Dennis Tuuri

Today’s sermon text is found in John chapter 20. We return to it for one last time before moving on into chapter 21 next week. John chapter 20, beginning at verse 24, reading to the end of the chapter. Please stand for the reading of God’s word. But Thomas, one of the 12 called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, “We have seen the Lord.” But he said unto them, “Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe.” And after 8 days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them.

Then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, “Peace be unto you.” Then saith he to Thomas, “Reach hither thy finger. Behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing.” And Thomas answered, and said unto him, “My Lord, and my God.” Jesus saith unto him, “Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed. Blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed.”

And many other signs truly did Jesus in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book, but these are written that ye might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing ye might have life through his name.

Let’s pray. Father, we do pray now for the setting forth of your word before us. We pray, Lord God, that you would give me clarity of thought and speech. We pray that I would say nothing that is not in accord with what these texts teach us. Help us, Father, to understand this passage of scripture, to meditate on it, to delight in it, and then to have it transform our lives. We thank you for the gift of the Holy Spirit. We know that this book is unlike any other book. It must be taught to us by the Holy Spirit. And we pray now that the Spirit would do his work of brightening this text, lighting it upon our understanding, writing this law upon our hearts, this word, and transforming us by it.

In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen. Please be seated.

Today is the first Sunday in Advent. The church year rotates around two feasts, a fixed feast and a movable feast. The fixed feast is the same date every year—that is Christmas, the celebration of the incarnation, birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. The movable feast is Easter. It’s called a movable feast because it doesn’t have a set day every year. Every year you have to look at your calendars, see when Easter is going to be because it’s tied to the cycle of Passover.

And so it moves in relationship to our calendar. These two great feasts are the feasts around which all the other dates of the Christian calendar revolve. The great fixed feast of Christmas and the movable feast of Easter. Advent are the four Sundays leading up to the celebration of Christmas, the birth of the Lord Jesus Christ. And so it is a part of this fixed feast pattern. This fixed feast actually extends back in some church communions into March with the Annunciation, the announcement to Mary that she is now pregnant with the Savior, that he’s become incarnated in her womb.

But these two feasts, these two great feasts around which the church calendar rotates teach us the two great aspects of the faith: incarnation, the incarnation of the Lord Jesus Christ, and resurrection. And those texts come together quite nicely in today’s text that we’ve read. We see here the incarnated savior demonstrating his incarnate status—that he is real flesh. And also this happens in the context of the second Lord’s day of his resurrection.

And so these two feasts are brought together, and it comes to us in the context of Advent. Advent is the preparation for the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ. So we sing songs like we’ve sung already today. We push the season a little bit, I suppose, by singing Psalm 98 just now. We’re known to do that in this church. We want to get at that rejoicing right away. And Psalm 98 is that great rejoicing psalm at the center of the book, the fourth book of the Psalter, that the whole world rejoices in the advent of Christ.

But Advent is a time of understanding the manifestation of Christ is coming and its implications, looking at various texts. Today we’re going to look at this particular text, and I’m going to kind of focus a meditation on Thomas the twin, Didymus in the King James version—literally Thomas the twin—and that’s a twin reference because Thomas means twin. So twin the twin, and I want to talk about that a little bit.

Next, the next three Lord’s days, we’ll look at chapter 21 of John’s gospel for those of you that want to think about it and meditate and maybe do some family worship or reading, personal reading time. What I’ll be doing is looking at the three narratives in the last chapter of John’s gospel for the final three Sundays in Advent. You’ll remember the stories, of course. The disciples are now fishing. Jesus comes to them. They can’t find fish. He tells them where to fish, and Peter hauls in 153 great fish. And so this picture of the evangelization of the whole world, the nations being represented by these great fish. And we’ll talk about that last week.

Advent is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ to equip the church for mission. That mission is to evangelize the world. The second thing that happens in that narrative is there’s a conversation between Jesus and Peter. Very famous, most of you all know this story as well. Three times Jesus queries Peter and gives him the instruction to feed his sheep. And so here we see the command that the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ produces discipleship in the context of the body of Christ—the feeding of the sheep now. So now the imagery has gone from fish to sheep, and we’re bringing them into the kingdom of God. But then in the context of that kingdom, discipling is going on. They’re being taught and fed the word of God, those that are clearly delineated as part of the flock.

And then the final thing that happens, back and forth in the end of chapter 21, is Peter asks about the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and his status and what his future will hold. We have community, and we have—I think when we get to that text, we’ll see that we’ll see some dangers of living in community as well as some great benefits to it. How do you live in community together but avoid the sort of envy that Peter seems to show toward John the beloved disciple in the concluding narrative structure?

So the advent of Jesus Christ again with community. These are common themes that you’ve heard me hammer home now for a couple of years: mission, discipleship, and community. These are the three elements of our strategy map that we believe that worship of the Lord Jesus Christ, loving the triune God, transforms the fallen world by worshiping God in a way that produces mission. Not just evangelizing the nations, but mission in terms of what we do in our week as well. We go forth from this place on a mission truly from God. We go forward as mature men and women who are committed to mission. We go forward also with the command to disciple the nations, right? And to disciple each other in the context of our week.

