Jesus Appears to Thomas
John 20:24-31
24 Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 The other disciples therefore said to him, “We have seen the Lord.” So he said to them, “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” 26 And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace to you!” 27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” 28 And Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed. Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are 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’s Purpose (John 20:30-31)
We have come today at the end of John 20 to the very purpose of the Gospel of John. Most bible scholars, commentators and preachers will agree that the confession of Thomas (John 20:28), “My Lord and my God!”, is the pinnacle of the testimonials to Jesus Christ. No other disciple in the Gospel exalts Jesus with a loftier confession of faith. John bookends his Gospel with statements of the deity of Christ. Remember that John began his Gospel by stating that Jesus, the Word, was God. He was in the beginning with God and all things were made through Him. Then throughout his Gospel John has given us much convincing evidence that Jesus is God. But so far in twenty chapters of John’s Gospel, no one has yet confessed that Jesus is God. So now, right before John calls us to believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, he reports the great confession of Thomas who calls Jesus “Lord” and “God.” This is the pinnacle of Christology in John’s Gospel. This is what he has been seeking to show us.
Of course, this is not the end of the book of John, but it is the climax. We still have John 21 which concludes the Gospel. John 21 is kind of the denouement of the story that comes after the climax where the loose ends come together. It’s kind of a mopping-up. The climax of the Gospel of John as we have seen is found in the events of the crucifixion and resurrection of Jesus Christ. This includes Thomas’ conclusive testimony of the deity of Christ.
One of the things that we need to remember is that John is very selective in the events and teachings he includes in his Gospel. In fact, John is so selective that if you count up the days that John covers in his Gospel there are really only about 22 different days that John writes about. Think about that. Out of thirty years in the life of Jesus; three and a half years of ministry; maybe thousands of miracles; unnumbered teachings and sermons; intimate conversations with the Master; and more; John records only the events that total about three weeks. John himself tells us that he purposely does this (John 20:30-31), “And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are 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 purposely chose these events, these signs, so that you would believe in Jesus Christ. Then again at the end of the Gospel John writes (John 21:25), “And there are also many other things that Jesus did, which if they were written one by one, I suppose that even the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”
In a sermon on these verses, Charles Spurgeon (Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit [Pilgrim Publications], 27:653-664) pointed out that John sticks faithfully to his purpose. He omits some stories about himself which would have made himself shine, such as being with Jesus on the Mount of Transfiguration. John left out many things that he could have written.
Rather, John gives us a series of testimonies of people who were led to believe in Jesus as the Christ, the Son of God. In John 1, Andrew finds his brother Peter and exclaims (John 1:41), “’We have found the Messiah’ (which is translated, the Christ).” Then Philip finds Nathaniel and announces (John 1:45), “We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the Prophets wrote—Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.” Nathaniel confesses (John 1:49), “Rabbi, You are the Son of God! You are the King of Israel!” And so it goes throughout the book: Nicodemus (John 3); the woman at the well and the Samaritans (John 4); numerous witnesses in John 5; in John 6:69, Peter testifies, “we have come to believe and know that You are the Christ, the Holy One of God.”
Now after Jesus’ glorious death and resurrection John presents the definitive testimony of Thomas. This means that John the apostle, sitting down and writing this Gospel so that people would believe; considering all the things that Jesus did and said; thinking of all the encounters he had with Jesus and others had with Jesus; John chose the Lord’s encounter with Thomas as the highpoint of his Gospel witness. Why?
Doubting Thomas (John 20:24-25)
Why Thomas? The apostle Thomas has gotten a bad reputation over the centuries. We call him “doubting Thomas.” We think of him as a skeptic or a pessimist. But really, like most of the apostles, we know very little about him personally. The name Thomas comes from the Hebrew word for twin (Gen. 25:34). Three times in his Gospel John calls him Didymus which is the Greek word for twin. In each of the other Gospels Thomas is only mentioned once—in the lists of the apostles (Matt. 10:3; Mark 3:18; Luke 6:15). In those lists he is always coupled with Matthew. So some have speculated that Thomas and Matthew were twins, although in Acts Thomas is paired with Philip.
