[0:00] Our first reading today is John chapter 20, verses 1 through to 18, and this can be found on page 1092 of the Church Bibles. Now on the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb early, while it was still dark, and saw that the stone had been taken away from the tomb.
[0:23] So she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, and said to them, They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.
[0:36] So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going towards the tomb. Both of them were running together, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first.
[0:47] And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying on, but he did not go in. Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb.
[0:58] He saw the linen cloths lying there, and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus' head, not lying with the linen cloths, but folded up in a place by itself. Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed.
[1:14] For as yet they did not understand the scripture, that he must rise from the dead. Then the disciples went back to their homes. But Mary stood weeping outside the tomb.
[1:27] And as she wept, she stooped to look into the tomb. And she saw two angels in white, sitting where the body of Jesus had lain, one at the head and one at the feet.
[1:39] They said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? She said to them, They have taken away my Lord, and I do not know where they have laid him. Having said this, she turned round and saw Jesus standing, but she did not know that it was Jesus.
[1:56] Jesus said to her, Woman, why are you weeping? Whom are you seeking? Supposing him to be the gardener, she said to him, Sir, if you have carried him away, tell me where you have laid him, and I will take him away.
[2:11] Jesus said to her, Mary. She turned and said to him in Aramaic, Rabboniah, which means teacher. Jesus said to her, Do not cling to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
[2:27] But go to my brothers and say to them, I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God. Mary Magdalene went and announced to the disciples, I have seen the Lord, and that he had said these things too.
[2:44] The second reading is taken from John chapter 20, beginning at verse 19. Jesus appears to the disciples. On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them, and said to them, Peace be with you.
[3:10] When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, Peace be with you.
[3:22] As the Father has sent me, even so I am sending you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, Receive the Holy Spirit.
[3:33] If you forgive the sins of anyone, they are forgiven. If you withhold forgiveness from anyone, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.
[3:49] So the other disciples told him, We have seen the Lord. But he said to them, Unless I see in his hands the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails, and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
[4:07] Eight days later, his disciples were inside again, and Thomas was with them. Although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, Peace be with you.
[4:19] Then he said to Thomas, Put your finger here, and see my hands, and put out your hand, and place it in my side. Do not disbelieve, but believe.
[4:32] 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 believed.
[4:45] Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing, you may have life in his name.
[5:03] Let me add my welcome. My name is Mark Fossey. I'm the assistant pastor here at Grace Church. And happy Easter. Jesus is raised from the dead. It's a great day. But I wonder what Easter means to many of you.
[5:16] Please do keep that passage open, by the way, on page 1093. And I'd like to just think a bit about the account there that we've been looking at. And if you'd like to follow through, actually, the points that I'm making in the talk, on the back of your service sheet, there are two points there, and a conclusion point.
[5:33] Some people like making notes. So if that's you, do make notes. Well, I wonder what you make of Easter. What I'd like to actually speak about today is that it's actually a message of peace.
[5:45] You know you hear that phrase, don't you, at Christmas time, peace and goodwill to all men. Peace is a sort of, that's the sort of cheesy one-liner you get at Christmas time. Peace you don't often associate with Easter.
[5:55] But actually, if you look at what Jesus says, he talks about peace all the time. So have a look down at what we've just been reading there, from chapter 20, and have a look down at verse 19. Jesus says, at the end of verse 19 there, to the disciples, peace be with you.
[6:10] And then again in verse 21, Jesus said to them again, peace be with you. And then look further down, verse 26. At the end of verse 26, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you.
[6:23] So the big message, if you say it three times, that's kind of a, you know, that really reinforces it. This is a message of peace, which is not what you'd expect at Easter time, is it? Now, peace can be an objective thing, or a subjective thing.
[6:36] It can be something out there that's true, or something in here that you feel. Okay? So peace objectively. So when two countries make, they're at war, and they sign a peace treaty, there's an objective external peace.
[6:49] Or if you fall out with someone, and you're having an argument with them, and then you make peace with them, it's an objective external thing. You're back at peace, when there was this hostility. But peace is also something you feel inside yourself.
[7:01] It's a subjective thing. You feel internal hostility, don't you? And then sometimes, you can say of yourself, or you can say of someone else, they feel peace about a certain thing, or just generally, they feel peace in themselves.