And discipleship is that second major element that our worship is to produce: discipleship. And then finally, it produces extended community, community. This is the great commission of Matthew 28. They meet to worship with the Lord Jesus Christ. And as they worship him, he tells them to go. We’re brought together to be sent to go forth on mission, to gather in the nations. And he tells them then that in their going they are to disciple the nations with two things: to baptize and to teach the nations, to put them in order, make them part of the flock. And then to feed that flock the way that Peter would feed the flock. And then finally, he says, “Lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world.” He assures us of community with him and with those who are indwelt by him as well.

Community. So the advent of the Lord Jesus Christ in terms of mission, discipleship, and community is what we’ll do the next three weeks. That will be part of the preparation of this church, and particularly the adults in this church, for a meeting that we’ll have on December 10th, Wednesday, to discuss our strategy map and specific ways this church should go about doing this work of mission, discipleship, and community. And we’ll be informed by those things as we look at this final concluding chapter in John’s gospel.

Now it’s a postscript, the text that we just read. And I mentioned this two weeks ago when we first looked at this text. It kind of wraps up the gospel. “These things are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, and if believing, you might have life in his name.” So that kind of wraps it up. And then there’s this postscript. This is very common. Book of Joshua, for instance, ends with a postscript about a war, problems with community again at the end of it, and how we should communicate well and how we shouldn’t. It’s very common for books to end with kind of a postscript, an appendix—but not an appendix, a postscript—a concluding narrative that kind of wraps it all together for us.

But this text we read today kind of puts this in context. Now, in the context of American celebration of the church calendar, we move from Thanksgiving into Advent, a delightful movement. And we can think of what we talked about last week as we look at this story of Thomas today. You know, we were urged from the scriptures last week to be thankful in the context of our circumstances, our community, and conquest. And this text has those same elements to it—maybe implied, some not so implied. But Thomas had a particular set of circumstances that unfolded for him that were difficult for him.

He wasn’t there Resurrection Sunday. He wasn’t there when Jesus first comes to be with the disciples. We don’t know why. There’s no sense in pointing blame at Thomas. I don’t know what it is about us, but it seems like we’re all too prone to point blame at biblical figures when the scriptures don’t really countenance that necessarily. We don’t know why, but it was a difficult circumstance for him. And what we see in our text today is Thomas struggling with that, right?

“We saw the savior.” Well, you know, “unless I see, put my finger into the print of the nails, I won’t believe.” Now, he struggles with this with his circumstances being thankful. In the context of that circumstance, he’s placed in the midst of community. That’s where Jesus appears to him. And yet, it is definitely a personal narrative, right? Jesus is there with the rest of the disciples. You’re gathered here today with the rest of the disciples. We meet behind doors, and Jesus comes to us. The narrative tells us that Jesus comes. It sort of sets it apart as a particular verse. This is in verse 26. “After 8 days again, the disciples were within, and Thomas with them. Jesus comes.”

Now there’s a word in the King James—”then came Jesus”—but “then” as an italics, it’s not an actual word in the text. There is this kind of emphatic, pregnant, solemn declaration: Jesus comes. Advent. Jesus comes with his people. We’re gathered together corporately. Jesus comes. Now he comes to us today to meet with us in worship. This is what he’s promised us in Revelation. The Lord Jesus comes to be with us, to share a meal with us, and the preparations for that meal and what we’re doing now.

But so there is community expressed and there’s community alluded to. Jesus talks about what community will follow this. We can see mission in the context of this because he tells Thomas, “Well, you believe because you have seen. Blessed are those that believe who have not seen.” And the idea is that Thomas now receives mission to take that message, the witness that he has observed of the risen savior’s behavior, and to create disciples through the proclamation of that word to those who will not see Jesus in his resurrected body in his incarnate state.

So there’s this implied mission to Thomas, and we go forth from this place with a mission to tell people what we’ve learned about Jesus and to spread the good news of that. So there is community and there’s mission, but it’s a very personal narrative. This is personal words from Jesus to Thomas. Thomas’s struggles are personal—struggling with his need to see manifested before him the physical body of the Lord Jesus Christ.

And so Thomas has this sense of community even though it’s a personal narrative, and conquest. You know, at the end of the first meeting with the disciples, as Jesus told them, “Peace to you,” that’s a guarantee that peace is manifesting itself in the world—the same way that Psalm 98 spoke of. And then remember, before Thomas is there, the week before he breathes on the disciples and says, “Receive the Holy Ghost.”

Elder W. read that text in our assurance of forgiveness and call to repentance. You know, we’re supposed to confess our sins, but we’re assured then by the words of Jesus Christ coming through the pastor that our sins are forgiven. But this isn’t the only place that happens. That sets up the retaining and remitting of sins we’re supposed to perform with one another in the rest of the week. Jesus breathes upon the disciples. They’re a new creation, a new humanity. And that humanity has as its basic mission the proclamation of the forgiveness of sins through Christ. And if people do not heed to that and don’t come to repentance for their sins, the secondary corollary to that—the implication is judgment is upon them. But the message is good news to the world, not neutral news. And that’s our job: to go forth speaking this forgiveness of sins.

