Blessed Are You Who Have Believed
April 16, 2023
There is a peace, hope, mission, and fresh breath of living in the presence of the Risen Jesus!
Shalom to You!
Sermon Transcript (Warts and All)
Our focus today is on belief out of John chapter twenty versus nineteen through thirty one we'll also touch to Peter sermon from x two fourteen and then twenty two through thirty two not going to read that Psalm 16, which is the text of Peter sermon, and then an application from Peter in 1st Peter, three through nine. But the focus is on John. What John said. Really the focus is on Jesus obviously. And so let's pray to prayer. He taught us to pray.
Our Father which are in heaven, Hell would be Thy name, Thy kingdom come Thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil for Thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory. For ever and ever, Amen.
I want to welcome those of you who have joined us across the country, across the miles, across even time zones, and even across time on the 2nd Sunday of Easter. And I'm going to take a sip of coffee just to let you know that today
It is a conversation about believing.
If you start with the 1st chapter of Matthew and begin to walk through the Gospels, reading all the Gospels, you will encounter about 30 verses that use the word believe 30 verses. It's a pretty big deal, isn't it? Then when you get to the Gospel of John there will be at least a stop counting at 80. At 80 versus they use the word believe, and then as you come to the verse thirty one John is telling you that if he were to record all the things that Jesús said and did that there would be no library that could contain all the books that would be written but he did say these are written so that you may come to believe that.
Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that believing, you may have life through His name. So Jesus gives you the power to believe through John's Gospel, and John gives you the words and the witness to help you believe, to help you believe and come to believe, that He is the Anointed One of God, and that. He is the Son of God, and that if you believe, you will find life through His name. And this is what Peter admonished the people to do. The Book of Acts, chapter two in his Pentecost sermon, Believe in Jesus and pray the prayer of Psalm 16.
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge, and to believe in the path of life that the Psalmist spoke of, there where the presence of God is revealed, and in that presence there is fullness of joy, and in God's right hand pleasures for evermore. Later he would write to the Church and say, Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. By His great mercy He has given us a new. Birth into a living hope, through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead into an inheritance that is.
Imperishable, eternal, undefiled, unfading, kept in heaven for you. And he talks about joy being the outcome of our faith, the very salvation of our souls. So there are a number of themes that are woven together in the preaching of the resurrection. But John takes to the experience of the resurrection the eyes of the disciples, and especially through the eyes of Thomas. And I'd like to read this passage to you, and then look at some themes that flow from it. When it was evening on that day, the 1st day of the week, John tells us in chapter 20 versus 19 in following, And the doors of the house where the disciples had met were locked for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, Peace be with you.
As he said thus, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord Jesus, and said to them again, Peace be with you as the Father has sent me, so send I you. And when he said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit if you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them if you retain the sins of any, they are retained. But Thomas, who was called the twin one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, We've seen the Lord, but he said to them, Unless see marks the nails hand, put my finger the mark the nails, and my hand in his side, I will not believe.
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them, and said, Peace be with you. Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here and see my hands reach out your hand and put it in my sigh. Do not be doubt, but believe. Literally, Do not be unbelieving, Do not be Do not apostasy. Jesus answered him, My Lord and my God. No written record that he had to actually follow through and put his hand there. It's not said.
Jesus said to him, Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen, and yet come to believe. Now 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 come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in His name. It's not all written, but what is written is enough to give us a basis for believing. Do you believe everything you read?
Do you believe everything you hear? Do you believe everything you think? Do you believe everything you believe? Our lives are filled with beliefs and assumptions. Every day we assume some things and seldom do we question our beliefs. Some of our beliefs are toxic, some of our beliefs are unhealthy. If we have been told what we cannot do and cannot accomplish because we are this or we are that, and we've come to believe that, the lab, the labels that others have imposed upon us all of our lives, those may be debilitating beliefs, those may be toxic beliefs, those may be beliefs that we should question.
Jesus gave Thomas the opportunity to verify his beliefs. And when he said to Thomas, Don't doubt, it's really don't engage in active decision making to doubt and disbelieve, that is the clearer message in the literal sense. Do not make up your mind ahead of time that you will not believe. I think in the same way with toxic beliefs. One of our toxic beliefs may be, I will not believe in the things matter, I will not believe in Jesus, I will not believe in hope, I will not believe in eternity, I will not believe in anything I do not understand, or, as Jesus addresses in this passage, I do not believe in anything that I do not see with my own eyes.
