Truth and Love Worthy of Your Life - Radical
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Truth and Love Worthy of Your Life

We live in a culture that says, “Live your truth,” but deep down, we know this isn’t how life, or spiritual truth, works. We all live based on certain objective truths. When it comes to questions about religion, we all need to ask two questions: (1) Is this true? and (2) Is this truth worthy of my life? In this message from John 14:1–6 from David Platt, we’re invited to respond to Jesus, who claimed to be the truth—and he rose from the dead to prove it. Our eternity hinges on our response. How will you respond?

Today is the day to celebrate the life change that Jesus brings. So I want to add my personal welcome to you. I’m David, one of the pastors here. Whether you’re in this room or online, it’s good to be together this Easter Sunday.

I want to let you know from the beginning where the next few minutes are headed. Today I want to offer you two specific invitations. The first is an invitation for you to experience new life in relationship with God through faith in Jesus. Now, I want to be clear: this invitation is for everybody, whether this is your first time in church, you’ve grown up in church or this is your first time watching church online. It’s an invitation for people who may have questions about God or Jesus. It’s an invitation for people who may feel far from God because of your past, or maybe your present. It’s an invitation for people who may have been hurt by the church in the past. It’s an invitation for people who may have felt close to God at some point in your life, but that was a long time ago and a lot has happened since then.

It doesn’t matter about your past, your present, your personality, your age, your ethnicity, your history. It doesn’t matter how you identify or describe yourself. The Bible teaches that we all have sin in our lives. We’ve turned from God in ways that have separated us from God and I want to invite you to come back to God, either for the first time or maybe for the first time in a long time. If you have any questions about where you stand with God, I want to help you settle those today.

Then the second invitation is to make a decision today to be baptized as a follower of Jesus. Baptism is a powerful picture of life change. It’s the first thing that followers of Jesus do. It’s like a “going public” celebration, a declaration that Jesus has changed your life. I know there are many people today who have not taken that step for a variety of reasons. Maybe it’s because you have yet to become a follower of Jesus. Maybe you became a follower of Jesus recently, or even many years ago, but for whatever reason you’ve not done been baptized yet. Or maybe you would say, “I was baptized as a baby. Doesn’t that count?” I’ll say more on this at the end, but praise God that your parents or whoever in your life saw faith as important when you were a child and they expressed that faith on your behalf. Every time we see baptism in the Bible, it’s a profession of your own faith, not somebody else’s faith. So today you have a chance to affirm personally what others wanted for you however many years ago, in a way that doesn’t reject what they did for you, but affirms, “Of my own volition I’m following Jesus.” You’re going to have an opportunity to make a call today and say, “Mom, Dad, or whoever, you hoped that I would follow Jesus; I’m going to make it public that I’ve decided to follow him.”

Now, to clarify, responding to that invitation today doesn’t mean you’re going to be baptized today. We actually have a big day coming up where we’re going to celebrate baptisms outside a few weeks from now. So whether on that day or another day, I want to invite you to put a stake in the ground today and say, “I’m going to make it public that Jesus has changed my life.” So two invitations on this Easter Sunday: to come to God through faith in Jesus, either for the first time or for the first time in a long time, or to be baptized publicly as a follower of Jesus. A few minutes from now, you’re going to have an opportunity to respond to these invitations.

Let me be clear. Sometimes people say preachers play on people’s emotions, or bypass people’s minds, to get them to respond in a certain way in a crowd. That is certainly not my goal. I feel zero pressure to play on anything. I just want to show you Jesus. I want to show you who he is and what he has done for you. Not just the person beside you or in front of you or behind you, but you, right where you are sitting. All of us have different personalities. Some of us are more emotional, some of us are more intellectual. What I want to show you today is that the beauty of Jesus is that he speaks to both our hearts and minds in such a way that responding to him involves a supernatural blend of both affection and reason, at the same time. So I want to invite you to listen with both your heart and mind. Then in the end, I hope you’ll hear that these two invitations are not ultimately coming from me but from Jesus himself. I pray that in the next few minutes you will hear Jesus inviting you to either come to him for the first time, or for the first time in a long time, and that you’ll hear Jesus inviting you to publicly identify with him. Whatever your personality type or age is, whether you’re eight or eighteen or eighty-eight years old—or anywhere in between—I pray you’ll have the courage to say yes to Jesus today as he’s speaking to you. 

