Witness who Believes in the Word of Jesus Christ (Jn. 20:24-31)
Let us bless and greet one another, “Jesus is the Christ, the Son of the living God.” The title of today’s message is, “Witness who Believes in the Word of Jesus Christ.” Last week, we received the world titled, “Into the World with the Lord of Life,” and last week, God gave me two different answers. On Wednesday and Thursday, my health was in a very bad state, I felt like I was almost going to die, it was something I had never experienced in my body before. On Wednesday, I was giving the Wednesday night message, and I thought I might fall over and faint, so I was holding onto the podium, and I began to doubt whether I’d be able to go on these different mission trips to Peru, Yakima, and Navajo. But in that situation, God allowed me to remember Isaiah 53:5, that by His wounds, we are healed. When I held onto this verse, I began to be restored. All of us have heard this verse before, so this is something I could not do on my own, but inside of Christ, God allowed me to experience or understand His Words at a deeper level, so that’s why I’m able to speak with a deeper experience today.
When I was driving on my way out, my face was pale and I almost looked like I was dead. After I got back home, after holding onto this Bible verse, my wife said that my face was completely different. So, in between that car ride, I was able to experience the Lord of Life Who was working upon me with the power of life. Isaiah 53:5 doesn’t only say that, it also says the punishment that brought us peace was upon Him. No matter what problems, crises, mistakes, scars, traumas, and mental problems you may have experienced in the past, the Lord has already taken the punishment for that, so the peace is upon us. This is how we use the words, “In Christ.” But our thoughts are so firmly planted inside of this belief that, “Oh, could I do this?” It’s stuck within “me.” We’re under this misconception, “Is this happening because I didn’t pray enough? Is this happening because I didn’t work hard enough?” But already, the Lord has finished it. A tremendous life is inside of me now, but my thoughts are blocking “me.” “I’m powerless, I’m weak, I’m poor,” but God has already promised you all of His blessings inside of His covenant. You’re just not able to experience it because you’re blocked by your thoughts. Inside of Jesus Christ, you will make disciples of all nations. If your thoughts agree with Jesus’ Words, then it is taking place in your life.
So, people say to me, “Pastor, I don’t find this believable,” but just believe in the fact that Christ has already done it. “Oh, it’s because I’m so lacking,” but all of that is a lie. “Oh, it’s because I don’t have enough money,” but Christ already promised that all of the blessings, both spiritual and physical, are prepared within Him. But our experience and our knowledge is blocking us from seeing that. Inside of us lives God with the power of creation, and He could work but we are blocking Him.
1. Thomas – Disciple
1) Did not see the resurrected Jesus (Jn. 20:24)
In today’s scripture, we read about Thomas, the disciple. Last week, when Jesus Christ resurrected and went to find the disciples, Thomas was not there.
(1) Disciples who saw the Lord (Jn. 20:25)
(2) Told Thomas (Jn. 20:25)
(3) Thomas said, “I will not believe unless I see Him” (Jn. 20:25)
So, when the other disciples tell Thomas, “We saw Jesus Christ,” Thomas responded, “I won’t believe it unless I see Him myself.”
2) Thomas’ faith
(1) Faith based on experience where it must align with his experience
So someone who has a walk of faith that is similar to Thomas will only believe something if they experience it themselves.
(2) Rational faith based on seeing and hearing
“I will only believe in something if it makes rational sense to me,” and this is especially rampant among our next generation. “I’m only going to believe in this if it makes sense according to my thoughts and based on what I see.”
(3) Faith that doesn’t believe in the word of Jesus’ resurrection
Then, already they are in a state where they do not believe in Jesus Christ’s words, when He said, “I will die and resurrect in three days.”
3) 8 days later
(1) Thomas was with the disciples (Jn. 20:26)
(2) Doors were locked (Jn. 20:26)
A week later, Jesus does find Thomas, and the disciples, even though they have seen the Lord Jesus, they are still trapped in fear and locked in their room.
(3) Jesus came – Peace be with you (Jn. 20:26)
So, Jesus comes to them again and says again, “Peace be with you.” Jesus Himself is peace, and when you believe in Jesus as your Lord, then His peace is relayed to us. Don’t work so hard to find peace; the peace is already inside of you, but your thoughts are locking the door. No matter what situation you are in, if you’re able to open the doors of your heart and believe in Jesus Christ as your peace and your Lord, then His peace will enter into you. It doesn’t matter what kind of problem you’re facing, your mental problems, your problems with addictions, the Lord’s peace will go into you because He Himself is peace. But it doesn’t matter how much you wander around in the world, looking for peace; it cannot give you peace.