Well, you can contradict that right away. You believe in many things you do not see with your own eyes. I'm a great believer in science, and then the scientific method. But the conclusions of science are not things I have seen. I have not looked in the powerful microscopes, I've seen pictures. I have not considered all the variables of the various theories of the universe. I have looked many of them, I have heard many of them, but I do not have the background to fully understand to see them, and yet I believe them.
I do not see how atoms interact with each other and make what appears to me to be a solid surface and a solid foundation, but I put my weight on those foundations. Nor do I understand the even simpler. Concepts of architecture. But I walk in places that I've seen others walk and a confident they will hold me up. Blessed, Jesus says, are those who have not seen and yet believe, who have found this place where they are open to believing that there is a God who loves them and who has sent His Son to redeem them.
Jesus brings peace and hope to bolster belief.
Thomas wasn't there, but Jesus shows up at a time when He wasn't there, and the introductory words are, Peace be with you, shall lone be with you, and then He says it again in that context, and then He goes away, and He comes back, and He says it yet again, Peace be with you. Chalon, the settling of things. Shalom, the hand of God over the affairs of humanity and over our own hearts. How many times Jesus spoke the words Peace. So many times have people spoken the words Shalom. That has become a common greeting.
But in Jesus's mouth it is even more. John tells us that He is present and in His presence. He is among them as He is among them. Their belief is bolstered by the belief and the peace that He brings to the situation. He becomes the pivotal point of all of their heart. Cry for Shalom and for peace and for settling and for meaning. Shalom be with you. That's the 1st great movement and concept and word that comes out of the out of the bolstering of belief that Jesus brings to our life situations, a belief that leads to hope.
Peter talks about that enduring hope, that lively hope. The King James calls it the living hope that lives among us. Because when there is peace and we believe, the peace and re. The peace and accept the peace as a subtle matter. It's not that we don't challenge all the beliefs that gather around it, but it's that we are willing to believe. In the foundation of the peace that Christ brings, and to invest in that peace, and to throw ourselves on the mercy of the court, as it were. Then we have a basis for hope.
Jesus breathed on the disciples and says, Receive the Holy Spirit. What about the breath of God throughout the Bible as a means of belief, as a foundation of belief, and as a means of peace and order? In the Book of Genesis we read that the world and the earth and the cosmos was toho a boho, without form and void that there was an original chaos in creation that nothing seemed be working together or making sense, and that God said, Let there be light. And then when it comes down to earth creation.
The writer of Genesis says The breath of God was on the face of the waters, the Ru. The Spirit of God, the wind of God. Look at Ezekiel in the valley of dry bones, and in the valley of dry bones God says to Ezekiel, Preach to them, let my breath through your breath fall upon them, and they will rise up, a great body of people. Resurrection will come to this valley of dry bones through the Spirit breathed witness of the Word. And Jesus breathes on them because they need the breath of life.
They need something more to bolster their belief, and it is the Spirit, God's Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus. The Holy Spirit, and He breathes on them. But with that breathing comes as a s e n d I n g, a Sending, and that sending is as the Father has sent me. Well, what has He been through? It may not have seemed that attractive. He was sent into the world as a Servant, as Messiah, as a Savior, as the Suffering Servant, as the Crucified One, and now as the Resurrected One. All of these qualities are to be in your life of belief.
Your believing is a receiving of these things. Your believing is bolstered by peace, but thro it comes peace and hope. And now I have sent to you. And he goes a little further. He says, If you forgive any sins, they're forgiven if you retain them, they retain. Struggle with this. What do you mean? Jesus giving us His disciples? Power to forgive Well, the ultimate power to forgive is gods, but on the cross Jesus says, It is finished. And so he's coming to a group of people and he's saying to them, The work of forgiveness done.
And so it's in your hands. It's in your hands. How forgiven would you be, or would you experience forgiveness if you didn't know you were forgiven? What if you had committed a crime 20 years ago and it was covered by the statute of limitations, and yet you didn't know about the statute of limitations and you were still in hiding? About the one or two soldiers that were in the Japanese army. One in particular hid in the forest, in the jungle, for all those years until he was found, because he had not received orders indicating that the war was over.
About the prodigal son, who did not know that the arms of his father, if he returned home, were there to welcome him rather than to rebuke him. He would not benefit from the forgiveness And so he would be as one from whom forgiveness had been withheld. I believe that we, as the people of God, are fully authorized to say to the world Your sins are forgiven. Not just authorized, but mandated to say over the Internet, without even seeing your eyes, without even knowing your circumstances, without even knowing how deep your guilt is, without even knowing what horrible things you have done, your sins have been forgiven.