So there’s conquest, or the proclamation of the gospel. There’s a new creation that will supplant the old creation. Now Thomas doesn’t have that experience of being breathed upon. At least the text doesn’t tell us that. But again, what matches that in the story of Thomas is Jesus telling him that there are these people that will be blessed who have not seen. And the implication is that Thomas now has his mission assigned to him to go forth proclaiming the forgiveness of sins through the work of the Lord Jesus Christ and to effect and make manifest this new creation.

And so Thomas has circumstances, community, and conquest in the context of this narrative. It’s a reminder to us that as we come to this text, we come to a text that once again assures us of the need to give thanks—to give thanks in the context of circumstances, difficult ones in Thomas’s case, community, and the conquest of the gospel as well. So thanksgiving, leading to Advent and the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ, and this text—a text where Jesus comes to make himself manifest in a very personal way to Thomas and the result of that.

So, let’s talk about Thomas this morning. Who is Thomas? Well, we know a few things from this gospel. Whenever we look at a text like this, we want to think about what the gospel has told us about who Thomas is. I think it’s important for us to understand Thomas. As this gospel comes to its conclusion, Thomas is the last guy that’s talked about here, and then the transition is made to us, right? There’s a twin reference to us here. He tells Thomas, “Well, you’ve seen and believed. Blessed are those who don’t see and yet have believed.” That’s you and I. There’s a benediction placed upon the successive growth of the church that will come about not through personal witnessing of the resurrection body of Christ, but through the word of men like Thomas—that’s us.

So Thomas is a link to us in the text. But the second link is that then the author goes on to insert this expression of his own—that these things have been written, all of the gospel, to the end that we might believe in Christ, that he is the Son of God. And so again, Thomas is set in the context—twice, a double twinned reference—to us, those who will believe without seeing and those who will read this gospel and hear it proclaimed and come to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.

So I think it’s kind of important to see Thomas as this transition figure. One way to think of it is that Thomas is absent that first Sunday, right? We were absent. Now he is there the second Sunday, which we are not. But we have identification. Thomas is a transition figure in this gospel to those who will be absent completely from the physical presence of Christ and yet, through the words of men like Thomas, will be important to us.

I know that Thomas is a one of the disciples that’s near and dear to several of the people in our church here’s heart as well. Because of course, he was the disciple that at least church history has decided that he was the one who brought the message of the gospel to India. And we have connection with India, of course, and heart for India built into our sense of mission in the church. Thomas is important for us then.

Well, who is he? Well, twice he’s been alluded to in the text of John’s gospel. In chapter 11, verse 16, you probably don’t remember this, but remember Jesus found out that Lazarus was sick, nearby unto death, and he said, “Well, let’s go there.” And the disciples said, “Well, it’s going to be tough because those Jews are seeking to kill you. Let’s not go near Jerusalem because the Jews are going to kill you.” And Jesus says, “No, we’re going.”

Thomas then is brought up in the context of this. We read in verse 16 of chapter 11: “Then said Thomas, which is called Didymus, or twin, unto his fellow disciples, ‘Let us also go, that we may die with him.’” So Thomas again, somewhat like our text today, somewhat pessimistic about the outcome of things—”Let us go that we may die with him.” You know, though, is Thomas correct in that? Well, they didn’t actually physically die with him, but Jesus did die. And the disciples are brought to a fullness of union and communion with the Lord Jesus Christ and with his death, right? We’ve been buried with him in his death. We’re joined to Christ in his death and in his resurrection. You don’t get resurrection without death.

So there’s a sense in which all of these disciples are indeed brought into a tomb which becomes a womb for them—a tomb in which their faith is matured and transformed. And there is a sense in which they do die with him. All of us died with Christ on that cross. We’re in union with him.

Now I bring that up to remind us again that the Gospel of John has been full of twins. There have been many twin references in the Gospel of John. There are many words like this one: “We may die with him.” We don’t know what they mean. Could they mean this? Could they mean that? What is it? In our very text, you look at verse 31: “These are written that you might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you might have life through his name.” What does that mean? Does it mean that these are written for evangelistic purposes—that you read the gospel of John or hear it proclaimed and you become a Christian? Does it mean that, or does it mean that this is written so that you who believe in Christ might continue to believe and might mature in that belief?

There are two different Greek tenses. And if it’s one particular Greek tense, this verb “believe,” then it seems to imply that it’s a one-time evangelistic purpose for the whole gospel. But if the other Greek text is—which one is right, you know, we don’t have the manuscript, we have a whole bunch of them—if the other text is right, then what it means is that it’s written to those who already believe to mature them in belief. Scholars are equally divided on which of those tenses are correct. And even if we could find out which tense is correct, to add further confusion to our dilemma, John doesn’t particularly care about the tenses of Greek verbs all that much.

What we find, if at least this is what Greek scholars tell me, the thorough analysis of John’s Greek text is a lot of times he uses the wrong Greek tense. Not that interested in it. Why? Well, maybe the purpose isn’t to come down on one side or the other. Maybe this is another of those twin references that we’ve seen throughout John’s gospel from beginning to end—we’ve seen it that can be interpreted either way. And in fact, the Gospel of John, of course, has been used evangelistically with great success by the church. And the gospel of John, as we’ve seen in this church for the last three years, is a tremendous source of deepening of our faith and belief in Christ and an understanding of its application to our lives. It is both evangelistic as well as edifying, building up the saints of God.

