Seeking Jesus
John 20:24–31,
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!” 29 Jesus said to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
30 Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.
And it was this passage of God’s word that was written by a man whose life had been changed by the Word-made-flesh. His name was John, the son of Zebedee, brother of James, beloved disciple of Jesus Christ. This morning I went to tell you his story. And I want to tell you John’s story for two reasons:
First, going back to the first Sunday of 2025, we started preaching through the Gospel of John, and we’re gonna be back in the Gospel of John next week. And so it seemed like a good way to bridge the “How God Changes a Life” series to the Gospel of John series is talk about how God changed John’s life.
The second reason I want to tell you John’s story is because he is the human author of one-fifth of the New Testament. After the Gospel of John, he wrote three letters that we have, and the Book of Revelation — about 20% of the New Testament! That’s pretty good for a young fisherman from Galilee. John has an amazing story, and I want to tell it to you in four scenes:
When John meets Jesus
When John lives up to his nickname
When John enters the empty tomb
When John sees the future
1. When John Meets Jesus
Now for this scene, we’re in the Gospel of John Chapter 1. And John gives us a vantage that we don’t find in Matthew, Mark, and Luke. Those three Gospels are called the Synoptic Gospels (you’ve probably heard that word before). The word “synoptic” means to “see together.”
The idea is that Matthew, Mark, and Luke can be seen together. They follow a similar timeline and describe many of the same events. But John is different.
And one example of the difference is that John tells us about the very first time the disciples met Jesus. The other Gospels — Matthew, Mark, and Luke — skip this part and tell us about when Jesus calls the disciples.
And that’s a great scene itself. John was fishing with his brother James, and their dad, Zebedee, and they were partners with Peter and his brother Andrew. So they were all fishing together in two different boats, and Jesus sees them and says “Follow me.”
And Matthew and Mark say that immediately they dropped their nets and followed Jesus (Matthew 4:20; Mark 1:18). Luke says they left everything to follow Jesus (Luke 5:11).
And that would be unusual if that moment was the first time they had ever seen or heard of Jesus. Most likely they knew something about Jesus beforehand, John tells us about this in John Chapter 1, verse 35 … and I’m gonna read this to you, but I want you to follow along. Turn back to John 1, verse 35.
The next day again John [the Baptist] was standing with two of his disciples 36 and he [John the Baptist] looked at Jesus as he walked by and said, “Behold, the Lamb of God!” 37 The two disciples heard him say this, and they followed Jesus. 38 Jesus turned and saw them following and said to them, “What are you seeking?” And they said to him, “Rabbi” (which means Teacher), “where are you staying?” 39 He said to them, “Come and you will see.” So they came and saw where he was staying, and they stayed with him that day, for it was about the tenth hour.
40 One of the two who heard John [the Baptist] speak and followed Jesus was Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother. 41 He first found his own brother Simon [this is Peter] and said to him, “We have found the Messiah” (which means Christ). 42 He brought him to Jesus. …
Okay, so by verse 41, we learn about Andrew and then Peter, but John never tells us the name of the other disciple who first met Jesus.
There were two, remember. One was Andrew. Who was the other? It was John!
John refers to himself several times in this Gospel, but it’s always in the third person — he often calls himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved” (John 13:23; 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20, also 24). And the most common, traditional interpretation of Chapter 1 here is that John is that second disciple with Andrew.
That’s a big deal. Because get this: Of all the disciples (later the apostles), John was one of the first of these men to meet Jesus.
John was a fisherman, part of the family fishing business, and he was a devout Jewish man who had started learning from the prophet, John the Baptist. But as soon as John the Baptist said the Messiah had come, John the son of Zebedee started literally following him. He started walking behind him.
Jesus realized this, turns around and says to Andrew and John, “What are you seeking?” They ask him where he’s staying, and Jesus says, “Come and you will see.” So they did. And they stayed the rest of the day with Jesus. John says it was about 4PM (he remembered the time).
So this was the first moment they met Jesus, and Jesus made enough of an impression on these fishermen that later, when they were in their boats and Jesus said, “Y’all follow me,” they dropped everything to obey what he said.
They were compelled by Jesus, but I think it’s fair to say: What had Andrew and John gotten these guys into?