Everything else we know about Thomas comes from the Gospel of John. In John 11:16 when Jesus decides to go to Judea after his friend Lazarus has died, the disciples objected that it was too dangerous. But Thomas said (John 11:16), “Let us also go, that we may die with Him.” Perhaps Thomas may have been a little pessimistic, but he was loyal to Jesus. Thomas speaks up again in the upper room after Jesus has told the disciples that He was going away to His Father. Jesus said (John 14:4), “And where I go you know, and the way you know.” But Thomas complained (John 14:5), “Lord, we do not know where You are going, and how can we know the way?” To which Jesus replied (John 14:6), “I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”
Now in John 20 Thomas appears for the third time. This episode took place one week (eight days) after Jesus had suddenly appeared behind closed doors to the other disciples on the evening of resurrection Sunday (John 20:19-23). He had shown them His hands and side to prove it was really Jesus Himself and the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord (John 20:20). But John 20:24 tells us, “Now Thomas, called the Twin, one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came.”
John makes a point of telling us that Thomas was one of the twelve. This is important because this group were designated by the Lord as apostles and one of the qualifications of an apostle was that they had seen the Risen Lord Jesus Christ (Acts 1:22). All the others were already eyewitnesses. Thomas was not yet. Thomas did not necessarily need to see the risen Jesus to be a believer, but he did need to see Him to be an apostle. What had happened that week before when Thomas was missing? Jesus not only proved He was alive, but He also commissioned them as apostles (John 20:21), “… as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” He gave them the responsibility of proclaiming the message of the forgiveness of sins. We don’t know why Thomas was absent that first Sunday night when Jesus appeared to the other disciples. But because he wasn’t there, he missed the blessing and the sending.
Someone has said that you never know what you’re going to miss if you don’t come to church! As Christians, unbelief and weak faith are a great danger for us. This is why the author of Hebrews talks about our great need to meet together and to encourage and strengthen each other in the faith. Hebrews 3:12-14 says, “Beware, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief in departing from the living God; but exhort one another daily, while it is called ‘Today,’ lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin. For we have become partakers of Christ if we hold the beginning of our confidence steadfast to the end.” Listen, we need each other to fight sin, pursue holiness, and stay on the narrow road of faith. Again in Hebrews 10:23-25 he writes, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.” So, is it wrong to miss a church gathering? Not necessarily. Sometimes we have to. But, regardless of why we miss, can missing a Sunday be detrimental to our faith? Absolutely! Thomas missed one Sunday and found himself exactly where the author of Hebrews warns us to stay away from—he’s falling into the posture of an unbelieving heart.
We can see the unbelief in Thomas’ heart in his reaction to the disciples testimony. When they said to him (John 20:25a), “We have seen the Lord.” Thomas would not believe. Instead he replied (John 20:25b), “Unless I see in His hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.” According to J.I. Packer, Thomas was guilty of what he calls “willful skepticism.” There’s no sense in his words that he hopes his fellow disciples are right; he refuses to give his fellow apostles the benefit of the doubt. He places an undue burden on Jesus to prove Himself.
But the Lord Jesus does not leave Thomas forever in that sad state of unbelief.
Seeing Jesus (John 20:26-27)
John 20:26, “And after eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, ‘Peace to you!’” Eight days later means the next Sunday. So, on the next Lord’s Day the disciples are huddled up again in a locked room, and this time Thomas is with them. Just like last week, the risen Lord miraculously appears before them. And the first words out of His mouth once again are, “Peace to you!”, reminding them that peace is with them because He is with them.
After this, without a word from Thomas, Jesus knowing Thomas’ heart and mind better than Thomas does, says to him in John 20:27, “Reach your finger here, and look at My hands; and reach your hand here, and put it into My side. Do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Jesus could have rebuked Thomas; He could have condemned his unbelieving heart. But instead He displays grace and speaks peace. Jesus meets and ministers to Thomas in his weakness.
