evidence with which to do that, so that you can reach the right conclusion.
That’s sort of the two ends of the scale.
Somewhere in the middle, maybe there are people who’ve come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah and the Son of God — you have the right answers in your head — but you’ve never believed in him. You’ve never come to him to put your trust in him and to receive life in his name. If that’s you: wouldn’t today be a good time to act?
All you need to do is talk to God and tell him you would like to start with Jesus today. I’m not going to lead us through a prayer to do that now, because you can find your own words — you can do it later when there’s no pressure from me. But if you’ve reached that point but you’ve never acted on it, find a quiet five minutes and articulate that to God. You just need to say three things: sorry, thank you, and please. “Sorry, God, that I’ve pushed you away and tried to live my own life my own way. Thank you for sending Jesus to be the Messiah and the Son of God, to die and rise again, to bring forgiveness and new life. Sorry. Thank you. Please — I accept that forgiveness and new life. Please give me the help of your Holy Spirit to live for you.”
And then, if you pray a prayer like that later on today or at some other point, let me encourage you to tell someone the same day that that’s what you’ve done. Now, you’ll have all of your life to tell family and friends who are not best pleased to hear the news that you’ve decided to follow Jesus — so tell them later. Person number one, let me suggest, you find somebody who’ll be pleased to hear the news and who’ll be able to support you in the steps in the days and weeks ahead.
But for this morning, let me finish with the last few verses of this reading.
“Because you have seen me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed. Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples which are not recorded in this book. But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.”