So you know, we see Thomas here, and we see he’s saying, “Well, let’s go that we might die with him.” And I’m sure we can read into that a bit of pessimism. But the text also is preparing us that John—that Thomas rather will die to himself and live to Christ by the time the story is done.

The only other reference to Thomas is found in chapter 14 of the upper room discourse. Jesus tells him, “Let not your heart be troubled. You believe in God, believe also in me. In my father’s house are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you unto myself, that where I am, there you may be also. And whether I go you know, and the way you know.” And then Thomas, verse 5 of chapter 14, says, “Thomas saith unto him, ‘Lord, we know not whether thou goest, and how can we know the way?’”

And then Jesus says to him, “I am the way, the truth, and the life.” So first we have Thomas fearful that they’re going to go to their death. Then we have Thomas brave enough to say, “I don’t understand this. I don’t know where you’re going, and I don’t know the way.” And that is not, you know, something that is given to us as a character flaw in Thomas. This is what all the disciples were about. What Jesus was about to do, none of them fully understood yet.

But when they—when it happens, then they understand. “We don’t know the way,” Thomas says. “What is the way?” Jesus is the way. And when Jesus presents his way to Thomas in our text or narrative today, then Thomas knows the way. He sees the crucified and risen savior, and he sees the way of becoming reconciled to God, finding peace from the struggles that he has with thoughts of death. Because that’s what he’s done here—he’s concerned in the earlier text about his own death.

So Thomas is a character that’s given to us as somebody who has courage and strength and forthrightness. He certainly has courage. Though he thought he would probably physically die, I’m sure that’s what he originally meant in his word, that the gospel puts it in there to cause us to meditate upon it. But he’s a courageous man. He’s so dedicated and committed to the Lord Jesus Christ. He’s willing to go to Jerusalem and, if necessary, lay down his life, his physical life, for the Lord Jesus Christ. And he loves his teacher enough to ask him questions. “What are you saying? I don’t get it.” Because he wants to know the way. He wants to know the destination.

Thomas isn’t given to us—you know, if we take these other references into account—as some sort of doubting, weak, needy kind of disciple who doesn’t quite know what’s going on and is characterized by doubt. Not what these particular texts tell us about Thomas.

Now we also know that what happens to Thomas here really is not that different from what happens to the other disciples. In Luke 24, we read this: “When they were telling these things, he himself stood in the midst. This is the first appearance of Christ on the first Sunday or Lord’s day. They—that is, the disciples without Thomas—were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit. And he said to them, ‘Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts? See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Touch me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.’ And when he said this, he showed them his hands and his feet.”

So to talk about doubting Thomas—that he was the one of the disciples who doubted most—is really not accurate biblically because the scriptures say that Jesus went out of his way to assure his disciples of the physical fact of his resurrection. All 11, or 10 here, and then Thomas the following week.

Additionally, the scriptures place tremendous emphasis on the historical reality of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus Christ. And I mentioned this two weeks ago, but it is still very important to us. What the Bible says is important are the facts, the physical reality of Christ’s resurrection. John wrote some epistles, and this is his first epistle, beginning at verse one:

“That which was from the beginning, which we have heard, which we have seen with our eyes, which we have looked upon, and our hands have handled of the word of life. For the life is manifested, and we have seen it. We bear witness and show unto you that eternal life which was with the Father and was manifested unto us. That which we have seen and heard declare we unto you, that you may have fellowship with us.”

See, to John, the physical reality—seeing, touching, handling the Lord Jesus Christ—that he had a real body, not a fantasm, not a bodyless soul or ghostlike thing—he had a real body. This is absolutely of critical importance. John says it’s of the first importance to know this. Paul agrees with that. In 1 Corinthians 15, Paul says, “Wherefore, brethren, I declare unto you the gospel which I preached unto you, which also you have received, and wherein you stand. By which also you are saved, if you keep in memory what I preached unto you, unless you have believed in vain.”

So he’s saying, this is kind of a summary statement. This is important. This is the essence of the gospel. Verse three: “For I delivered unto you first of all that which I also received: how that Christ died for our sins according to the scriptures, and that he was buried, and that he rose again the third day according to the scriptures. And that he was seen of Cephas, then of the twelve. After that, he was seen of about five thousand brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain unto this present day, but some are fallen asleep. And that he was seen of James, then to all the apostles. And later on, he was seen of me also, as one born out of time.”

So for both Paul and John, the physical fact of the resurrection body of Christ—that is what happens in our narrative today, which is what Thomas asks for or kind of insists upon. This is important. It’s important stuff.

Now, there’s a commentator named Bultmann. And Bultmann in his commentary on this text takes Thomas to task and he says that the word alone should have had the power to convince these disciples without Jesus showing them his physical body or having them be able to touch his physical body. But you see, Bultmann was an existentialist. He wanted to take the gospel and turn it into an ideology, a pure set of ideas, abstract concepts, intellectual truths. Now, the scriptures are full of propositional truth and intellectual ideas and things about God. But Bultmann wanted to sever the connection of what it means to be a Christian from the historical reality of whether Jesus Christ actually rose from the grave or not.