2. When John Lives Up to His Nickname
I think we have biblical warrant to single John out, because Jesus did give he and his brother, James, their own nickname. Jesus called them “Boanerges” which means “Sons of Thunder.”
Now we don’t know exactly why Jesus called them that, but it’s probably because they were bold and zealous, and a little ambitious. That’s certainly how they acted in Mark Chapter 10!
In Mark 10, James and John approached Jesus and said, “Teacher we want you to do for us whatever we ask of you” — they actually said that to Jesus. But Jesus said back to them, “What do you want me to do for you?”
Mark 10:37,
And they said to him, “Grant us to sit, one at your right hand and one at your left, in your glory.”
Now there’s a lot going on here, but we can’t ignore the fact that these two brothers are trying to secure prominence for themselves in Jesus’s kingdom. And Jesus does not outright rebuke them for this — he just tells them they don’t know what they’re asking. To reign with Jesus means you gotta suffer like Jesus. If you wanna be great, you gotta be a servant!
Jesus teaches us something amazing here, but Mark tells us the other disciples were “indignant” at James and John for what they asked Jesus. They were Sons of Thunder.
There was another time in Luke 9 when a village in Samaria rejected Jesus, and James and John asked Jesus, Luke 9:54,
“Lord, do you want us to tell fire to come down from heaven and consume them?”
What a question! They asked Jesus if he wanted them to command fire from heaven! They were Sons of Thunder.
And Jesus did rebuke them for that question. But John lived up to his nickname. And don’t forget that John nicknamed himself “the disciple whom Jesus loved.” That’s because Jesus did love him. And Jesus kept him close. We know there were twelve disciples, and then at other times, it was only Peter, James, and John.
It was only those three who saw Jesus bring Jairus’s daughter back to life (Mark 5:37). It was only those three who saw the Transfiguration (Mark 9:2). It was only those three who went with Jesus to the darkness of Gethsemane (Mark 14:33). John was there for all of that. He sat closest to Jesus at the Last Supper. And he heard Jesus’s last words on the cross.
This is John Chapter 19 … and this is a scene we only find in John’s Gospel. This is when Jesus was hanging on the cross. The soldiers had gambled away Jesus’s tunic, and John writes, John 19, verses 25-27:
“…but standing by the cross of Jesus were his mother and his mother’s sister, Mary the wife of Clopas, and Mary Magdalene. 26 When Jesus saw his mother and the disciple whom he loved standing nearby …said to his mother, “Woman, behold, your son!” 27 Then he said to the disciple, “Behold, your mother!” And from that hour the disciple took her to his own home.
In Jesus’s final moments, he entrusted the caretaking of his mother to John. A son of thunder, yeah. The disciple whom Jesus loved, yeah. John lived up to his nickname.
3. John Entered the Empty Tomb
John stayed by the foot of the cross until Jesus breathed his last breath. It was typical in a crucifixion for the Romans to break the legs of the crucified person because it would speed up their death. John tells us that the soldiers came and broke the legs of the two criminals who were crucified beside Jesus, but when they got to Jesus, he was already dead. And so one of the soldiers pierced Jesus’s side, and there came out blood and water. John says he saw this as an eyewitness. He was there. He saw Jesus dead.
And then Jesus was buried … in a tomb … sealed with a stone. It was Friday night, and then a long Saturday, and then it was Sunday morning. John tells us it was early enough that it was still dark. Mary Magdalene went to the tomb, and she noticed right away that the stone had been moved from the entrance. So she turned around and ran to tell the disciples. And we all gotta see this part. Turn to John Chapter 20, verse 2:
…she ran and went to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved, [this is John!] and said to them, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we do not know where they have laid him.” 3 So Peter went out with the other disciple, and they were going toward the tomb. 4 but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 And stooping to look in, he saw the linen cloths lying there, but he did not go in. 6 Then Simon Peter came, following him, and went into the tomb. He saw the linen cloths lying there, 7 and the face cloth, which had been on Jesus’ head, not lying with the linen cloths but folded up in a place by itself. 8 Then the other disciple, who had reached the tomb first, also went in, and he saw and believed; 9 for as yet they did not understand the Scripture, that he must rise from the dead.
