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Easter, "Who Holds the Key", "Who Holds The Key", John 20:19-31 · Clifford Baptist

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  Speaker A: Welcome to the April 5 sermon from Clifford Baptist Church, 635 Fletcher's Level Road in Amherst. Today's scripture is John, chapter 20, verses 19 through 31. And the sermon is entitled who Holds the Key? Delivered today by Pastor Jeffrey Campbell.
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  Speaker B: We are grateful to gather around God's Word. I know Instincts wants me to tell you to turn to the book of Luke. That's not where we're going to be today. Open your Bibles to the Gospel of. Of John. John, chapter number 20. John, chapter number 20 is where we are going to be today. I'm going to ask you a quick question before we start out. Have you ever lost your keys? Maybe you have done that. I've done it. Just yesterday we had a big Easter egg hunt and I took my tractor down and rode the kids around. And after it was all over, I gathered some trash that was left and put it in the bucket and of my tractor. And I drove the tractor back up the road to the truck and I just, without thinking, I turned the tractor off, had the key in my hand, and I scooped up all the trash out of the bucket and I went to the trash can and with one little swoop, I just dropped it all in there. So I go on about. I had some things to do, and luckily there was a few guys hanging around here. And I said, guys, I'm in trouble. I lost the keys to my tractor. Now, I don't know about you, but that's a big deal to me, right? That's a big deal. So we retraced footsteps. And thanks to Reed Crawford and Mason Thomas, they were throwing reminders at me. I know. Did you set them here? Did you put them here? And I said, I threw some trash away. So I went to that big old trash can and popped the lid and there they were. I had to do a little garbage diving, but we got them. We got them. Maybe today that little story describes how you're trying to figure out life where you are on an Easter Sunday morning and trying to process what a resurrected savior really means. Maybe you're trying to sort through what you think and how you feel. And really, I want to be honest, none of that really matters. But the truth of this is Jesus is alive and who holds the keys to our faith. And that is what we're going to look at today as we look in Scripture. Today we gather as believers, understanding that Jesus was the perfect son of God. He came to this earth fully man and fully God. And he lived as you and I, tempted as we were, and yet he lived A perfect, sinless life. He began his ministry at the age of 30 and proclaimed that he was the Son of God. And through the virgin birth and through genealogy and through his study and knowledge of the word of God, through miracles and through being the fulfillment of prophecy, through an old rugged cross on Calvary and an empty tomb on Resurrection Sunday, we can proclaim Jesus Christ is Lord. That's why we gather. That's what we gather together to worship Jesus Christ, our risen Lord. But despite all of that, there are some that still can't see that Jesus is the Son of God. So today, as we can get into rooms and even classrooms and debate what it means to be a believer in Jesus Christ, we can sit around a table and debate what salvation really means and how someone comes to Christ. Here's what the Bible teaches. God has a part and you have a part. And when we understand this, that in order for somebody to be saved, God must be working in their life and in their heart to make the truth come alive to them. And also there is a human response when you understand that truth, if you will receive and know Jesus as savior. At 15 years old, I sat in a church in our county and a revival speaker came from out of town. I didn't know who he was. I just came because I just went to revival because that's what my mama made me do. But as a young boy, I grew up in a divorced home and I struggled with that. And I will tell you this, at 43 years old, I still struggle with that. But at 15 years old, that old preacher came and he preached in a little church for about 30 people. And God sent him there that night for me, because here's what the title of his message, you need a father. And I knew that night that God had sent that man to preach to me. And at 15 years old that night, I laid my life literally down on the altar and said, lord, I need you to save me. I need you as my father. Today, as we think about the keys to salvation, we are going to enter a locked room on the evening of Resurrection Sunday, the Resurrection day. As we look at that evening, there's a locked room, there's a lot of questions. Fear is present and nobody really knows. And a group of the closest men that followed Jesus, really what was going on. And in this room on Easter morning, there may be somebody in this room that has questions or even doubts and fears of what it really means to. To know Jesus as their Savior. And so today we are going to see three examples that point to us that show us who holds the keys not to a locked room, but to faith. I'm going to do something that I normally do not do. I'm going to read all of our scripture at one time. And one fell swoop. And so I'm going to ask that you go to John, chapter 20. And we're going to start at verse number 19, John 20:19. Then the same day, at evening, being the first day of the week when the doors were shut where the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and stood in the midst and said unto them, peace be unto you. And when he had so said, he showed unto them his hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord. Then said Jesus to them again, peace be unto you. As my Father hath sent me, even so I send you. And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said unto them, receiving, receive ye the Holy Ghost. Whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted of them. And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained. 