[7:14] Both cases, it's hostility has ended. You either know there's peace, or you feel peace. And actually, sometimes they're related. Sometimes when you've fallen out with someone, particularly if it's someone very close to you, and you make peace with them, you feel peace inside yourself.
[7:30] They're often related, aren't they? External peace. And internal peace. But what about with God? Do you have peace with God? Externally.
[7:42] Do you feel peace with God? Internally. Do you know that deep peace in your soul? Because you're on good terms, you're at peace with God.
[7:55] How can you know if you have peace with God? How do you know if you deserve peace with God? How do you feel about you and God on Easter Sunday? Well, I want to think about two things today, two ways in which peace are really, really key for us, that come out of this text we just read.
[8:12] And they're on your sheet there, the two points there. Jesus offers us peace from fear, and Jesus offers us peace from doubt. I wonder if fear or doubt are things you bring to the resurrection, or just in life when you come on Easter Sunday.
[8:26] Let me just explain why I mean those two things. First of all, Jesus offers us peace from fear, and particularly fear from people, and fear of death.
[8:38] When Jesus is raised from the dead, for those of us who fear death, it's a massive, massive boon, a real encouragement to us. Statistically, we're all going to die.
[8:51] But for most of us, I don't know if this is you, but for most of us, death seems a long, long, long way away. It seems miles in the future for many of us. Because we live in a really safe culture.
[9:02] Most of the major diseases that used to kill people in previous centuries have been dealt with. Infant mortality rate is really high. Every year, as a year goes on, the average life expectancy gets longer, and longer, and longer.
[9:15] And so weirdly, as a culture, we're one of the first cultures, or parts of the world, where death is massively off the agenda. We don't even think about death. It's miles and miles away. But I guess many of us, perhaps all of us, at some time in our lives, death just feels more urgent.
[9:34] We feel our mortality even more keenly, don't we, sometimes? Perhaps you have known someone that's a friend of yours, or someone who's died. And when someone dies, particularly if it's someone of your own age, I remember there was a guy I was at school with who took his own life, just years after we left school.
[9:51] And at that point, I realised, wow, it makes you realise your own mortality, doesn't it? Or maybe you've seen someone die. Maybe you've seen a car crash. Maybe you've been with a relative as they died.
[10:04] And just for a moment, you have to realise, hang on, I'm going to die. It just, it seems more real to you, doesn't it? Or maybe you yourself have had a real big sickness, or you have come close to death yourself.
[10:19] Maybe you feel close to death even today. And you feel that mortality, you feel that vulnerability, you feel that weakness. And it's interesting, the one strong emotion that often comes through when people realise their own mortality is fear.
[10:37] When it's miles away, you feel fine. But when it's close, fear is the thing, isn't it? You might be afraid of dying, no one wants to go through the process of dying. But death itself is fearful.
[10:49] What's going to happen when I die? You see, if you've not thought about death, the default way of thinking of most people in our culture is that death is the end. For the rest of forever, there's nothing.
[11:02] I don't feel anything, I don't think anything, I don't know anything, I'm completely extinguished. And when you actually face your own death, that is terrifying. But for those of us who actually do think there's something after death, life after death, it's interesting, what do you think about life after death?
[11:20] How do you know? It's easy to kind of say nice things to comfort people, but actually, when you come face to face with your own death, you kind of realise, I don't know what I think about life after death.
[11:31] I don't know if there's a God. I don't know if there's a heaven or a hell. How can I know? How can anyone know? But on this first Easter Sunday, some of those thoughts might well have been going through the disciples' minds.
[11:44] They were terrified of dying as well. Have a look down please at verse 19 of that chapter we just read on page 1093. Page 1093, verse 19. On the evening of the day, the first day of the week, so Jesus had been dead two days, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, peace with you.
[12:07] Now see, the disciples are fearful. They're frightened. They've been following Jesus for three years. They left their home, they've left their families, they've left their jobs, they've left their futures to follow a guy around because they thought there's something different about this guy.
[12:22] And then suddenly, within the space of a few hours, he's been arrested, he's been tried and he's been put to death. Just within a few hours, all their lives have gone to pot. And they're terrified because actually they think they're going to be next.
[12:36] They're fearing the Jews. They left, that's not all Jewish people, that's the Jewish authorities. They think they might be next. They're terrified. And what we're going to find at the beginning of this account in their fear, by the end and certainly in the next couple weeks, these fearful, frightened little guys, locked in a room, keeping their heads down, keeping quiet, become men who go out and boldly, in front of thousands of people, tell them that Jesus has risen from the dead.