2. Jesus Christ
1) Jesus’ Word
(1) Confirmed Jesus with his hands (Jn. 20:27)
Jesus had already heard the words Thomas said because He is with us everywhere and He hears and knows everything. Because Thomas said, “Unless I see and feel the nail marks in His hands and where the spear pierced His side, I will not believe Him.”
(2) Stop doubting (Jn. 20:27)
(3) And believe (Jn. 20:27)
The Lord heard this and said, “Confirm yourself,” and then He said, “Stop doubting and believe.”
2) Thomas
(1) My Lord (Jn. 20:28)
That is when Thomas confesses, “My Lord and my God.” When somebody confesses that Jesus Christ is “My Lord and my God,” It is impossible for a human to say that. In Mt. 16, when Simon Peter confessed, “Lord, You are the Christ, the Son of the living God,” Jesus said, “Blessed are you, this confession did not come from you, but by My Father in heaven.” When we confess that Jesus is our Lord, that confession doesn’t come from us. In the same way, the Holy Spirit gave Thomas the grace to make that confession, and the fact that you’re able to make that confession that Jesus is Lord means the Holy Spirit has already given you grace. If you confess that He is your Lord, it means He is your Lord and Master no matter what the situation is, then God’s blessing will shine upon me.
(2) My God (Jn. 20:28)
He is my God. Most religions do not claim Jesus to be their god, but Thomas confesses Jesus to be “My God.” That is the only way for the blessings of God to flow into us within Christ.
(3) Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed (Jn. 20:29)
Then the Lord said, “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed,” the true blessing is believing without seeing. God is telling us this through Thomas today. We’ve never seen Jesus, we’ve never seen Him die on the cross, we’ve only just heard the Word about this and believed it by God’s grace. So what is the true blessing? Believing without seeing. Without God’s complete work upon you, it is impossible for us to believe.
3) Reason why the Bible was written (Jn. 20:31)
(1) Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God (Jn. 20:31)
(2) That you may believe (Jn. 20:31)
(3) By believing you may have life (Jn. 20:31)
Then John 20:31 says, “But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name.” This is what He is writing to us. Do you find this believable? By the work of God’s Holy Spirit, we find this believable. “So that, by this faith, you may have life in His name.” Life, eternal life, the life which is the opposite of death, the life that can save anything. That is inside of us, but our thoughts are thoughts of death, “I can’t do this, I don’t have money, I’m diseased, my age is like this, my entire family line is powerless,” all of these thoughts are from death, in other words, they are not thoughts from God. Those thoughts make us trapped under Satan’s death and drag us in that direction.
Do you know what kind of creation humans were born as? If you compare to a tree, imagine if a tree is cut from its root; that’s the state humans are born in. The devil and the world will never tell you that; the world and the devil will tell you, “No, you can become a beautiful, strong, and fruitful tree.” However, the Bible is telling us that all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God. Because of the Original Sin of Adam, we have been born with a spiritual state that is separated or cut off from the Life of God. Because of that Original Sin, the physical death is already in your body. If a tree is cut off from its roots, it may still have leaves and look alive, and that may last for 100 years, 10 years, or 5 years, but people are just looking at the physical form and chasing after that, without realizing that they’re already dead. But the devil lies; the devil tells you, “If you work hard or get stronger, you can become great,” but strangely enough, the more time passes, the more I’m withering away, and the more time passes, I’m completely dried up, and then after that, the tree or plant that is withered up gets thrown into the fire, or hell. This is what God tells us about mankind in the Bible.
But the devil continues to push mankind in the wrong direction by making us have faith or hope in ourselves, telling us that if we have faith or are strong enough or have a good personality or try hard. It is because we do not know who we are. We are trusting in ourselves with this ego with which the devil has deceived us. The more time passes, the more we will come to the conclusion that this is not true. That’s why there are so many songs that people sing later on that say that life is in vain,” because that suits us too well. While people drink alcohol, they feel comforted. Again, whenever they feel sad, they drink another drink. Later on, without even realizing it, I’m addicted. Some people use drugs or substances, it’s because they are deceived. Human beings are born in a state where we cannot survive. God has already designed and created human beings in the image of God, meaning we cannot live without God. However, the devil that is holding onto the world is still lying to us, saying, “No, you just have to live a good life by yourself, you just need to have a good, clean personality. If you work hard on your own, then you can make it.” Those words sound so correct but that’s why the devil is the father of lies.