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 when he said unto them, except I shall see his hands and the print of the nails and put my finger into the print of the nails and. And thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight 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. And then said he to Thomas, reach hither thy finger and behold my hands. And reach hither thy hand and thrust it into my side and. And be not faithless, but believing. Thomas answered and said unto him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said 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 you might have life through his name. I want to pray, Father. Thank you, Lord. As we come to your word today, Lord, we know that your word is truth, Lord, as we look at it today, God. I pray, Lord, that you will open our hearts and minds to your word, to your truth. On this resurrection Sunday. Lord, thank you that we celebrate a risen Savior. But Lord, my prayer today is. Maybe there is one heart in this room, maybe one life that has questions and Fear, oh God, I pray, Lord, that you will begin the work in that life, Lord, that they may come to know you as their savior. God, we give you our time together today. And it's in Jesus name we do pray. Amen. There are three examples of who holds a key. Who holds the key. And the first one is, is it a doubting disciple who holds the keys? A doubting disciple? There's so much going on on this first resurrection day. And John 20 opens up with Mary Magdalene discovering that the tomb is empty. And she would bring the word back to the disciples that Jesus is not there. One of my favorite Easter stories is the foot race to get to that tomb to see it empty and to see that nobody was there and to see if Mary was really telling the truth. But also on that resurrection Sunday, we in this account move to the evening. We are in the latter part of the day. And after everything has played out, they have seen the empty tomb and. And the disciples go into an upper room and they lock the door. And they lock that door because, number one, they are fearful of their own lives, of what the. They killed Jesus, so why not? They might come after them. But also they are in that upper room because the man that they have followed for the last two and a half to three years of their life is now gone. He's no more. What are they going to do with their life? Maybe you have invested your life into taking care of somebody for a little while and maybe they pass on and you realize, oh gosh, what am I going to do with myself? Well, that's part of what the disciples are thinking. What are we going to do? Our leader is gone. What are we going to do? Well, as that first resurrection day, we know that that room is locked. And it does not only hold some of the disciples, but it also holds some others, as Luke account tells us. But 10 of those disciples are present. Two of them are not there. Number one, Judas is not there. He has betrayed the Lord and he has taken care of his own life. He has committed suicide and he's no longer there. But the second one that is not there is Thomas. Now what better could Thomas be doing? Sometimes I ask that question on Sundays. What better is there thing to do than come to church? Right? But what better thing is there? But Thomas is off doing something. And I'm not here to speculate what Thomas is doing. But Thomas is not with the other disciples. Now, when we understand that this room is locked, we understand that it also is filled with fear. That's what the Bible Tells us that fear fills the room as they are gathered together. And Thomas, as he is not there, we understand that he has a nickname that I believe that is unfair to him. We call him Doubting Thomas. Right? And we call him Doubting Thomas because of this account here in Scripture. And I want to tell you this as we, we look at Thomas In John 20, we see that he has questions and even doubts. But John does a great job of giving us a little bit of story about Thomas life. How many of you remember John chapter 14 when Jesus is telling us about in his Father's house there are many mansions. If it were not so, I would have told you, I go to prepare a place for you. And if I go to prepare that place, I will come again to you and I will receive you to myself. And that where I am, there you may be also. You know that scripture and we understand that Jesus says, I'm creating a place that I want you to be with me. But there's one disciple that asks the question, how do we get there? How do we get to this place that you are creating that you're telling us about Jesus? And that disciple that asked the question how to get there is Thomas. So Thomas is a guy that questions things. And sometimes questioning things is not a bad thing. He just wants to fully understand. But