[13:04] And actually, all of these guys boldly, fearlessly live lives in which they're imprisoned, they're tortured and ultimately executed. How bold is that?
[13:15] How fearless is that? They go from people frightened of dying and frightened of people to being fearless in front of people and utterly unafraid of dying. How many of us could say that we're fearless in front of all people and completely unafraid of dying?
[13:30] Well, we need to find out what they found out. So let's have a look down. The big thing is, of course, is that Jesus appears to them. Have a look down again at the end of verse 19. Jesus came and stood among them even though the doors were locked.
[13:42] Somehow, he can now in his resurrection state come into a room even though the doors are locked. Just kind of appear as it were. And he said to them, peace be with you. When he'd said this, he showed them his hands and his side where the scars were from crucifixion.
[13:58] Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. That's a very, very understated British translation. They were overjoyed when they saw him. And Jesus said to them again, peace be with you.
[14:12] Let me recap the story so far before you get up to here. Remember, Mary has gone to the tomb on Sunday morning and it's still dark and she's found the tomb empty. She wasn't expecting that.
[14:23] So she's gone and told Peter and John and the disciples. Peter and John come to the tomb. They find it empty. There's this linen cloth there. So he clearly hasn't been stolen by grave rollers because the linen is the only valuable bit of a dead body.
[14:38] And so they find him, the tomb empty and they don't know what to make of it either. So they leave and then Jesus appears to Mary. He chooses Mary first. And Mary then goes back and tells the disciples, I've seen Jesus.
[14:50] He's raised from the dead. Now what would you think of a lady who's been in grief coming and telling you, you know the guy that we love who's died? He's alive again. My guess is they think he's a madman, a madwoman sorry and that's exactly what I think they thought because they were still fearfully locked in this room frightened of the Jews.
[15:08] They don't understand that Jesus is really raised from the dead. And all their fears, all their worries, all their doubts are instantly killed when they see Jesus.
[15:20] When he shows them his hands and he says, look, look at the nail marks and he shows them his side. Look, look where the centurion stuck a sword through me to kill me, said a bloke speaking and alive with blood going through his veins.
[15:34] I was dead but I'm now alive. Look, you can see. It must have been an absolutely extraordinary moment. He wasn't a spirit, he wasn't an apparition, he wasn't a ghost, he was true flesh.
[15:47] They ate fish with him in the next chapter to prove that he's a really, when he was raised from the dead, he wasn't a kind of a ghost, he was a real man, alive, physical. And when he appears to them, he says, peace be with you.
[16:02] Now if you've ever been to the Middle East, I once went on holiday to Israel and it's a lovely country and the thing you notice about Israel, lots of things you notice, one is, whenever you meet a Jewish person, they all say, shalom, which means peace.
[16:15] And when you ever meet a Muslim in Israel, they always say, ah, Salem. The accent is wrong, but that's what they say. That means peace. Ironically, one of the most unpeaceful parts of the world, the first thing they all say when they say hello to you is peace.
[16:30] But Jesus isn't just saying peace, hello. He's saying something a bit more profound here. He's saying, peace be with you. He's saying a profound thing here.
[16:42] Now let me suggest two ways in which this peace is really profound for them and for us. Two things. Firstly, they have peace with God. Now the Bible teaches us that all of us by nature actually aren't okay with God.
[16:56] We don't have peace with God. Actually, every person I know by default lives their life as if God is an irrelevancy. They've got nothing to do with his ways. They don't want to live his way.
[17:07] In fact, the only time most people mention God is when they're swearing. So actually, by definition, we're not all right with God. All of us. And I think we probably know this in our hearts.
[17:19] We've got a problem with God and he's got a problem with us. So when God sent his son into the world, he didn't send his son Jesus into the world as a general to fight his enemies.
[17:31] Extraordinarily, God sent his son in the world to be a sacrifice, to die for his enemies so that we could have peace with him. See, when Jesus died on Good Friday, when he died on the cross, he bore in his body all the things that we've done wrong.
[17:49] He died for our sins. He died for our mistakes. He died for the life that we lived against God. So that instead of God thinking of us as his enemies, now God thinks of us as, well, his friends.