Here's the check. Are you gonna cash it? Are you gonna? Continue those things, carry those things in terms of your relationship with God. It doesn't nullify human accountability to the laws of humanity. And a society, and it does not mean that we do not have a responsibility to make amends to the people we have hurt. It just means that the door to a relationship with God is unhindered. Sin is not a hindrance because the account has been settled.
I hate dumb this down this way, but through a deal we made with another thrift store when we were in the thrift business', through our non profit organization, we received a stack of coupons.
We were not selling clothes anymore. People would come into our store needing clothes and we would explain we don't have them, but here is a gift certificate. If you take this gift certificate to this store, you can receive in clothing the value of the amount that is written on that gift certificate. Now it's up to you to go there and, and shop and, and turn it in. But here it is it's paid for. It's yours. It's available to you. If we had not passed out that certificate, they would not know, they would not receive it, they would not be able to cash it in.
But if we do it? There it is. Your sins forgiven. Now, what are you gonna do with that certificate, that gift certificate? I would suggest you cash it in that impediment. Now to follow Jesus in disciple ship. It involves that turnaround. You're not going in the direction of that storm. You need to go that direction. And then the commitment to the lordship of Christ in your life is an ongoing process. You truly become a disciple and a participant in God's kingdom as you follow the way of the kingdom.
It's a process, but your forgiveness, here it is. Your sins are forgiven, my friend, your sins forgiven. In other words, don't have any excuse, and I don't have any excuse for not passing it on. God didn't really come up with another plan for getting the word out. So would you please, as you go, tell others. Your sins are forgiven. And all that leads to is a result of and is shored up by belief. Jesus sees Thomas. And he says, Thomas, come here stop unbelieving, stop your predisposition unbelief.
Thomas I will not believe he I can't believe, I don't He said, I will not believe. So I've made a pre decision, I've made a pre judgment not to believe. Try me. He just had to see him. And here is a voice. In doubting, Thomas became confessional. Thomas. I heard that this week from some brothers talking about this text, he became the 1st to make this grand declaration My Lord and my God. And I think that's what we ought to remember him by. And Jesus said, to them and to you.
Blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe.
The Lord bless you and keep you the Lord make His face to shine upon you the Lord lift up His countenance upon you, and be gracious unto you, and give you Shalom through Jesus Christ our Lord. A man, and a man, and a men again.
Scriptures
"Fellow Israelites, listen to what I have to say: Jesus of Nazareth, a man attested to you by God with deeds of power, wonders, and signs that God did through him among you, as you yourselves know— this man, handed over to you according to the definite plan and foreknowledge of God, you crucified and killed by the hands of those outside the law. But God raised him up, having released him from the agony of death, because it was impossible for him to be held in its power. For David says concerning him,
‘I saw the Lord always before me,
for he is at my right hand so that I will not be shaken;
therefore my heart was glad, and my tongue rejoiced;
moreover, my flesh will live in hope.
For you will not abandon my soul to Hades
or let your Holy One experience corruption.
You have made known to me the ways of life;
you will make me full of gladness with your presence.’“Fellow Israelites, I may say to you confidently of our ancestor David that he both died and was buried, and his tomb is with us to this day. Since he was a prophet, he knew that God had sworn with an oath to him that he would put one of his descendants on his throne. Foreseeing this, David spoke of the resurrection of the Messiah, saying,
‘He was not abandoned to Hades,
nor did his flesh experience corruption.’“This Jesus God raised up, and of that all of us are witnesses."
Protect me, O God, for in you I take refuge.
I say to the Lord, “You are my Lord;
I have no good apart from you.”As for the holy ones in the land, they are the noble ones
in whom is all my delight.Those who choose another god multiply their sorrows;
their drink offerings of blood I will not pour out
or take their names upon my lips.The Lord is my chosen portion and my cup;
you hold my lot.
The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places;
I have a goodly heritage.I bless the Lord, who gives me counsel;
in the night also my heart instructs me.
I keep the Lord always before me;
because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.Therefore my heart is glad, and my soul rejoices;
my body also rests secure.
For you do not give me up to Sheol
or let your faithful one see the Pit.
You show me the path of life.
In your presence there is fullness of joy;
in your right hand are pleasures forevermore.
1 Peter 1:3-9
But Thomas (who was called the Twin), one of the twelve, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said to them, “Unless I see the mark of the nails in his hands and put my finger in the mark of the nails and my hand in his side, I will not believe.”