Anything that is not from the Word of God is a lie. Jesus says, “I am the Way and the Truth,” that means only the words of Jesus are true. Everything else seems like it’s right, but it’s a lie. Inside of that incorrect information, my personality was formed. Inside of those lies, we think and make our decisions and our judgments. Jesus Christ is living inside of us, but we’ve lived regardless of that. From the moment we are able to know who we really are, the gospel will come into us. Before that point, God’s grace had given us the gospel, but we still don’t know who we are. Until we realize who we are, we will keep placing false hope in ourselves and end up living a religious life, thinking, “If I pray enough, if I work hard enough, if I do this or that,” but that’s not how this works. Only when Jesus Christ dies on the cross can we come to life. My ego must die on the cross with the Lord in order for us to receive the blessing of new life. If you’re not able to understand this gospel, you’ll have to try really hard to kill yourself. That’s what happened during the Middle Ages when these Catholic monks would hurt themselves, crawling up stone stairways until their knees were bleeding, in an attempt to get rid of their sinful thoughts—that’s just a religious life.
It’s not about getting rid of it yourself; Christ has finished it. By His death on the cross, Jesus Christ has already finished all the curses and disasters of sin, the authority of Satan, and death. Now, I am able to live with Christ. That is the first starting point of a saved child of God. You must be able to know and believe in the gospel according to the Bible in order for you to receive the answers of the Bible. If you keep on putting hope in yourself, then you will fall into religion. “It’s because I didn’t pray enough, it’s because I didn’t give enough offering, it’s because I keep on thinking bad thoughts,” but that old “me” is already dead on the cross, and now, the new life I live is with the Word of Christ as my thoughts. Then without a doubt, you are bound to receive God’s power. That’s the kind of creation the Lord called us to be. But we keep on changing back into legalism and religion.
3. Jesus Christ
1) Word (Jn. 1:1)
(1) God, Creator (Jn. 1:1,3)
John 1:1 says that Jesus Christ is the Word and that He is God, and the Bible says that He is the Creator, and that He came to earth in the flesh.
(2) Came as flesh (Jn. 1:14)
(3) Word – Eternal (1Pet. 1:24-25)
1 Pet. 1:24-25 says the Word of God is eternal. The words of people may be very beautiful but they are not fulfilled. The books that are written by the greatest individuals of the world, may be great words, but they are just words; they are not fulfilled. Only the Word of God is eternal, that is what you must hold onto. Your thoughts as well, they are not from the Word of God, so you need to get rid of them. You don’t even have to try to get rid of them; if you hold onto the Word of God instead, they will naturally go away.
2) Cross
(1) It is finished (Jn. 19:30)
So, He has finished everything on the cross, and He has prepared everything into the very future, and He is guiding us.
(2) The world has been crucified to me, and I to the world (Gal. 6:14)
Gal. 6:14 says the world has been crucified to me, and I to the world. “The world has been crucified to me, and I have been crucified to the world.” This means we’re dead to each other, it means that we no longer have a connection. But we are trembling in the world, people are trying so hard to make something in the world, but it’s already finished. Now, we are only related to Christ, but we keep falling under a misconception, “Oh, the world is so hard,” but that’s irrelevant to you. We are only related to Christ. That’s why Christ tells us to conquer the world with the power of the Life of Christ. All the people of the world and all of their words make the world so hard, but that’s a lie, we are dead to that. That’s what we have been saved from, and now those things are irrelevant to you, now, only I and Christ are connected.
(3) Faith that the Lord of life lives within me (Gal. 2:20)
That’s why Only Christ, only the Life of Christ, only His Word. Only from there will I receive power, and from that, I go out into the world to conquer it. We conquer it so that the words of lies will turn into the Truth. For all of the people who are diseased or tired or exhausted because of the words of Satan’s lies, give them the words of Truth and Life. That is what God is giving to us. “It’s because I don’t pray enough”? Do you think you get power because you pray enough about it? You get power when the Lord of power gives you power. When the people of Israel held onto Jesus’ cloak, they were well. Jesus is not somewhere far away; He is living inside us with His power, and when we hold onto the words of Jesus Christ, that is when the power is upon us.