You see, now once you do that, what you do, for all intents and purposes, is sever Christianity from history. This is inspired history. This is the climax of history. This is what Psalm 98 was singing about—was the coming of Christ and the gospel, the good news of the kingdom of the Lord Jesus Christ. And that kingdom is founded upon historical facts of the incarnation and the resurrection, the fixed feast and the movable feast.

And this is why the church for 2,000 years has seen the great value of focusing upon the life of Christ as it really happened, as true history. Thomas was an apostle. It was God’s plan for these men to see physically, to hear the literal voice of Jesus Christ, to be able to touch and handle Jesus, to shake hands with him. Or even—we don’t know if Thomas, you know, responded or not by touching the wounds. But Jesus gave that invitation to reach out and to touch his physical wounds. That’s important. The apostles needed that. That was God’s purposes in establishing a group of men who would pass on not an idea of a resurrection, not a savior who is some kind of maybe this concept of what it’s like to live a good life, but to pass on historical facts.

And when we see that the rooting and grounding of our faith is in that history of the resurrection, then we see the implications of those ideas, facts, truths of the scriptures for all the rest of history. All of history is seen as being interpreted by that historical event. And history is the movement of God establishing his people and transforming the world. And Jesus Christ—this central act is that central act of history by which this happens.

In the Word Bible commentary, we read this. He’s quoting from a man named W. Kuneth who called the resurrection the primal miracle. He’s talking about the miracles and signs that John talks about in verse 30. There are many miracles or signs, but these are written, you might believe. And he calls the resurrection the primal miracle—God’s act in Jesus that establishes the new reality of life in Christ. It was a creative act parallel to the primal miracle of creation. But such an act of God calls for—calls for its revelation, and it has been given.

The primal miracle of the resurrection has also a face toward history. The Lord, therefore, revealed himself to witnesses able to attest to the world the good news of God’s redemptive act for the life of the world—a reality of change of effect, not an idea of the new creation, but a primal act by which God has changed history and by which history must be understood.

So I don’t think Thomas is really—I think he gets kind of a bad wrap on this. I think he was supposed to, just like the other disciples, know the importance of the physical manifestation of Christ. Now, we don’t want to give them too good a rap because Jesus does say, “Don’t be unbelieving, but rather be believing.” So Thomas was certainly tempted to unbelief by his circumstances, but Jesus Christ comes to him to meet him there.

Now, so we’ve kind of said, “Well, Thomas isn’t quite to be understood in terms of doubting Thomas.” But Thomas is, I think, importantly understood as a twin. And that’s what I want to spend the last couple of minutes here on. As Thomas, he has a twin. The text tells us this—that he is a twin. There are twin accounts of the appearance, the advent, of the Lord Jesus Christ on these first two Sundays. There seems to be an importance to twinning in the context of this gospel. As I’ve said before, including the appearances of Jesus doubled up, Thomas’s confession is a twin confession: “My Lord and my God.”

And there are these, as I said before—the Gospel of John has been filled with references, with words being used in a double way, in a way that is first obvious on its sense or at its most obvious level, but yet has great significance beyond that. And so I think that it’s important for us to kind of think about this a little bit. Who is Thomas the twin of? That’s one thing we can kind of think about in terms of this text. We want to focus on this twin aspect of Thomas that the text brings our attention to. Who do we see Thomas as a twin of? And I mentioned a couple of weeks ago briefly the relationship of Thomas and Adam. But what I want to talk about today is the relationship of Thomas to Nathaniel.

Now, Nathaniel was similar to Thomas. He was that disciple who was the holdout in the first group of disciples mentioned in chapter one. He was the disciple that wanted personal confirmation, or it was on the basis of personal confirmation of relationship to Christ that brought his confession. Like Thomas, he has a twin confession as well. He makes a confession of Christ which is twin.

So turn, if you will, to John chapter 1, and we’ll look a little bit more about these relationships of Thomas and Nathaniel. John chapter 1. Or we could pick it up maybe in—well, let’s read verse 39 to put this in context. We remember that the opening chapter of John’s gospel has the sequence of days. It has a series of disciples gathered together around the work of John the Baptist who points to the Lord Jesus Christ. In verse 39, he says unto them, “Come and see. They say, ‘Where are you dwelling?’ They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day, for it was about the 10th hour.”

“One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. And he brought him to Jesus. And when Jesus beheld him, he said, ‘Thou art Simon, the son of Jonah. Thou shalt be called Cephas, which is by interpretation a stone.’ The day following, Jesus would go forth into Galilee and finds Philip and says unto him, ‘Follow me.’ Now, Philip was of Bethsaida, the city of Andrew and Peter.”

“Philip findeth Nathaniel.” Let me just stop there and re-emphasize one of the big things we’ve seen in John’s gospel. Jesus is the sent one of the Father, and he sends us forth. You know, he was sent from the Father. Now, he sends the disciples forth. He’s going to send Thomas forth. Here he finds Philip, and Philip finds Nathaniel. So this transmission of people that act in the power and authority of the Lord Jesus Christ is given to us in the earliest chapter of John’s gospel.