also In John chapter 11, when Lazarus is sick and Jesus is going to minister to him and to a place where he is hated and they are fearful of his life, we are told that Thomas is the one that says that we should not go there. Oh Lord, if we go, then we're going to die with you. Thomas is the one that voices that. And there are many that think that this is said with sarcasm. And maybe that's true. But I truly believe that Thomas would have went with Jesus as he did, and he would have laid down his life with Jesus if you, if that's what would have happened. Because that's what the early disciples did. They were willing to go that extra mile. So as we understand John 11 and John 14 and John 20, we understand this. Thomas gets a bad rap, gets a bad nickname, but he is full of questions. But here's what I want you to see. On Resurrection Sunday, Thomas is not there. And the room is full of fear. And Jesus enters that room and he brings peace to that room. And we'll get to that in a second. But in this locked upper room on resurrection day, Thomas is not there. Now I'm going to hit the fast forward button for you and we're going to fast forward, eight days later, those disciples are still in the same room. They're locked down tight. The only thing different about this second time is Thomas is there. But during the whole time, the first time, Thomas could not believe. Thomas could not believe Jesus was alive. What was Thomas words? Unless I see him, unless I put my finger in his wounds, unless I thrust my hand in his side, I will not believe. Eight days later, Thomas is in that room and Jesus shows up just like he did before. And as Jesus shows up, we see that he invites Thomas to reach out and touch those areas that he said he needed to touch in order to believe. Here's my hands. Put your finger here, Thomas. Here's my side. Put your hand here. And what is Thomas response? He doesn't reach. Jesus says this, Thomas, if you reach to me, you must reach. Believing. Not faithless, but believing. And so on this resurrection morning, we understand that Thomas is an example that he really didn't need to touch Jesus like he said in order to believe. He just needed to see Jesus. He needed to see Jesus that he was alive and then he would believe. Thomas can teach us a lot. But as he never touched Jesus, Jesus commends that he is faithful. How many of you know Thomas had a second name, Didymus. We read it right. And whether you know Thomas by his name or his Greek name, Didymus, both of those names in the original mean this. They mean twin. So Thomas was a twin. I told the early service, look, the only Easter program that I played a part in growing up, guess what part I played down Thomas. But let me ask you, church, does Thomas twin sit here this morning? Is there somebody in this room that when they look at Jesus, when they look at the resurrected Christ, when you come to church with your family, you. I don't know if I really believe. And here Jesus stands on a resurrection day saying, here I am. Reach out. But when you reach, you must reach in faith. Today, if you have questions about a resurrected savior, reach to Jesus, but reach in faith. There's a second example on Easter Sunday morning that we need to realize and we cannot miss in the room that there's a Savior there. The second person that gives us the example is Jesus himself, the risen savior. He makes two appearances to this group of disciples, of men that are questioning. And as he makes this appearance, he in a locked room, how many of you know that Jesus didn't need a door to get through? It doesn't matter what areas of the room were locked and it doesn't matter what areas of Your life you have locked and told Jesus you cannot come here. As Jesus comes amidst the room that is filled of fear, he comes to bring them peace. His first words are simply this. Peace. Peace be with you. How many of you can attest that Jesus brings peace into your life? Believers, you better attest to that. Jesus brings peace. But as Jesus brings peace to the room, he also brings an instruction to those believers that not only will they have his peace, but they have the promise of the Holy Spirit. And he has given them tasks to proclaim the forgiveness of sin through the work of Jesus. And if people will turn to Jesus in faith, they will be forgiven of that sin. When people come to Jesus in faith, their sins are forgiven by the shedding of his blood and through the death on an old rugged cross. But we learn even some that were close to him miss this message. Eight days later, the second time Jesus comes back to the same room. Guess what? It's locked. As he comes, the second time he comes, and as Thomas is there, here's what he tells Thomas. Thomas, here I am. You said you needed to see me. You said you needed to put your fingers here and your hand here. And. And I'm here for you, Thomas. I'm here in this locked upper room for you, Thomas. Faith. Jesus acknowledges that it is lacking. But he also acknowledges this. He says, thou has believed. Thou hast believed. How many of you on a resurrection Sunday morning need a peace in your life because your world is in chaos right now. Nothing's going right, nothing going as you have dreamed. And if you can lay it down, you would lay it down today. If Jesus could touch a part of your life, you say, here it is, Jesus. Here it is. Help me. And Jesus shows up. Jesus shows up. As we understand that it is only Jesus