A week later his disciples were again in the house, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were shut, Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you.” Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here and see my hands. Reach out your hand and put it in my side. Do not doubt but believe.” Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have come to believe.”
Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples that are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that through believing you may have life in his name.
Bonus Message
Psalm 16
Psalm 16:1 - Keep me safe, O God, for in you I take refuge.
Never separate the two parts of this prayer or you will diffuse its power. The first part is a request made in faith. The second is a declaration of faith upon which every request is made and in which our confidence resides. Safety, in and of itself, is of limited value. We are safe from what and for what? The end and the means are the same here. We are made safe by abiding that we might safely abide in Christ. If God is our refuge, that is enough to say. It is an end in itself. To be in Christ is the end that brings every new beginning. Where is your principal residence in this life? Every anxiety and discomfort is addressed by the answer of faith. If you reside in God and take refuge in Him, then rest in Him and abandon all concern for safety from that which you cannot control. God is in charge.
Psalm 16:2 - I said to the Lord, “You are my Lord; apart from you I have no good thing.”
This is so very important! First, we must recognize that to say “Lord” is not just to utter a religious word or to speak with respect toward our chosen deity. In the naming of God as Lord is a relinquishment of every other value, treasure, and prize. It is to acknowledge Him as Supreme Master and to render everything else in our lives as valueless apart from Him. It is in acknowledging Him as the source of every good gift that those gifts have worth. It is in knowing Him that every other vision fades in importance and takes its place in His court as subservient to His will.
Psalm 16:3 - As for the saints who are in the land, they are the glorious ones in whom is all my delight.
One of the great privileges of the new birth is that we are born into a family of saint with whom we can associate and in whose fellowship we can delight. To be a saint is to be separate, holy, and dedicated to a particular function. That function, for the Christian, is the praise and glory of God. In one sense, it is not a mysterious or otherworldly thing to be a saint. In another sense, it is to profoundly embrace a mystery that we can never fully understand and be apprehended by a world far beyond our reach in these mortal bodies. If one is a saint indeed, one loves other saints because, in them, we see God’s face as clearly as possible in this life –even among those who dwell in the land.
Psalm 16:4 - The sorrows of those will increase who run after other gods. I will not pour out their libations of blood or take up their names on my lips.
Today, we join the eternal chorus of welcome as the Lord Jesus Christ enters into our consciousness as the King who comes in the Name of the Lord. He is the Prince of Peace and righteousness. His Kingdom comes with glory and praise, but also with a cross of pain and disgrace. Yet, He willing enters into the sphere of time, space, and judgment to face whatever stands between Him and His mission to bring all who welcome Him into eternal fellowship with the Father. Let us lift our voices in worship as we worship Him.
Psalm 16:5 - Lord, you have assigned my portion and my cup; you have made my lot secure.
God is righteous. That means that everything about Him is fully integrated into His holy character – He is 100% pure truth, love, goodness, and holiness. There are no contradictions in God – except those that we contrive in our own misunderstanding of Him. He loves justice. His heart delights in seeing things set aright. He loves consistency in our lives. He takes joy when His truth is integrated into the loose dimensions of our lives and we come into right relationship with Him. There is a promise in this verse, that the upright will see His face. What a glorious affirmation! The more we seek Him, the more our hearts are changed by His power within us and the clearer our vision of Who He is becomes. We can see God. His grace in Jesus Christ removes the scales from our eyes so that we may have a glimpse in this life and the hope of full disclosure in the life to come. Let that truth sink into the pores of your being today and celebrate it as you walk through the maze of confusing messages and distorted truth. You can see God.
Psalm 16:6 - The boundary lines have fallen for me in pleasant places; surely I have a delightful inheritance.
Do you feel alone in your spiritual journey? Do you imagine that you are the only person in your school, workplace, or neighborhood that desires the things of God or seeks after His will? Do you wonder if there is even one other person who will stand with you for truth and righteousness? Are you overwhelmed by the loneliness of solitary seeking? Do you even wonder if the psalmist was somehow transported out of his time to speak of ours? Things have not changed that much have they? We all look back on better times when we were sure that there were more righteous and earnest people living among us and compare those times with our “todays.”
We conclude that we are alone and that no one else is godly or faithful. While that is not true in every sense, it is in one. “There is none that is righteous, no not one.” We are indicted by that statement and must include ourselves among the number of the “no more” who have “vanished from the earth.” From God’s perspective and standard of perfect holiness, no one measures up. Then Jesus Christ enters the picture and He alone stands for truth. Our only hope is in Him and in Him we are not alone. Consciously align yourself with Him today and allow God to flush away that sense of “aloneness.”