“And he says unto him, ‘We have found him of whom Moses in the law and the prophets did write: Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph.’ And Nathaniel said unto him, ‘Can there any good thing come out of Nazareth?’ Philip said unto him, ‘Come and see.’ Jesus saw Nathaniel coming to him and said of him, ‘Behold, an Israelite indeed, and whom is no guile.’ Nathaniel saith unto him, ‘Whence knowest thou me?’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee.’”

“Nathaniel answered and said unto him, ‘Rabbi, thou art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel.’ Jesus answered and said unto him, ‘Because I have said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believest thou? Thou shalt see greater things than these.’ And he saith unto him, ‘Verily, verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heaven open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”

Now let’s think about some of the similarities between the story of Thomas that we read in chapter 20 and this story of Nathaniel. The disciples are gathered together, at first abiding with Jesus Christ, apart from Nathaniel. There’s a process in place, and Nathaniel will be the last disciple added in this particular narrative given to us by John in chapter 1. In the same way, the disciples are gathered together on that first Lord’s day, and Thomas is not there.

Now, it’s different, of course—he’s been with them—but it’s the same kind of pattern here. They’re going out to speak to him about their dwelling and abiding with Jesus Christ. So Philip finds Nathaniel, and Philip says something to Nathaniel. He says, “Well, we found the one that was prophesied of in the law, Moses and the prophets. We found the Christ.” And the disciples tell something to Thomas. They say, “We’ve seen Jesus.” Affirmation that this Jesus whom they’d followed for however many years it had been—three years, or whatever—this is the guy.

The same way that the disciples speak to Nathaniel, the disciples in our narrative bring good news that Jesus Christ is risen and they’ve seen him to Thomas. Nathaniel gives a word of doubt, I guess we could call it. He says unto them, “Well, can there any be good thing come out of Nazareth?” And Thomas in the same way says, “Well, unless I see him, I’m not going to believe.”

So there’s reticence on the part of both Nathaniel and Thomas to receive or to affirm what the disciples are saying apart from more information. They want more information—both of them.

Now, Nathaniel, by the way, we could give him a bum rap and say, “Yeah, he’s just repeating that slogan about the southerners, you know, or about the northerners. Well, Nazareth, that’s a crummy city.” But that’s not what’s going on here. Nathaniel is a man of God. He’s been part of these disciples of John the Baptist. He’s one of those guys that reads his Bible a lot. And he knows the Bible doesn’t prophesy that the Messiah is going to come out of Nazareth. He’s not a bad guy.

So we don’t want to go to him with the same preconditions of critique that we come to Thomas with. In both cases, we want to be more charitable in our judgments. And Nathaniel is very much like Thomas, rather, by kind of saying, “Well, there’s a problem.” And they say, “Come and see.” So in the same way, Nathaniel goes to see Jesus. Thomas comes then to where Jesus appeared, last unto the convocation of the saints in the evening of another Lord’s day, Christian Sabbath, Sunday, the first day of the week.

And so there’s that correlation. That’s interesting too. Because Philip tells Nathaniel, he says, “Come and see.” And Thomas is going to come to see, if by his own sensory perception, this is indeed Jesus the Son of God and the Christ.

Jesus sees Nathaniel coming in chapter 1, and he says something about him. He says, “Well, you know, I saw you when you were under the fig tree before Philip called you.” And so Jesus demonstrates personal concern for Nathaniel one-on-one, and he tells him something about his life that indicated to Nathaniel that indeed this man is the promised Messiah.

And in the same way, so Jesus didn’t rebuke Nathaniel for what he knew he had said to Philip. Rather, he encourages Nathaniel by his declaration of his knowledge of Nathaniel’s physical presence under the fig tree. And in the same way, Thomas is not, you know, rebuked ultimately by Christ, but rather Christ offers demonstration of his physical body to Thomas. Now, he exhorts him after that to not be unbelieving, but believing. But the idea is the presentation of the evidence that both Nathaniel and Thomas desired to receive.

And then in response to this, there is this acclamation of faith. And Nathaniel’s acclamation is very much like Thomas’s. Nathaniel says, “Rabbi, thou art the Son of God. Thou art the King of Israel.” Thomas says, you know, “My Lord and my God.” The term Lord is the translation of the Old Testament Yahweh, the King of Israel, Messiah. And God is Elohim, matching up with the Son of God. So Nathaniel says, “You’re the Son of God. You’re the King of Israel.” Thomas says, “You’re Lord, and you’re God.”

And so there’s a correlation between these two confessions of Nathaniel on the one hand and of Thomas on the other. But that’s not the end of the story. It could have been, the way it was written. But Jesus then says something to Nathaniel. He says something more. And he says, “Because I said unto thee, I saw thee under the fig tree, believe. Thou shalt see greater things than these. He saith unto him, ‘Verily, I say unto you, hereafter you shall see heavens open and the angels of God ascending and descending upon the Son of Man.’”