So let me show him to you. If you have a Bible and want to follow along, we’re going to be in John 20; the verses will also be up here on the screen.

I want to show you Jesus, realizing that we live in a day when religion and faith are seen merely as a matter of preference or opinion, so whatever you believe is just whatever works for you. What works for you may not work for other people. What’s true for you may not be true for other people. So “live your truth” is the mantra of our day. Find what’s true for you, what feels right to you, and live accordingly. The only problem with that is we don’t actually live according to that mantra. We don’t actually want to live according to it. Think about it. Who wants to go to the bank this week and say, “I need to withdraw money from my account,” only to hear the teller say, “Well, I don’t feel like you have money in your account.” I think you’d say, hopefully with a respectful tone, “I don’t care what you feel. I know I have money in my account and I want to withdraw it.” You do not want that teller to look back at you and say, “That may be true for you, but it’s not true for me—and we’re living our truth around here.” No! You know that you have money in your bank account. That’s not a matter of somebody’s personal subjective experience of truth, but of actual objective real truth. The last thing we want banks doing today is doling out money based on how they feel.

That’s just a simple example; and there are thousands of others like it in the details of our lives every day. So why when it comes to the most important questions in life, questions that deal with the most significant realities in life and death, why would we all of a sudden decide to throw out actual objective truth? If we’re honest enough to think and humble enough to care—in other words, we’re not just living our lives with our arms crossed, like we have it all figured out—I think that deep down every single one of us comes to any religion, specifically to an Easter Sunday like this, with two fundamental questions. The first question is, “Is it true?” 

The whole message of Easter is that Jesus died, that he was dead for three days, then in his own power he came back to life, never to die again. That either happened or it didn’t happen. That’s not a matter of opinion or preference, but of truth. So, a good question to ask would be this: “Is this true? Did Jesus really rise from the dead?”

Then I think there’s a second question: “Is this truth worthy of my life?” It could be true that Jesus rose from the dead, but then we could just move on with our lives. We can see Jesus’ resurrection from the dead as fairly ancillary to our lives. Maybe we go to church here or there to give a nod to God, but for the most part we move on with everything we have going on in our lives. 

 Here’s another way to put this: What does this truth have to do with my life? As a teenager, as a college student with my studies, as an adult with my career, family, retirement, hopes, plans and dreams for my life? And not just my life here in this world, but my life beyond this world? With whatever I believe about life after death? Is this truth worthy of adjusting my whole life around?

These two questions—“Is this true” and “Is this truth worthy of my life?”—are part of why I’m so thankful for a person in the Bible named Thomas. He gets kind of a bad rap because his doubts and questions about Jesus gave him the name “Doubting Thomas,” but I for one am thankful God put somebody in the story to ask these questions for all of us. 

So watch this. The Bible tells us that Jesus appeared to his followers after he rose from the dead. He came into this room where they were huddled together, but Thomas wasn’t there. The Bible tells us Thomas, one of the twelve disciples, was not with them when Jesus appeared the first time. So the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord.” But Thomas said to them, “Unless I see in his hands the marks of the nails, place my finger in the mark of the nails and place my hand into his side, I will never believe.”

When you read that statement, you see both of these questions that we all ask. One, Thomas is asking, “Is this true? Is Jesus really alive?” And second, Thomas is asking, “Can I really trust my life with this news?” If you put yourself in Thomas’ shoes, at this point you feel pretty let down. You were all in with Jesus. You hitched your life to him.

Not long before this story in the Bible, Thomas had said, “I’m ready to die with Jesus.” But then Jesus didn’t just die—he died the most embarrassing and shameful way you could possibly die in that day, stripped and nailed on a cross with criminals. Now he was gone and Thomas had no idea what to do. He was at his lowest point, totally let down, thinking, “I got my hopes up following Jesus the first time. I need to see something has actually changed before I get my hopes up again.”

Don’t you think there’s a sense in which Thomas represents all of us? Think about it. We all live our lives based on truth. None of us wants to live our lives based on a lie. Who wants to build our lives on an idea, then when we get to the end we realize it was all bogus? We all want to live based on truth, yet we all know what it’s like to be let down, disappointed, hurt. 

