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Following Jesus · Optional Start Here · Message Seventy-Seven
My Lord and My God
The risen Jesus is not merely like God but is confessed as Lord and God; John gives his signs so that people who have not seen may believe, receive life, and follow the restoring Savior.
Optional Start Here · Following Jesus
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Lesson overview
Thomas is absent when the risen Jesus first appears to the gathered disciples.
Faced with the testimony “We have seen the Lord,” he demands the same embodied evidence the others have received: the marks of crucifixion in Jesus’ hands and side. Eight days later, Jesus comes again through locked doors, offers peace, and addresses Thomas’s stated conditions. The Gospel never says Thomas actually touches him. Sight and invitation are enough for the climactic response: “My Lord and my God.”
That confession reaches back through John’s entire Gospel. The Word was with God and was God; the Word became flesh and revealed divine glory. Jesus acts with his Father, bears divine prerogatives, speaks of unity with the Father, and insists that seeing him is seeing the Father. John’s portrait never collapses Father and Son into one person, yet it demands that Jesus be honored within the identity and worship of the one God. Thomas does not merely compare Jesus with God. He addresses the risen Jesus as his Lord and his God.
The risen Jesus is not merely like God but is confessed as Lord and God; John gives his signs so that people who have not seen may believe, receive life, and follow the restoring Savior.
Unless I see
The lesson sets Thomas’s words against a major scriptural refrain: “Who is like the Lord our God?” Exodus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Nehemiah praise the incomparable Creator, Redeemer, King, and Savior. Israel’s monotheistic confession makes John’s claim more—not less—striking. Christian confession does not add Jesus as a rival deity; it receives the Son within the identity and saving work of the God of Israel.
John immediately turns from Thomas to later readers. Thomas believes after seeing; blessed are those who have not seen and yet believe. The signs in the Gospel have been selected so that readers may believe Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and have life in his name. John 21 then shows what such life looks like after failure. Beside the Sea of Tiberias, an unproductive night becomes an abundant catch at Jesus’ word. Around a charcoal fire—the rare phrase linking the scene with Peter’s denials—Jesus feeds his disciples, asks Peter three times about love, entrusts his sheep to him, and calls him again: “Follow me.” The risen Lord elicits faith, restores failed disciples, and gives them work to do.
Thomas hears the other disciples’ testimony, asks for embodied evidence, and a week later meets the risen Jesus who knows and answers his demand.
Thomas’s confession is joined to John’s opening claim that the Word was God and became flesh; later readers are blessed through believing testimony.
Thomas answered him, “My Lord and my God!”
John 20:28
Jesus within the identity of the one God
Psalm 113 opens an extended biblical refrain praising the incomparable Lord, echoed in Exodus, Deuteronomy, Samuel, Kings, and the Psalms.
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Micah, and Nehemiah contrast the Creator’s saving acts with powerless idols and call Israel and the nations to worship the Lord alone.
John’s conflict scenes, “I am” language, unity with the Father, Thomas’s confession, and the Gospel’s purpose statement bring the Old Testament refrain to its Christological climax.
You must follow me
Seven disciples return to Galilee, catch nothing through the night, receive Jesus’ shore-side direction, and recognize the Lord through an abundant catch.
John’s rare charcoal-fire wording links Peter’s three denials with Jesus’ three questions and his renewed commission to care for the flock.
Jesus redirects Peter from comparison with the beloved disciple to personal obedience, while the Gospel closes by affirming selected testimony rather than exhaustive biography.
Read, trace, and live the teaching.
This lesson belongs within the whole Gospel story. Read the principal passage slowly, follow the supporting texts in their own contexts, and notice how the words and works of Jesus reveal the kingdom he brings.
Read the passage
John 20:24–31 and 21:1–25, with Psalm 113, Exodus 15:1–18, Isaiah 40–46, and John 1:1–18; 5:16–23; 8:48–59; 10:22–39; 14:1–11
Trace the promise
Exodus 15:1–18; Deuteronomy 4:32–40; 6:4–9; 1 Samuel 2:1–10; 2 Samuel 7:18–29
See the Gospel connection
1 Kings 8:22–30; Psalm 35:10; 71:19; 77:13–15; 86:8–10; 89:5–8; 96:1–6; 113; Isaiah 40:18–31; 43:8–13; 44:6–20; 45:5–25; 46:5–13; Jeremiah 10:1–16; Micah 7:18–20; Nehemiah 9:5–8; John 1:1–18; John 5:16–23; 8:48–59; 10:22–39; 14:1–11
Follow the truth
John 20:19–31; John 21:1–25; 1 John 1:1–4
Scripture guide
Read the whole teaching in context.
These are the principal passages developed in this message and the texts that clarify its place within the mission of Jesus.
The passage in context
Exodus 15:1–18; Deuteronomy 4:32–40; 6:4–9; 1 Samuel 2:1–10; 2 Samuel 7:18–29
Promise and preparation
1 Kings 8:22–30; Psalm 35:10; 71:19; 77:13–15; 86:8–10; 89:5–8; 96:1–6; 113; Isaiah 40:18–31; 43:8–13; 44:6–20; 45:5–25; 46:5–13
The Gospel’s witness
Jeremiah 10:1–16; Micah 7:18–20; Nehemiah 9:5–8; John 1:1–18; John 5:16–23; 8:48–59; 10:22–39; 14:1–11
Life under the King
John 20:19–31; John 21:1–25; 1 John 1:1–4