For the last four weeks we’ve been looking at how the Word of God changes people’s lives. This was the moment when the Word-made-flesh changed John’s life forever. Jesus was risen from the dead.
And John saw him later that night when Jesus came to where the disciples were staying. He saw him eight days after that when Jesus showed up for Thomas.
He saw Thomas touch his scars. He heard Thomas declare, “My Lord and my God!” And he heard Jesus say back to him, “Have you believed because you have seen me? Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
And John knew that Jesus said that for us. Because at this moment in the Gospel of John, John stops narrating the scene in Chapter 20, and he steps out to tell us:
Hey, I’ve written all this down for you. I’ve written all this down for you who have not seen him, so that, by reading this you may believe in him.
And the best thing that could happen right now is for all of us to believe in him. If you’re here, and you’ve not yet put your faith in Jesus, believe in him right now. Jesus changed John’s life and inspired him to write this Gospel so that you would believe and he change your life.
John was never the same. He was most likely the youngest of the disciples, and, according to tradition, he lived the longest. We can read about his witness in the Book of Acts. We can read three different letters he wrote to early Christians. And we can read the Book of Revelation.
4. When John Sees the Future
John was an old man now. He says in Revelation 1:9 that he was on the island of Patmos “on account of the word of God.” Patmos is a small island about 40 miles off the coast of Turkey. In the First Century, it was rocky and undeveloped. John was on the island because he had been banished there in exile.
At this point, his brother James was long dead (he was executed in Acts Chapter 12). Peter is also gone. Andrew is gone. Paul is gone. As far as we know, the first generation of the apostles are gone. Except for John.
He’s an old man, in exile, in isolation, and one Sunday morning, Jesus sent an angel to him to show him the things that will “soon take place.” And the angel showed John so that John could show us.
For 22 chapters, John records the apocalyptic vision that the angel gave him:
John sees the resurrected Jesus in glory, with eyes like a flame of fire, and a sharp two-edged sword coming out of his mouth, and he speaks to the seven churches (Revelation 1:12–18).
John sees heaven opened and the throne of God at the center of everything (Revelation 4:1–11).
He sees the Lamb who was slain standing victorious, and he’s able to open the scroll and break its seals (Revelation 5:6–14).
He sees a great multitude that no one could number from every nation, tribe, people, and language gathering to worship the Lamb (Revelation 7:9–12).
And he sees judgment fall on a world in rebellion against God — He sees the dragon, he sees the beast, he sees Babylon raging against Christ and his people. (Revelation 12:3–17; 17:1–18:24).
But he sees that none of them win.
He sees Babylon fall (Revelation 18:1–24). And Satan defeated (Revelation 20:7–10). And death and Hades thrown into the lake of fire (Revelation 20:14). He sees the dead raised and every person standing before the great white throne of judgment (Revelation 20:11–15).
And then John sees a new heaven and a new earth (Revelation 21:1). He sees the holy city, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God (Revelation 21:2, 9–27). He hears a loud voice from the throne saying, “Behold, the dwelling place of God is with man” (Revelation 21:3). There is no more death. No more mourning. No more crying. No more pain (Revelation 21:4).
And John sees the river of the water of life flowing from the throne of God and of the Lamb (Revelation 22:1). He sees the tree of life with twelve kinds of fruit (Revelation 22:2). He sees the servants of God worshiping him — night is over! Sun is not needed! Because the Lord God will be our light and we will reign with him forever! (Revelation 22:3–5)
Then John sees Jesus say to him, “Behold, I am coming soon.”
And John finishes the book and the whole Bible, with the prayer, “Amen. Come, Lord Jesus!” (Revelation 22:20) And how glorious is this?!
So many years before, when John, the son of Zebedee, first met Jesus, Jesus invited him to come and see! And now John, in the end, is longing for Jesus to come and reign.
That’s the evidence of a changed life. That’s what happens when a life is changed by the Word. Church, the more we get to know Jesus, the more we desire him, the more we love him, the more we want more of him in our lives and in this world.
And that’s what brings us to the Table this morning.
The Table
At this Table, by the bread and the cup, we remember the death of Jesus for us, we rest in the love of God, and the apostle Paul tells us, we proclaim the Lord’s death until he comes. There’s a future orientation to what we do here.
We long for the return of Jesus.