[18:02] We have peace with God. And the reason it's been made up with him is because Jesus died for us. It's an objective, external thing. So do you see, when a Christian says, I have peace with God, I'm alright with God, it's not because I'm better than anyone or because I pray more or because I go to church or because I preach sermons.
[18:22] It's because I look at the cross on Good Friday and I see Jesus has died for my sins. So I'm alright with God, but not because of me, but because of him. I just trust and accept that.
[18:34] But how do I know that I have peace with God? How do I know that Jesus died for my sins? How do I know that's not just a comforting thing made up by people who want to think of something nice to comfort them?
[18:46] Well, let me put it this way. Imagine I said to you this morning, I've used this illustration before, excuse me if you've heard it before, imagine if I said to you this morning, I'm going to die for your sins and then to prove it, I'm going to bring myself back from the dead.
[19:01] It would be an odd church service, I imagine, and it might stick out in the mind. Imagine if I said to you, I'm going to die and bring myself back from the dead to prove that I died for your sins and then I ran out the door, into the road and got hit by the first articulated lorry that was driving along and you saw me there dead on the floor, a bloody mess.
[19:20] You'd think, well that was an unusual Easter service, wasn't quite expecting that. What would you think of me? You'd think, well there's one less religious nutter in the world, that's what you'd probably think.
[19:32] But imagine then you go home, slightly perturbed, slightly put out, that was a bit odd, and you go about your day and then on Tuesday morning you're on your way to work.
[19:42] You've had a long bank holiday weekend and there you are on the bus or on the train, whatever it is and then you look over and there's me, you see me there, sitting there, reading a newspaper, whistling away. That's the bloke that said he was going to die for my sins and then bring himself back from the dead.
[20:00] Now what would you think of me then? Now the truth is I'm not going to do that because I can't do that so it's alright. But the thing is that's exactly what Jesus did. The reason they thought peace be with you meant wow, I really do have peace with God.
[20:15] I really actually definitely 100% know that my sins are dealt with and I'm alright with God. It's because this bloke who said he was going to die for my sins and then bring himself back from the dead, he did it.
[20:28] He's alive and I've seen him. And that's why on this brilliant day they knew conclusively that they had peace with God. Now let me ask you, do you have peace with God?
[20:40] When you think about your own death, are you okay with God? If you're on your deathbed and you're frightened of dying, which is completely normal, how can you have no fear?
[20:54] How can you know that you will be raised from the dead and that you will be peace with God? I'll tell you how you can know because Jesus has been raised from the dead. It's happened. They saw it.
[21:06] It really happened in history. These guys turned from fearful men locked in a room to bold men going out and telling everyone we've seen Jesus raised from the dead. So I want to encourage you this morning, you don't need to be frightened of what people think of you and you don't need to be frightened of death.
[21:24] That's an extraordinary thing to say. You don't need to be frightened of what people think of you because Jesus is raised from the dead. What's the worst they can do to you? One day you will be raised from the dead and live forever. It's happened.
[21:35] It will happen because Jesus has already been raised. So it doesn't matter what people think of you. That's exactly what happened with these disciples. Fearless, fearful to becoming fearless. And even more powerfully, I think, when you come to your own death, you genuinely don't have to be afraid.
[21:55] You don't have to be afraid of dying or of death because Jesus is raised from the dead and so will you be. Here's a guy that can have power over death. He can say to death, no, actually.
[22:06] It's all right, but no. I'm going to be alive. And he will do it to each one of you as well, each one of us. So please, when I'm dying, if you happen to be there, please make it the first thing you say to me is Jesus is raised from the dead and you will be.
[22:21] It's happened. It will definitely happen to you. And I want to encourage you, if it comes to your death, don't be afraid. It will be all right. Jesus is raised from the dead and so will you be.
[22:34] Just trust in him. So fear, peace from fear. But lastly as well, Jesus offers peace from doubt. Jesus offers peace from doubt.
[22:46] Maybe you come to Easter and you're a bit of a sceptic. It's actually a good thing, it's quite a healthy thing to be sceptical. Well, this is a very, very good account of a sceptic, Thomas, who actually became a non-sceptic, a believer.
[22:58] Let me show you why if you're a sceptic. Look down at verse 24. So halfway through the passage, verse 24. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, he obviously had a twin brother, was not with the other disciples when Jesus came.
[23:12] So the other disciples told him, we've seen the Lord. But Thomas said to them, unless I see his hands, the mark of the nails, and place my finger into the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.
