Gospel of John [20:24-31]. Sending the apostles - God's destiny for the believer, part 4.

Title: Gospel of John [20:24-31]. Sending the apostles - God's destiny for the believer, part 4.

 

 

JOH 20:24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus [meaning "twin"], was not with them when Jesus came.

 

JOH 20:25 The other disciples therefore were saying to him, "We have seen the Lord!" But he said to them, "Unless I shall see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe."

 

JOH 20:26 And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, "Peace be with you." 

 

JOH 20:27 Then He said to Thomas, "Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing." 

 

JOH 20:28 Thomas answered and said to Him, "My Lord and my God!"

 

With absolute conviction and with overwhelming awe Thomas affirms that Jesus is His Lord and His God.

 

This is the first time that anyone calls Christ "my God." It is the climactic end of John's gospel corresponding to his prologue -

 

The Lord immediately affirms and commends him for His belief.

 

JOH 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? [statement] Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

 

Added is the fact of blessedness to those who believe without seeing, which will be the majority of the church by far.

 

Blessed refers to spiritual prosperity, which goes beyond faith for salvation into faith in all the scripture says about Him.

 

In love for Thomas, Christ desired to include him in the blessings that accrue to all who believe in Him and believe His word.

 

This last beatitude had a special message for the readers of this gospel when it was first published; it has the same message for readers of the gospel today. They had not seen, and neither have we; yet they might believe, and so may we.

 

We do not have to see the risen Christ but we do have to be told. Thomas was told and the rest of the disciples were told by Mary and the other women who had seen the risen Christ. They had to see. Blessed are we who believe and have not seen, but we do have to be told.

 

Faith is not blind. He was told by the others that Christ was resurrected.

 

JOH 20:31 but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

 

We are always witnessed to by the gospel and the word and by God in the circumstances of life. We are never asked to believe blindly but to believe in what God reveals to us. We are never asked to figure it out on our own. Many people want to do that out of pride, but in that pride they will never be able to find the truth of God. God always comes to us, we do not go to Him, and our proper response to His love is faith.

 

We are told by the word of God all that God has accomplished and what He has given us. The details of our everyday lives are not in the word, but with what we do know in faith, we apply faith to the things that we cannot know.

 

JOH 20:29 Jesus said to him, "Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed."

 

"Blessed" = happiness to all who would believe without seeing, through the testimony of those who saw Him.

 

HEB 11:1

Now faith is the assurance of things hoped for, the conviction of things not seen.

 

Jesus here approves the faith of Thomas, but more highly commends the faith of those who should believe without having seen.

 

Those that have not seen are those who should be convinced by the testimony of the apostles, and by the influences of the Spirit. The apostles were given a unique ministry to convict the world that Jesus was the Savior of mankind and the risen Christ, going to the corners of the world and giving their lives for that ministry. All of them, including Paul, saw the risen Christ.

 

We would not conclude that the believer who has not seen is more blessed than them who saw Him, but blessed in the sense of being prosperous of soul with the spiritual realities of Christ, all of which cannot be seen. The apostles were obviously filled with all the spiritual realities of the unseen, since it is them that have written of them so that we may know them.

 

The statement Christ makes is blessed are those who can rely on the unseen so as to have a deeply personal relationship with the Trinity rather than a ritualistic or superficial one, in other words, to walk in fellowship with Him whom we have not seen.   

 

All faith is of things not seen; and God is able to release Christ's inheritance to those who most implicitly rely on his word and so have capacity for a deeper relationship with Him.

 

God is opposed to the proud but gives grace to the humble. All believers have the inheritance of Christ but not all believers are drawing from it. The response to God's agape love is faith and hope and so fellowship that matures His love in us and then we have the capacity for the deep things of the spiritual life.

 

This is not to say that God blesses one believer more because of something that believer has done, it rather speaks of the deeper relationship. Every believer has been blessed before the foundation of the world with a maximum amount of blessings, but some believers ignore their relationship with God, and though they are so blessed, some of the blessings of God are not seen, understood, or experienced, and so prosperity comes but it passes them by.

 

1PE 1:8

and though you have not seen Him, you love Him, and though you do not see Him now, but believe in Him, you greatly rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory,

 

That’s the blessedness or prosperity of soul.

 

Thomas and the others, who wouldn't believe without seeing, will have to ask the world to believe without seeing.

 

JOH 20:30 Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;

 

JOH 20:31 but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

 

John, by means of the Holy Spirit, selects the miracles that he wrote in this book so that those who read may believe that Jesus is the Christ [Messiah] and the Son of God [deity]. In believing they would have life in His name.

 

John's gospel would awaken new faith in a generation without the apostles and in which all eye witnesses of Christ had passed, and strengthen already awakened faith.

 

Signs would refer to more than the miracles, but to every manifestation of His glory.

 

The last chapter of John is almost like an appendix. None of the other gospels record these events in Galilee and it may be that by the time this gospel was written there were some confusion about these things and so John wrote to clarify.