So again, Jesus makes a statement to Nathaniel in the first text or narrative about his belief. In the same way that Thomas comes to believe—”not unbelieving, but be believing.” And then Jesus promises great blessings to Nathaniel in the context of his affirmation of the lordship and divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. He promises great blessings. And when Thomas says, “My Lord and my God,” Jesus pronounces great blessings: “When you’ve believed, blessed are those who will believe who have not seen.” As a result of Thomas’s testimony, a greater thing than your belief will be those that come to believe without having seen physical evidence, but believing the physical evidence of those who have brought witness and testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there’s this further statement. More things will happen. Greater things will occur here. A greater thing than your belief will be those that come to believe without having seen physical evidence, but believing in the physical evidence of those who have brought witness and testimony of the Lord Jesus Christ.

So at the opening of John’s narrative, a whole collection of disciples, the last holdout who wants kind of personal affirmation is Nathaniel. And at the close of the gospel of John, we have the disciples being gathered on that first day of the new creation. The new world has been created. The last one, according to our text, to be added to that number—the way that Nathaniel was added to the number at the first of the gospel—the last one added is Thomas.

In both cases, both men make a dual affirmation of Jesus Christ—that he is Messiah, the King of Israel, he is Lord on the one hand, and that he is the Son of God or “my God” in Thomas’s case, on the other hand. And so the text and narrative seems to draw these things together.

Well, interesting correlation. What does it mean to us? Well, if we remember that Nathaniel very explicitly, as I said, was quoting from his Bible—not quoting, but referring to his Bible—when he makes the statement about Nazareth. In both cases, what we do not see here, I don’t think, is a salvation story. We don’t see men who are outside and then saw the light and turned and became Christians. We see men deepening in their understanding and faith in the God who has revealed himself in the scriptures and now speaks definitively and finally in the work of the Lord Jesus Christ.

I think that’s significant. I think it’s significant because it drives it right home to you and I. We’re Nathaniels. We know our Bibles. We don’t understand sometimes how those scriptures relate to the work of Christ around us. We’re Thomases. We want to believe. We follow Jesus Christ. And times get tough. Community relationships break down. Our circumstances become difficult. Jesus Christ is about maturing the faith of mature men and women who are already committed to him.

So I think these twin references—seeing Thomas as the twin of Nathaniel—is a picture to us certainly of the new man made by the Lord Jesus Christ and the new creation. But it’s also a picture of maturing men and women who are already committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

There’s a contrast between the two stories, and that also helps us. The similarity is that these are men who are already committed—either to the God of the scriptures, not yet made manifest to Nathaniel in the flesh through Jesus Christ, or to Thomas, who’s committed to the Lord Jesus but now waits. In the same way that some of us pessimists wait—you know, you can just almost read it in Thomas’s voice: “Well, let’s go and die with him.” He’s hoping not to die, of course, but he’s kind of worst-case scenario here—”Well, if I don’t see it, then I’m not going to believe.” But, you know, he kind of knows that Jesus will appear to him. He’s got kind of a seemingly pessimistic sort of take on things, but nonetheless, he’s committed to the Lord Jesus Christ.

So there’s commonality there. What’s the difference? At least, what’s the major difference as we go from the Nathaniel to Thomas? I think a significant difference is in the confession. That’s the height of these twin tales, right? That’s what, you know—it’s kind of there’s this postlit of blessing and benediction from Jesus to Nathaniel, and a posting of benediction to Thomas. But the narrative itself kind of heightens or climaxes at their confession.

What does Nathaniel say? Nathaniel says that Jesus Christ is the King of Israel, the Son of God, right? What does Thomas say? Thomas says, “My Lord and my God.” Those are similar confessions. They’re not in opposition to one another, but I do think that there is a development in those two confessions.

I put it wrong for Nathaniel. He says, first, “You’re the Son of God, and you’re the King of Israel.” Now, the Son of God is a term that definitely establishes the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ. But Thomas’s confession is matured. He doesn’t refer to Jesus as the Son of God. He says, “My God,” right? So now there’s the clearest explanation, the soundest confession of the divinity of the Lord Jesus Christ, given to us at the climax of this gospel.

And what are we supposed to come to believe as a result of all this? The text tells us that Jesus is the Son of God, that he is divinity, that he is the Son of God, is interpreted by Thomas’s confession that Jesus is God. So that’s one change. But the other change are the personal pronouns attached to these. Thomas doesn’t say, “You are God, and you are Lord.” He says, “My Lord and my God.”

Now, remember, I don’t think this is a conversion narrative. I think it’s a maturation, an edifying narrative—although it can be used either way, the same way that the belief clause in our text can be used both ways. But I guess what I’m saying is that as we come together to meet with the Lord Jesus Christ, as we see our relationship to Thomas through the transition character that he is—between the age of unmediated, direct relationship to Christ and the age of mediation with Christ through the Holy Spirit—Jesus’s twin, right? Jesus and the Holy Spirit are the twin of Christ. The Holy Spirit is the twin of Christ who comes to speak things only about Christ, hidden in the background, brings exaltation to Christ. But that age of the Spirit now, and the witness of those who did physically see the facts of history, are believed on by us, empowered by the Spirit.

You see, then we’re being matured in that belief and understanding of who Jesus is. When we come together to hear the words of the Lord Jesus Christ, to have him present in our midst, what we should see is that God is developing us and maturing us the way he did Thomas—bringing us to the confession that Jesus is “my Lord, my God.”