We all know how things don’t always turn out the way we hoped for in this world, whether in our lives, our relationships, marriage, kids, parents, maybe in school or our career, in our health. You can picture it in different ways in your life. In so many different stories, life in this world doesn’t always work out the way we had hoped. 

So here’s the way I would summarize it. Every one of us wants truth and love that’s worthy of our life. We’ve talked about it. We’re all trying to find our truth. But the problem with our truth is that whatever we find that works for us, whatever the bottom line is that we just have to build our lives on, the problem is our truth cannot love us. Truth cannot forgive us when we fail to live up to it. Truth cannot pick us up when we fall. Truth cannot put the broken pieces in our lives back together.

So we turn to other people and put our hope in them. But even the best people at some point let us down, or aren’t there anymore, then we find these other loves aren’t perfectly true. So we find ourselves looking for what Thomas is looking for. We’re all looking for truth and love that’s worthy of our life. 

Enter Jesus on the scene and listen to how the Bible describes his encounter with Thomas:

26 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!” 

I want you to see how everything just came together for Thomas. He realized for the first time that Jesus is love that is absolutely true. In this moment, Thomas realized, “It’s actually true. Jesus really is alive and this truth changes everything.” 

Now, Thomas was an eyewitness to the resurrected Jesus in a way that 2,000 years later we’re obviously not. As a result, all kinds of people for the last 2,000 years have tried to disprove Jesus’ resurrection. Islam, for example, teaches that Jesus didn’t even die on a cross, much less rise from the grave. This, with all due respect, was a theory invented by Mohammed six centuries after the crucifixion occurred.

Others have claimed that Jesus’ tomb was not actually empty. The disciples just went to the wrong tomb and ever since that day everybody’s been going to the wrong tomb. If only somebody would check next door. Others have said the disciples were just delusional, hallucinatory at best, when they claimed they had seen Jesus alive after he died. 

Even the thought of a resurrection from the grave was virtually inconceivable in both Greco-Roman and Jewish thought in the first century. Yet all of a sudden hundreds of people started claiming to have seen Jesus alive, some of whom ate, drank and talked with him. Hallucinations don’t normally eat and drink. In addition to all of that, it was not in these disciples’ best interest for them to be saying Jesus was alive, knowing that they would—and did—lose their lives for it. Pascal once said, “I believe the witnesses who get their throats cut for their testimony.” 

The reality is, when you look at all the evidence for Jesus’ resurrection, you realize that to not believe in the resurrection of Jesus actually requires a significant leap of faith. There’s no question, even among the most secular scholars, that 2,000 years ago an entirely new religious community and movement was formed, virtually overnight, and immediately hundreds of people started claiming that Jesus had risen from the dead, even when it cost them their lives. So how else do you explain that? The physical resurrection of Jesus is the most historically plausible explanation when you actually look at the facts. Not only is it true that Jesus rose from the dead; it’s the greatest truth in all the world. Death has been defeated! Death has been conquered. Jesus is not just one option among many. Who else has defeated death? 

The Canadian scientist G.B. Hardy put it best: 

When I look at religion, I have two questions. One: has anybody ever conquered death? And two: if they have, did they make a way for me to conquer death? I checked the tomb of Buddha; it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Confucius; it was occupied. I checked the tomb of Mohammed; it was occupied. I came to the tomb of Jesus; it was empty. I said, “There is One who conquered death.” Then I asked the second question: “Did He make a way for me to do it?” I opened the Bible and discovered that He said, “Because I live you also shall live.” 

Follow this. Jesus is love that is absolutely true; at the same time, Jesus is truth that will absolutely love you. So don’t miss the wonder of this encounter with Thomas. Jesus wasn’t just saying, “Thomas, look at the proof of my hands and my side,” as if it was merely a question of intellect. Jesus looked him in the eye and essentially said, “Thomas, I know your doubts. I know your questions. I know your fears. I know all your flaws. I know all your hurts. I know all the ways you’ve been let down. I’ve seen you at the bottom, but I still love you. I’m still here for you and I always will be.” 

The wounds in Jesus’ hands and side were not just evidence of Jesus’ supernatural power over death; they were evidence of Jesus’ sacrificial love for Thomas. Jesus had not just died on a cross; he died on a cross for Thomas’ sins. And Jesus hadn’t just risen from the dead; he had risen from the dead for Thomas to have life. 