Jesus’ actions here remind me of Jude 22, where Jude, the very brother of Jesus who once doubted the Lord greatly, calls us to, “have mercy on some, who are doubting” (NASB). Praise God! That is exactly what Jesus does. I know that most of us have struggled with doubt, with unbelief, from time to time. The nature of sin is really unbelief. When we fall into sin we do so because we fail to believe God’s Word and trust that Jesus is better than our sin.
We are all doubters in our flesh, but Jesus is gracious. Instead of judgment He gives peace. Instead of condemnation He gives resurrection proof. He gives the gospel. He gives Himself. That’s what he does for Thomas and that’s what He does for us as well.
That brings us to Thomas’ response:
Thomas worships (John 20:28-29)
John 20:28, “And Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” John doesn’t tell us that Thomas touched the Lord as Jesus had invited him to do. We don’t know whether he touched Him or not. I’m inclined to think that Thomas didn’t touch Him, since Jesus replied (John 20:29), “Thomas, because you have seen Me, you have believed.” Or it could be a question, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed?” (NASB). It’s not so much a rebuke to Thomas, but it is meant to underline the importance of believing. At that point, Thomas didn’t need to touch Jesus, because He believed and knew that the Lord really was alive. Thomas had said he would never believe unless he touched the wounds of Jesus; but God’s grace proved him wrong. Praise God! He still proves us wrong in our unbelief and in our sin, and shows Himself gracious, merciful, mighty to save, and faithful again and again.
You remember John’s point from the very beginning of the Gospel? John 1:1, “In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God” And then in John 1:14, “And the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, and we beheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth.” Thomas has beheld the glory of Christ; a glory that is full of grace and a glory that is full of truth, and he can’t help himself now. Whatever doubts, whatever concerns, whatever frustrations, whatever anger, whatever unbelief, whatever it was that was on Thomas’ mind for those eight days; it’s all gone now. Because all that he can see now is the glory of Jesus Christ!
Thomas knows that He is at peace with God because God is standing before Him lavishing mercy and grace upon him. And so while standing before the truth of God incarnate, while standing before the grace of God incarnate, Thomas responds in giving glory to Jesus in worship, proclaiming Jesus to be exactly who He is: “My Lord and my God!” Jesus is his Lord because He is his God.
What about us (John 20:30-31)
Maybe you’re thinking, “If I could have been there with Thomas and seen Jesus risen from the dead, it would be easier to overcome my doubts. But I’ve never seen Him.” For you, Jesus speaks to Thomas the words of John 20:29, “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.” That’s us! Jesus pronounces a blessing on us who believe the apostolic witness. Thomas did not believe the testimony of the other apostles. But by God’s grace, we have! Peter writes about us who believe,
whom having not seen you love. Though now you do not see Him, yet believing, you rejoice with joy inexpressible and full of glory, receiving the end of your faith–the salvation of your souls. (1 Peter 1:8-9).
That is how we are saved! That is how we have eternal life: by believing God’s word. Look again at John 20:31, “but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.” What a blessing it is to believe in Jesus; not because we’ve seen Him, but because we have His written word. Commenting on faith that comes from God’s word, Calvin wrote, “we now behold Christ in the Gospel in the same manner as if he visibly stood before us.” Salvation doesn’t come through a mystical or miraculous vision, but rather from the Holy Spirit giving you understanding and insight into God’s Word.
We have eternal life when we believe the word of God that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God who died for our sins on the cross, was raised from the dead the third day, and is Lord and God. That is what we proclaim as we come to the Lord’s Table today. Christ Jesus died for our sins. The blood of His death washes away our sin. He is the living Lord who gives eternal life because He was raised from the dead. He is our Lord and our God who died for us and who lives and who is coming again. That’s why we sing
Crown Him the Lord of love;
Behold his hands and side,
Those wounds, yet visible above,
In beauty glorified:
All hail, Redeemer, hail!
For Thou hast died for me:
Thy praise and glory shall not fail
Throughout eternity.