3) Faith
(1) Listening to the word of Christ (Rom. 10:17)
How can we get that faith? Romans 10:17 says that we receive faith by hearing the words about Christ. If you don’t hear it, then you cannot be in faith. Because God is the Word, you must hear the Word with your ears and read it with your eyes. The fact that He is Spirit, He says, “My Words are Spirit and Life.” If you don’t understand what this means, you’re going to fall into unhealthy mysticism, where you try to experience Jesus physically. This is a spiritual world so you keep trying to experience something spiritually, and yes, that is true, the Holy Spirit is spiritual, but now the way the Holy Spirit works specifically is by teaching you and reminding you of the words of Jesus Christ, that’s how, by the works of the Holy Spirit, you’re able you understand the words of Jesus Christ.
(2) Faith – Confidence in what we hope for, assurance about what we do not see (Heb. 11:1)
Heb. 11: 1 says that Faith is evidence for what is hoped for, and evidence of things not seen. What does this mean? Does this mean you just have to believe whatever you want to believe, and that’s going to become your faith? If I believe I’m going to get whatever I want, then is that going to become your conviction? Will it become evidence of what I don’t see? Then, that becomes a blind faith where you just say, “I believe,” but God is His Word. It is the reality of what we’ve hoped for, which is that God’s covenant is promised and that covenant becomes the evidence of what we don’t see. That’s faith. The Word is the Word, and you can’t see it, but according to that Word, the visible things will take place. If the words of God’s covenant are inside of us with life, then with time, we’ll see that visibly in our life.
(3) One who pleases God – Faith (Heb. 11:6)
Psalm 1 says blessed are those who meditate on the Word of the Law day and night and they will bear fruit in time. Heb. 4 says the Word of God is living and active, sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates our thoughts, our bones and marrow, so it heals us with the Word of God. But because the Word of God is invisible, it becomes our sure evidence. Inside of Christ, inside of the cross, all of your diseases and all of your problems are already finished. Is that Word reality to you? If you hold onto that with faith and assurance, God works. Yes, the Word of God is invisible, but it comes to you as visible evidence, that is a walk of faith based on faith in God’s Word. Fascinatingly enough, there are people whom God has already prepared in the field to be disciples; even if they’ve never seen or heard the Word, they believe it when they hear it. The Bible tells us that we can never please God without faith. When we believe in the Word of God’s promise, that’s when God fills us with His joy. I believe this is our walk of faith.
Conclusion
1. Word of Christ – Faith
In conclusion, Christ is the Word, He has already finished everything for us on the cross; He already has made a way, all the way to heaven. As we live in this world, we are living within God’s plan. The faith that believes in this Word, if you believe it, then the evidence will come.
2. Gain evidence
Then, you will stand as a witness with the evidence to those who do not believe. That’s why we say, “Only, only the words of Christ, only faith,” and that word comes only from the Bible.
3. Become witness to the world
So, the people in the world are denying Christ, but you must stand as a witness with the evidence of the Bible. God is wanting us to do that through your studies or your jobs as a tool. “And I will always be with you forever to the ends of the earth, with all power over heaven and earth, and I will make it so that no one can go against you.” Do you believe in this? If you do, then you will see the glory of God. May you have victory throughout the week.
Message Prayer
Let us pray holding onto the Word we have received.
Offering Prayer and Newcomer Blessing
God, we thank You. We have returned your materials as offering, Everywhere it is used, may the souls that are dying be saved. May You give the fruits of faith upon the hands that have given this offering. We believe You will use their offering in faith to save many people. We believe that this faith will be used by God according to Your need and abundance. We believe You will work with the promise of filling our need. In Jesus Christ’s name we pray, amen.
Announcements
1. Online zoom early morning prayer (Mon.-Fri. 5:30, Sat. 6AM) – Raise the bartizan of prayer
2. Church officer’s meeting today at 12:30PM, Church officer’s room.
3. LA College Retreat on 3rd week of June, North America College Retreat on 4th week
4. 6/23-26 Navajo and Sedona Mission Camp
5. 7/3-5 LA Children’s Retreat
6. Offering can be given to the church venmo: @Antiochmissionchurch
Benediction
Now may the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, the unending love of God, and the indwelling, guidance, fellowship, and working of the Holy Spirit, be upon the heads of all the people of God, the people of all nations, and the remnants and all the work they are doing, that they may hold onto the covenant of the Word of Jesus Christ in faith and receive those fruits and works, be with them from now until forevermore always, amen.