I can’t help but think at that moment, Thomas remembered something Jesus had told him just days before he went to the cross. Jesus was talking to his disciples about how he was going to prepare an eternal home for them. Thomas asked, “Lord, we do not know where you’re going. How can we know the way?” Jesus said to him, “I am the way and the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me” (John 14:5-6).

Now it’s coming full circle for Thomas. Jesus hadn’t just said, “I point you to the way. I point you to truth. I point you to life.” That’s what every other religious teacher in the world would say. But Jesus said, “I am the way. I am the truth. I am the life.” Jesus didn’t just point to life. Thomas realizes that Jesus is actually Lord over life and death, which means he alone is able to give life. He alone is the way to the God who is the author of life.

It’s hitting Thomas that Jesus alone is truth and love that is worthy of all his life. There is literally no other truth and love like him in the world, which leads Thomas to make one of the most climactic declarations of faith in all the Bible as he goes from doubts, questions and fears to looking at Jesus and saying, “My Lord and my God.” Because he knows that Jesus is the only one who can give him life. He knows the whole reason Jesus came was to give him life.

Now, as soon as you hear that, you might say, “Wait a minute. How is it loving for Jesus alone to be the way to eternal life with God? Are you really saying, in a world of all kinds of religions, that there’s only one way to life and that’s through Jesus alone? That doesn’t feel loving, that feels narrow, even offensive. Only one way? Surely if there is a God, he’s more creative than that. Surely God provides more options than that.”

Let’s think about this together. Jesus says this statement in this point in the Bible, but there’s a whole lot of story before this. Have you ever been in a conversation with somebody for a long time, working through all kinds of issues. Then someone decides to enter themselves into that conversation without all that context, asking questions about things you’ve already covered. You just want to say, “Who invited you into this conversation?”

So we need to understand the context behind this statement. It doesn’t just come out of nowhere. A long time before Jesus said those words, this story began when God created a universe full of beauty, with a sun, moon and stars. A world full of grandeur with mountains, hills, seas, trees, plants and animals of all kinds. After all that, God made his prize creation: a man and a woman, in his image, unlike anything else in all the world, with the capacity to experience life and a relationship with God. They had the ability to walk and talk with God, to love and be loved by God. God said to this man and woman, “I want you to experience life forever with me. Just trust me and follow me, then you will experience eternal satisfaction in me.” God said, “If you disobey me, you’ll experience death, but I don’t want that. I want you to live forever with me.”

This man and woman said, “Yes, we’ll follow you.” Until one day, for no just reason, this man and woman decided their creator didn’t know what he was talking about. They thought they knew better than him what was good for them, so they deliberately did what he told them not to do. God said, “I told you that if you did that, you would experience death. But I still want you to experience life.” So God set in motion a plan for them to still be able to live with him forever. 

As humanity expanded, he called a group of people to himself and said, “I’m going to enter into a covenant relationship with you and you’re going to spread my love to everyone in the world.” This group of people said, “Yes, we’ll do that.” But before the seal on that covenant had even set, they did the same thing that the man and the woman had done—they turned aside from God and instead started worshiping other gods  that they made with their own hands. They did this over and over and over again, from generation to generation. But God did not give up on them. 

God sent them messengers—they’re called prophets—throughout the Bible to tell his people how much he loved them and that if they would just turn back to him, he would forgive them and welcome them back. But these people took those messengers and beat them and killed them. Then after all of that for generation after generation, God did the unthinkable, the unimaginable. He came to the world himself. He came in the flesh, born in a humble manger, in the person of Jesus, God the Son among his creation. Jesus loved and served. He helped the poor, healed the sick and taught them the good news that if anyone from any nation would turn back to God, then God would receive them. But what did they do with Jesus, with God in the flesh? They mocked him, scourged him, spit in his face and nailed him to a cross in the most cruel form of death they could contrive. 

Then, after all of that, God said to anyone in the world, no matter who you are, no matter what you’ve done, “If you will just believe that I love you so much that I gave my only Son to die on the cross for you, to rise from the dead for you—if you will just trust in me and my love for you—I will forgive you of all your sin against me and give you eternal life with me.” 

So after all of that, are you really going to look in the face of God and say, “It’s kind of narrow, isn’t it? Couldn’t you be more creative than that?” When you understand the whole story, you realize the question is not, “Why is there only one way?” You realize the question is, “Why is there any way at all?” You realize it’s not about how many ways there are, because if there were a thousand ways we would want a thousand and one. 