Psalm 16:7 - I will praise the Lord, who counsels me; even at night my heart instructs me.
If you can’t trust a compliment, what can you trust? The psalmist has had it with flattery. He is discouraged over the tendency of his neighbors to use speech only to manipulate and deceive. We ought to develop that same level of disgust with untruth because all lying and falsehood are at odds with a God who is truth. Pretty lies are no better than ugly lies. Lies are lies and they are dark and dismal. Ask God to fill your heart with truth today and with a love for that truth so that whenever you would tell yourself a lie, you would immediately appeal to the God of truth and be rescued. Whatever urge you may have to be hard on your neighbors, start first with yourself and let God’s grace fill you and change you.
Psalm 16:8 - I have set the Lord always before me. Because he is at my right hand, I will not be shaken.
First, consider this on Maundy Thursday – praise and flattery met Jesus upon His entry into the Holy City. “Blessed is He who comes in the Name of the Lord,” they cried and most likely meant what they said. Is it possible that some of those who praised Him on Sunday cursed Him on Thursday evening when He was arrested and brought to trial? Could it be that some who praised Him were seeking to manipulate Him for their own ends and to triumph with their tongues, even to co-opt Him for their own causes? Is it even possible that some that welcomed Him with their lips retained no sense of responsibility for their words beyond themselves? We see ourselves as masters of our words whenever we refuse to submit ourselves, body, soul, and spirit to the Lordship of Jesus Christ. Jesus went to the upper room and took the role of a servant. With His words and deeds, He offered His body and blood for the redemption of lost men and women. He emptied Himself and held nothing back. His words are truth and love. Let us bring ourselves and our words to Him in that same spirit. If possible, find a place this day to partake of communion with other believers and remember the sacrifice of Jesus and be reminded of His gracious words.
Psalm 16:9 – Therefore my heart is glad and my tongue rejoices; my body also will rest secure,
God saw the oppression of the weak and heard the groaning of the needy, bound in the chains of sin and wickedness. Thus, He came to us as a man among men. He arose and took upon Himself of a lowly servant, He emptied Himself and became obedient unto the death of the cross. (Philippians 2) He identified with us completely, yet without sin and became our protector and deliverer from sin. God has always been the champion of the weak and needy. The Christ-event and the passion of the cross make it clear that every man, woman, and child is in need of a savior. We are all oppressed – even if we are oppressors. We each writhe in agony for someone to intervene in our darkness and bring us into the light. Friend, the cross, was, is, and always will be for you. Spend some time today meditating on it. Seek out other believers with whom you can worship in wake of Calvary. Get alone with God and thank Him for remembering you on the cross. Do not let this day pass as any other.
Psalm 16:10 - because you will not abandon my to the grave, nor will you let your Holy One see decay.
Oh, precious words, flawless, pure, beautiful in their refined glory. God’s words stir the soul, comfort the afflicted, afflict the comfortable, and pierce the heart with divine truth and brilliant light. On that dark Saturday between the cross and the resurrection, the disciples had only the remembrance of His words. What would they have meant to you in such an hour? What have they meant to you in your darkest hours. After the resurrection, Jesus would meet men on the road to Emmaus and remind them of His words and those that the Father had spoken over the centuries through the scriptures. He would bring them new meaning and their hearts would burn within them. Let Jesus apply all of God’s words to your heart in the darkness of death from the place of resurrection. We can never fully visit the despair of that bleak Saturday, but we can enter into our own darkness with the flawless Word of God to comfort our souls.
Psalm 16:11 - you have made known to me the path of life; you will fill me with joy in your presence, with eternal pleasures at your right hand.
What a pointless prayer this would be divorced from resurrection truth! Without the resurrection we are exposed, vulnerable, and unprotected. If Christ were not raised, we would be as Paul said, “still in our sins (I Cor. 15).” We could not expect help in the onslaughts of wicked and violent people or non-human forces from a dead and powerless God. Prayers would be futile attempts to feel better about our miserable circumstances. Compliance with ethics would be fruitless acts of legalistic compulsion if not overwhelmed by a dynamic conviction that God can raise the dead and thus, protect, deliver, and save. God raised Jesus from the dead and pronounced the death sentence on death. He is alive and brings to life all who trust in Him. Celebrate! The Lord is risen! He is risen indeed!
"Start by doing what's necessary, then do what's possible, and suddenly you are doing the impossible." - -- Saint Francis of Assisi