[23:29] You see, when Jesus was raised on Easter Sunday and he appeared to the disciples, Thomas wasn't there. I don't know where Thomas was. He was probably hiding somewhere else. Now like the others, Thomas had left his home, he'd left his family, he'd left his job and given everything to follow Jesus.
[23:46] All his hopes had been crushed on Friday and then on Sunday, all his mates are saying, no, no, no, it's all right. He's raised from the dead. Now at this point, when all your mates are saying something, it must be pretty difficult because you trust these guys and yet you've been crushed.
[24:02] Have you ever had your heart broken in a relationship? I don't know if you've had your heart broken. It's quite difficult to suddenly then start going out with someone else straight away because your hopes have been crushed. It takes time to build up confidence and trust again.
[24:16] Now Thomas' life has been crushed. Jesus is dead. The guy he was following for years. It's pretty difficult even when people say, no, no, no, he's raised from the dead. It's very difficult emotionally just to believe that hook, line and sinker when your hopes have been crushed a couple of days earlier.
[24:31] So there he is for the next week walking around with his hopes crushed and yet all his mates saying he's been raised from the dead. I imagine he must have thought about it a lot.
[24:41] What would it have meant if Jesus really was raised from the dead? I find it so hard to believe. But what would it imply if he really was raised from the dead? I think his doubt is a normal doubt.
[24:53] It's a common doubt. Maybe you're here today and you sympathise with Thomas. I've often heard people say to me something like, I wish I had your faith.
[25:05] And what people often mean by that, and maybe you've said that to someone or heard that from someone else, is, look, I really respect this Christian thing and I'd like to have it, but the doubt for me is just too big a hurdle.
[25:16] I just can't get over that hurdle for myself. Well, let's see what changed his mind and can change our mind. Have a look down at verse 26. Eight days later, so just over a week later, his disciples were again inside and Thomas was with them this time.
[25:34] And again, although the doors were locked, Jesus came and stood among them and said, peace be with you. Then he turned to Thomas and he said to Thomas, put your finger here and see my hands.
[25:46] Put out your hand and place it in my sight. Do not disbelieve, but believe. And what did Thomas say? Thomas said, wow, you are alive. Interestingly, no, he doesn't.
[25:58] He says something much, much bigger. Look what Thomas says. My Lord and my God. That's a massive thing to say. Let me say, I'll just draw out two things from this account and we'll come to a close of this sermon.
[26:14] Let me draw out two things. Firstly, for some of us who find doubt difficult and think this whole thing about a raised man absurd and ridiculous, let me just show you quickly the evidence what we've got here that makes Thomas go, you're my Lord and my God.
[26:29] Firstly, we've got Jesus who's been killed. He's died on a cross and the disciples all saw it. The women all saw it. Lots of people saw it. In fact, to prove he was dead, a centurion thrust a spear through his side and up into his heart and by and large that kills a person.
[26:45] That's just to make doubly sure. He was absolutely dead. There's no way he could have survived. A couple of days later, there's an empty tomb and the linen is still there. So the body hasn't been stolen and people have seen his body's missing.
[27:00] Where is it? They've seen it with their own eyes. The disciples themselves, they can't have stolen the body because they're still frightened. They're still in a locked room. They're not out there being confident.
[27:11] They're frightened. They think he's dead. And yet, they all said, and this is what we're reading, that they saw him. Do you know what Christianity is? Do you know how it started?
[27:22] Twelve blokes went around Jerusalem and then spread out on their own around the world and told people, we saw a dead guy come to life. Imagine if we, twelve of us, went out and tried to start some amazing thing like Simon Dowdy, our boss here, actually is raised from the dead.
[27:41] How far do you think we'd get in London? Because we don't believe it and we know it's not true. But these twelve men essentially went around saying, a bloke called Jesus for whom loads of prophecies in the Old Testament he fulfilled, who went around doing amazing miracles in his life, died for our sins and proved it by coming back from the dead.
[28:03] That's what they did. And here we are today with a billion people around the world believing their message. They're absolutely convinced that what they saw was true. And so being a Christian is trusting their eyewitness testimony.
[28:18] How do we know anything has ever happened in the past? How do we know King Henry VIII had six wives? Did it right? How do we know that George VI had a stutter?
[28:28] How do we know these things? Because of eyewitness evidence. People that were there said it. How do we know that Jesus was raised from the dead because of eyewitness evidence? Being a Christian is relying on what these people said.