That’s the issue. It’s our autonomy, our pride. From the very beginning we want to make our own way. We want to do it ourselves. God is saying, “I loved you. I’ve done it for you. I’ve made the way to you.” So this story is not just about Thomas or these disciples; this story is about you, right where you’re sitting right now. This story is about Jesus looking at you, not just the person beside you or in front of you. Just picture Jesus looking you in the eye, with all your built-in longing for truth and longing for love, and saying to you, “I know your doubts. I know your questions. I know your fears. I know your flaws. I know your hurts. I know all the ways you’ve been let down. I’ve seen you at the bottom. But I still love you and I am here for you.” See the wounds in his hands and side, and realize they’re for you. Jesus is saying to you, “It’s true that you have sin in your life that separates you from God and that your sin is keeping you from life with God now and will keep you from life with God forever when you die. But I died on a cross to pay the price for you, for your sin.” 

Jesus is saying to you, “It’s true. I didn’t just die, I conquered death. I rose from the grave for you, so that you might have life forever with God. So you might have truth that you can stand on. So you might have a love that will not let you down. So you might have hope that sin, suffering and death will not be the end of your story.” This is Jesus inviting you today to receive life in him, not based on what you do, but based on his love for you. For some of you, this will be the first time to place your faith in Jesus. For others of you, he is inviting you to come back to Jesus. 

I want to ask every single person within the sound of my voice, “Are you trusting in Jesus as your life right now, in such a way that you know beyond a shadow of a doubt that if you were to die today, you would live forever with God?” What question in your life is more important than this? Take a moment, lift your eyes from the trivial and temporal things of this world. What matters most is not how successful you are, how much money you make, what you achieve, what others think or say about you. In an instant—it could be any instant for any one of us—all of those things are going to be gone. The only question that will matter is, “Were you trusting in Jesus as your life?” Your life now and for eternity hinges on the answer to that question. 

For some of you, this may be your first time in church. Or you may have grown up in church, maybe even called yourself a Christian. But truth be told, if you were to stand before God right now, it would be clear that Jesus is not your life. Many of you have all kinds of excuses for not making Jesus your life. You say, “I’ve still got questions.” That’s great. Today you can start to get them answered. Bring those questions, like Thomas did, before Jesus. Start that conversation now. Don’t put it off. 

You say, “Well, I’ve been hurt by the church.” If that’s you, I want you to know that I hate that you’ve been hurt by the church and far more importantly, Jesus hates that you’ve been hurt by the church, because he loves you so much. Yes, people say, “The church has too many hypocrites” —that’s true. At the same time, just because the medical profession has some crazy people, you don’t ignore all medicine. Besides, you’ve probably had a few hypocritical moments in your life. So be glad Jesus loves hypocrites. 

This means there’s hope for you too. That’s the whole point. Jesus didn’t come for the perfect because none of us are. He came for the imperfect, which qualifies every single one of us. 

You might say, “Well, I’ll do this later.” But I want to warn you: there may not be a later. I want to say as plainly as possible: none of us is guaranteed tomorrow. You or I could die at any moment, maybe on your way home, then this opportunity will be gone forever. Even if you live for many more years. you don’t want to harden your heart toward God. You might hear the voice of God’s Spirit speaking to you right now, but you say, “Maybe later,” then your heart hardens all the more, in a way that you never come back to this moment. For some of you, this moment could be your last opportunity. Don’t make excuses. Today’s excuses will be tomorrow’s regrets. 

Five minutes into eternity, what are you going to be glad that you held on to that kept you from Jesus? See that he is the way, the truth and the life. Hear that he is inviting you today to trust in him, or to come back to him, as Lord and God in your life. 

Then the second invitation is for you to be baptized as a follower of Jesus. Again, people make a variety of excuses here. Some of these excuses are the same as we just considered. You say, “I’m going to wait until this or that happens.” Or, “I’m just not ready.” The reality is, if you’ve trusted in Jesus, you are ready. It’s time. You don’t need to have everything perfect or figured out. Besides, when is that actually going to happen? Today is the day, now is the time to publicly say, “Jesus is my life.”

Some people say, “Baptism is not really that important. It doesn’t make a big difference when or whether I do this or not.” Are you serious? Are you really saying Jesus’ first command to you is not that important? Are you really saying it’s not really a big deal whether or not you do that? If you won’t obey Jesus’ initial clear command to you, is he really your life? 