that can bring peace where fear is present. Jesus holds the keys to peace. And he is the key to the message of the resurrection. Without an empty tomb, there is no forgiveness of sin. Without an empty tomb, there is no hope that we serve a living Savior. Without an empty tomb. Without we don't have the promise of victory over death and the promise of victory in heaven for all eternity. Jesus. Death on a cross is key to forgiveness, but it is also key to faith, because Jesus holds the keys to salvation. Thou hast believed. There's one more person. Today. John closes this section of scripture with two verses. And in verse 30, he tells that Jesus performed many other miracles. So what John is saying, there's a lot of things that I didn't write down to tell you. That Jesus did by faith. You need to know that Jesus done a lot more than what I've recorded. But look at verse number 31, everybody. I want your eyes on verse number 31. If you will read it with me. But 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. Today, the words that you and I read, John wrote a long time ago, knowing and God knew that you and I would sit and share them today. The third person that holds the keys to faith is you. It's me. If you will believe. We understand that Jesus is Christ. We understand that he is the Son of God, that he died for our sin, that he rose on the third day, and that we can have life through the name of Jesus. Yes, Jesus holds the keys to faith, but you hold the keys to your faith. And Thomas shows us this, that you must make a choice if you're going to believe or not. Today, I don't want to leave any doubt. You can leave here and you can know for certain that you understand and you believe and that you have faith in Jesus and as Savior, or you can still leave here with questions, with doubt, with uncertainty. Thomas shows us that he had the ability to believe, but he chose not to until he sees Jesus. Well, I want to tell you something, Church, and I hope I can tell you this on Easter Sunday morning. If you wait till you see Jesus before you believe, you will be an unbeliever. You will be an unbeliever. If you wait till you see him face to face. You will be an unbeliever. Today we look at a disciple that walked the road with Jesus, that understood who he was, that listened to the teachings. But when it came to that moment, he did not believe that Jesus was alive. We see Jesus who offers salvation to all, and we have to look at ourselves. Today, is your life full of fear and questions? My prayer is that Jesus can come in and remove that fear and he can be the answer to the questions. And Jesus will meet you where you are, even in times of doubting. But when you reach, you must reach believing. Today we leave a church on Easter, either believing the story fully, not believing at all. So today, as we boil down this message, there is no middle ground. Jesus asked, are you going to reach to me in faith? Are you going to reach to me faithless? There's no middle ground today. And I believe that Jesus Christ went to the cross for every one of us by faith. Can you see the marks that the cross left On Jesus body by faith. Can you see your sin being nailed to that old rugged cross that Jesus was crucified on? By faith. Can you see that Jesus Christ took your death? Because the Bible says this. The wages of sin is death by faith. Can you see that Jesus came out of that grave, rose out of that grave, and is seated on the throne of God. And all of that was for you and for me. Here's the key to faith. The key to faith is this one verse. If you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God raised him from the dead, you will be saved. That's the key. God's got to work and you have a responsibility. Revelation chapter number 3:20 says this. Jesus says, behold, I stand at the door and knock. If any man hear my voice and open the door, I will come to him and I will sup with him and he with me. Friends, Jesus is salvation. And maybe today he's standing at the door of a place that you've locked. And he knocks. He knocks in love. He knocks with persistence and pursuit. And he knocks waiting because you hold the key. Let's pray. God, on this resurrection day, thank you for a living Savior. Thank you Lord, that today that you are alive. And I believe, Lord, through your Holy Spirit, you are with us. God, I pray that you began a search of the hearts of this room. God, you know those who will reach to you in faith and those that have questions that are not reaching toward you. God, today I pray in only the way that you can that that you will do your work in the hearts and the lives of the people. That they will see your love, that they will see their sin. They will see you going to a cross, dying in their place, taking their punishment and their death, but not staying there, defeating it all and rising on the third day to offer life to anyone who will believe. Oh God, today, if there's one whose heart that you are working on, that will come to you in faith. God, I pray that you will change their life and their eternity on this resurrection day. We give you this moment of invitation and we pray that you search our hearts, oh God. In Jesus name, Amen.
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  Speaker A: Clifford Baptist Church invites you to join us for worship every Sunday morning at 11am for more information about our church, please call our church office at 434-946-0555.