You know, we had a discussion the other night about 20-year-olds at our church and kids growing up in the church and should they make some kind of public profession of faith. Should they not? Putting all that stuff on the side, our children, of course, profess faith every Lord’s day. When you come to this table, children, when Dad gives you the elements, when you sing the songs, when you confess your sin, when you believe the word of Christ is being preached, you’re confessing your faith in Christ.

But understand this—and no, I’m telling it to the children. I’m telling it to the adults. The great height, the climax of this gospel, with Thomas’s confession, is that Jesus Christ is his personal God, his personal savior, in the sense of having direct relationship with him. This text has given us all kinds of indications of the importance of community and the importance of assuming our children are in the context of the covenant as they grow up and me assuming you’re in the context of the covenant as you come to this table.

I don’t preach a gospel that is neutral to you. I proclaim to you the good news that Jesus Christ has saved you. But I also say that the end result of that saving work of the Lord Jesus Christ, as you mature in him, is a declaration that he is your God, your savior. “Don’t be unbelieving,” Jesus told Thomas, “but believing and have faith. There are quickening moments in the lives of our children. There’s quickening moments in the lives of us adults as God brings us to a deeper understanding of what that means—that God is my God and my Lord.

I would dare say that all of us this past week, even in the midst of a wonderful season like Thanksgiving, had difficulties believing that at times, that we probably sinned in our response to the great blessings of God this last week, that there were times when we really did not assert the lordship of Christ over—so we didn’t really believe in the sense of working out our belief in practical application of him being our savior or our Lord or our God.

Says that he comes to you today to assure you that his peace is upon you, to call you to believing, to have faith, to trust the work of the Lord Jesus Christ given to us in the witness of scripture and through men that have spoken over 2,000 years, based upon those who saw the physical reality of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Be believing, and when you come forward today with your tithes and offerings, come forward in your heart saying that Jesus Christ is my Lord, my God.

We know that Israel after the flesh assumed that because they were circumcised, they were in the context of the faith. What we’re being seen here is the maturation of Israel in Thomas and Nathaniel. And that maturation happens as each of us—not just the boys and girls, but as moms and dads—say to Jesus Christ today, “My Lord, my God.”

Jesus, during this Advent season, comes to empower us to live our lives for him. What are we told by Paul? “I no longer live, but Christ lives in me.” Ultimately, Thomas’s twin is not Nathaniel. It’s kind of us. We’re with Thomas. But ultimately, beyond that, even Thomas is the twin of Jesus. It’s two guys talking in the narrative before us—a twin and Jesus. And Thomas, really, ultimately, his twin is the Lord Jesus Christ.

You know, in the Old Testament, I don’t know if you kids know this story. Elisha raised this boy who was dead. Elisha’s called in to come to save this boy, and he goes into the room and he does a very unusual thing. He’d be arrested for it today. He’d be in the National Enquirer. He lays on the boy, puts his eyes on his eyes, his mouth on his mouth, hands on hands, right? He lays on him, and then the boy breathes—into him is the implication. The boy sneezes seven times. I don’t know what the sneezing is—exhalation of wind. I don’t know what the imagery is. It’s an obscure word. It’s the only place it’s used in the Old Testament—this one occurrence, the seven times—significant of new creation. Elisha is bringing the boy back from the dead, and he’s making a new creation out of him.

The boy is twinned with Elisha, right? They’re laying—he’s laying on top of him, touching him, you know, hand to hand, mouth to mouth, eye to eye. Why? Because of the identification of the child with the spirit empowerment of Elisha. He comes to newness of life in relationship to being twin of Elisha. Thomas is the twin of the Lord Jesus Christ. Jesus brings us back from the dead—into death and resurrection—by union with him. So for us to live is Christ.

Now, it’s interesting. Some of the more liturgical churches have baptismal services in medieval period which were Elishaike. They would take the baby and they would anoint the hands with oil and pray that he would use his hands to serve the King, the Lord Jesus Christ. And they would anoint his eyes with oil in the baptism and say, “Lord God, make his eyes to see things for you and not allow him to gaze upon things which he shouldn’t look at.” And they’d anoint his ears and say, “May his hearing be directed to honoring you and your kingdom.” And they’d anoint his forehead and talk about his thoughts being pure and holy. And they would anoint various parts of the body as a way of consecrating and dedicating that child in baptism—that the child himself now is brought into the recognition that his whole life is to be lived in subjection to the one who is his Lord and his God.

That he’d be that young man raised from the dead by Elisha. Jesus Christ comes at the height of the gospel, displays himself to be the master. We are the twin brothers. We’re Christians. Now, for us to live is the Lord Jesus Christ. For us to live is to proclaim, “My Lord and my God.” To do it today and then to do it tomorrow morning when you get up: “My Lord and my God, what do you have for me to do today? How can I use my hands, my ears, my feet, my tongue, my eyes to bring glory to you?”

God wants us to mature. He gives us a twin to point out our twin nature with the Lord Jesus Christ. Our life is now hid in him. We are Christians.

Let’s pray. Father, we thank you for this great declaration of Thomas. And we do pray that as we come forward bringing to you our tithes and offerings, we would do so declaring, “My Lord and my God.” In Christ’s name we ask it. Amen.