Again, you might say, “Well, I was baptized as a baby.” Your baptism as a baby was a profession of someone else’s faith, not your own. Praise God for that. We honor that faith in your parents or whomever. But today is the day to profess your faith. You have an opportunity today, not to reject what they did, but to affirm what they wanted for your life. 

Here’s the deal. When it comes down to it, the question is do you trust in Jesus as your life, or are you turning from Jesus in your life? Those are the only two options for each one of us. This is a defining moment. Today is a defining day for you to do what God is speaking to your heart to do, to set aside your pride and say, “I’m ready to publicly declare that Jesus is worthy of my life.” 

So those are the two invitations. It’s time to respond. 

Observation: What do these passages say?

  1. Read John 14:1–6 and John 20:24–28 aloud as a group. Let group members share observations. Try not to move into interpretation of the passage or application of what you read quite yet. Simply share what you observe.
  • What bold claim(s) do you hear Jesus make in John 14:1–6?
  • How would you characterize Thomas’s questions in John 20:24–25?
  • What shatters Thomas’s questions in John 20:26–28?
  • How would you summarize John 14:1–6 and John 20:24–28?

Interpretation: What does the passage mean?

1) Read John 14:1–4, 6 

  • What does Jesus promise us in John 14:1–3?
  • What is the “way” that Jesus says we know in John 14:4?
  • How is Jesus “the way, the truth, and the life” that He claims to be in John 14:6 – is that three separate things, or just one thing?

2) Read John 14:5

  • Where would Jesus go?
  • Why is Thomas uncertain of where Jesus would go?

3) Read John 20:24–25 

  • Why wasn’t Thomas with the other disciples when Jesus first appeared to them?
  • Why is Thomas unwilling to believe, despite being with Jesus for about three years?
  • What is the root of Thomas’s unbelief?

4) Read John 20:26–28 

  • How would you characterize the way that Jesus appears to His disciples in John 20:26?
  • What do you make of Jesus’ interaction with Thomas in John 20:27?
  • What action is underneath Thomas’s words in John 20:28?

Application: How can we apply this passage to our lives?

1) Jesus is love that is absolutely true.

  • How do you see, feel, or hear Jesus’ love in your life?
  • How do you know that Jesus’ love for you is absolutely true?
  • What evidence can you show that Jesus’ love for you is absolutely true?
  • How can your Church Group pray for your acceptance or strengthening of Jesus’ love for you?

2) Jesus is truth that will absolutely love you.

  • What is truth to you?
  • How is Jesus the truth who eliminates your doubts?
  • What is the truth of the cross to you personally?
  • How can your Church Group encourage your pursuit of truth in your walk with Jesus?

3) Jesus alone is truth and love that is worthy of all my life.

  • How is Jesus unique for you – beyond anyone else, anytime, anywhere?
  • Why is Jesus worthy of all your life? How would someone watching you know that?
  • How do you rely upon and submit to Jesus as your life-source for truth and love?
  • How can your Church Group get the message of Jesus to others outside of your Church Group, who may or may not know the truth and love of Jesus?

John 14:1-6 ESV

1 “Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. 2 In my Father’s house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? 3 And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. 4 And you know the way to where I am going.” 5 Thomas said to him, “Lord, we do not know where you are going. How can we know the way?” 6 Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me.

John 20:24-28 ESV

24 Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the Twin, was not with them when Jesus came. 25 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.” 26 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.” 27 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.” 28 Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”

Sermon Recap

Every one of us wants truth and love that’s worthy of our life. You are invited to come to God for the first time, to come back to God, and if you haven’t been baptized, to be baptized, of your own volition, as a follower of God.

Problem

  • Our truths can’t love us.
  • Our loves aren’t perfectly true.

Solution

  • Jesus is love that is absolutely true.
  • Jesus is truth that will absolutely love you.
  • Jesus alone is truth and love that is worthy of all my life.
David Platt

David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.

David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow MeCounter CultureSomething Needs to ChangeBefore You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.

Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.

LESS THAN 1% OF ALL MONEY GIVEN TO MISSIONS GOES TOWARDS REACHING THE UNREACHED.

That means that the people with the most urgent spiritual and physical needs are receiving the least support. You can help change that!