[28:42] How do you know what they said was true? Well for me two things. I'm sure they weren't duped, convinced of something that wasn't real because all eleven of them saw it and believed it.
[28:54] If one was duped maybe but not all eleven. So for me they can't have been duped. And I can't think that they made it up and collaborated and made a big lie. Because like I said earlier every one of them went to their death saying that they saw a man raised from the dead.
[29:08] One of them just had to say look we made it up please don't kill me. But none of them did. All of them died believing that they saw Jesus raised from the dead.
[29:20] So I think we can really really trust it and this is why Christians believe this thing. I saw a documentary on TV this week though that many people it said that many younger people these days don't think that there's no God.
[29:33] They're open minded to their being a God. They just think it's irrelevant and they think Easter's irrelevant. Okay maybe Jesus did come back from the dead but that was two thousand years ago. What's that got to do with me?
[29:44] Who cares? Let me finish with this last thing. Look at verse 28. Look again at what Thomas says. He says my Lord and my God.
[29:54] He didn't just say oh wow you've come back from the dead. It is true. See Thomas really understands the implications that Jesus isn't just a bloke who did a very clever trick.
[30:07] Jesus is the Lord and Jesus is God. That means he is God over everybody. You know in his life and you can read this if you read through the rest of John's gospel Jesus said some pretty outlandish and outrageous things.
[30:21] Okay. Jesus said if you've seen me you've seen God. Jesus said do you know what everything I say is exactly what God says.
[30:33] Do you know Jesus said that when I die I'm going to die for your sins so that you can have peace with God. Do you know Jesus said that God has given him authority to be the judge at the end of time.
[30:46] Jesus isn't just a bloke who did clever tricks. He says some outrageous things and he proved it by coming back from the dead. So when Thomas says my Lord and my God the pennies dropped do you know what this really is the son of God.
[31:02] This really is the guy who died for sins. This really is the guy who gives us peace with God. This really is the guy that I'm going to have to face on the last day and give account for my life. He raised himself from the dead.
[31:14] This is really true. But not only is he God but for Thomas he is my Lord and my God. Not just the Lord and the God but my Lord and my God.
[31:27] And being a Christian is not just someone who goes yeah Jesus I'm pretty impressed with him and I kind of like the kind of things he said. It's to say Jesus is my God and my Lord.
[31:38] He's to say he's my boss. It's to say I'll follow him. I'll believe and trust in him. And these things are written down for us so that we might believe as well.
[31:49] Let me finish by reading these last three verses. Look at verse 29. Jesus said to Thomas have you believed because you've seen me or blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.
[32:01] Now that's written for us because we've not seen him but we believe because we're believing what these guys have seen. That's what a Christian is. And John has written all these things down and Jesus was raised from the dead and we've thought about his resurrection from the dead.
[32:15] Why? Because of verse 30. Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples which are not written in this book but these are written down. This resurrection is written down for us so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ.
[32:30] He is the Son of God and that by believing you might have life in his name. I don't know where you stand on the resurrection. I myself am a Christian or stake my life on it.
[32:41] I absolutely trust and believe in this and my death on it. And this is written down. These things happened so that you might be convinced as well that Jesus really is the Son of God.
[32:54] Who else can bring himself back from the dead? And that if you believe these things you yourself will have eternal life. Do you know what? You can have peace from fear of people and fear of death.
[33:08] And you can have peace from all those internal doubts not sureness. Because Jesus was raised from the dead. They saw him it happened. And just as he was raised from the dead so will we be raised from the dead.
[33:22] I think that's amazing. I properly think that's amazing. Why don't I finish with a prayer? Lord Jesus raised from the dead and alive now we want to honour you and praise you and lift you up and say you are extraordinary.
[33:39] You are the Son of God. You are the Christ. And we know that if we believe in you we have eternal life in your name. And the reason we know that risen Lord Jesus is because you are raised from the dead.
[33:52] How do we know that you died for our sins Lord? Because you proved it by being visible by being raised from the dead. So Lord Jesus we put our hope and our trust in you that we know that even when we come to die we will live again.
[34:08] Not because we are good enough but because you were raised from the dead. And that we have peace with you Father God. because Jesus has died to take our sins. We want to thank you so much.
[34:19] That is extraordinary. We pray all these things in your wonderful name Lord Jesus. Amen.