WWUTT 1008 The Appearing of Jesus?

The Resurrection Appearance in John 20

On the same day that Jesus rose from the dead, he appeared miraculously to his disciples, and he gave them a pre-version of the Great Commission and a foretaste of the Holy Spirit when we understand the text.

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Here's your teacher, Pastor Gabe.

Jesus Appears to the Disciples in a Locked Room

Thank you, Becky. We come back again to our study of the Gospel of John, Chapter 20, and in the section we'll be looking at today, Jesus appears to his disciples, verses 19 -31. The Apostle John wrote, 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.

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. 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. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them. If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Now Thomas, one of the twelve, called the twin, was not with them when Jesus came.

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.

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. 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. 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. 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 that by believing, you may have life in his name. So, coming back to verse 19, it says that on the evening of that day, the first day of the week, so this is still the same day as the resurrection, and the disciples are in a locked room.

The door is being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews. The Jews came and took Jesus away. They crucified him. So of course the disciples are in hiding. They don't want to be taken away and killed either.

Some have raised that question, what were the disciples doing on Saturday exactly? What was going on after Jesus had been crucified? What were they waiting for? Well, they didn't know. They just knew that they had to hide because the Jews were probably going to come after them.

Namely, you know, talking about the Pharisees, the teachers of the law, the scribes, they were going to come, drag them away, crucify the disciples just as they had Jesus. So all through Saturday, the disciples are certainly mourning the loss of their Lord.

They are definitely doing that, but they're bewildered. They're beside themselves. They don't know what to think about all of this. Peter and John even leave to go look into the tomb, and they don't know what to think about all of this.

Now they had come back and had said to the other disciples that the tomb was empty, but they had not seen the risen Lord. Mary Magdalene had, but the disciples had not yet seen. That was what we had looked at yesterday with Mary Magdalene being able to encounter Jesus risen again.

And he said to her, do not cling to me for I have not yet ascended to the father. And as I pointed out yesterday, he had gone to the father. But what he was stating to her here is that he had not yet ascended to the father.

But go to my brothers, he says, 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 to her.

So they had heard this, the testimony from Mary Magdalene, but they had not yet seen the risen Lord themselves. It wasn't until that same evening, same day of the resurrection, the doors were locked. They were afraid of being taken away and killed also.

And Jesus came in and stood among them. Now it doesn't say how he came in. I think the assumption here is that poof, he just appeared. He just appeared right there in the middle of them and said, peace be with you.

My Bible has a funny note about this, though. This is the the ESV study Bible. Here's the note on John 20, verse 19. Some interpreters understand the doors being locked to imply that Jesus miraculously passed through the door or the walls of the room, though the text does not explicitly say this.

Since Jesus clearly had a real physical body with flesh and bones after he rose from the dead, one possibility is that the door was miraculously opened so that the physical body of Jesus could enter, which is consistent with the passage about Peter going through a locked door sometime later, which is in Acts chapter 12.

Here's a reason why I don't like that note. Well, I'll give you two reasons. First of all, it seems to ignore what Luke says about Jesus vanishing and reappearing before his disciples very eyes. In Luke 24, we read about a couple of disciples on the road to Emmaus, and Jesus comes up and starts walking with them.

This is after the resurrection, but they don't recognize him. And as they're talking, Jesus says, what are you guys talking about as you walk? And Cleopas answered him, are you the only visitor to Jerusalem who does not know the things that have happened here in these recent days?

And Jesus said, what things are you talking about? And they said, well, concerning Jesus of Nazareth, he was a prophet and he was mighty indeed and word before God and all the people. And he was arrested.

He was condemned to death. He was crucified. And then some women from our company have said that he's risen from the dead now. And there were even angels that appeared to them who said that he was alive.

And some of those who are with us, they went to the tomb and they were they found that it was empty. Just like the women said, we don't know what happened to the body of Jesus. And Jesus said to them, and again, remember, they don't recognize it's Jesus.

He says, oh, foolish ones. You are slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have spoken. Was it not necessary that the Christ should suffer these things and enter into his glory? And then he starts going through all the law and the prophets explaining to them how the scriptures had testified about these things that had taken place.

They get to where they're going. Jesus is about to go by. He's about to keep on moving. But they say, hey, it's almost dark. Come in and eat with us. So he sits down with them. And when he breaks bread, their eyes were opened and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight.

That's what it says in Luke 24, 31. And their eyes were open and they recognized him and he vanished from their sight. And then they said to each other, did not our hearts burn within us while he talked to us on the road, while he opened to us the scriptures?

And then and then later on, verse 36, he appears to them again, just as is described here in John with Jesus saying to them, peace to you. But they were startled and frightened and thought they saw a spirit.

So Luke refers to Jesus vanishing and reappearing before his disciples very eyes. So it doesn't make sense for the note takers in the ESV study Bible to say here in John 20, 19, that Jesus having a body of flesh and bone probably wasn't appearing and reappearing in the room like that.

It was that he miraculously opened the door and just walked in among them. Maybe you're the kind of person who says, see, that's the way we need to understand it. We need to read John in the context of John, not taking what Luke wrote and trying to bring it over to that gospel.

Luke had his own audience. John had his audience. Fine. I'm OK with interpreting it that way. Is there anywhere in John where it mentions something about Jesus vanishing or reappearing before his disciples?

As a matter of fact, it does. And this was even before Jesus was crucified. John chapter six, starting in verse 16. This is the miracle of Jesus walking on the water. Listen to how John tells this story.

When evening came, his disciples went down to the sea, got into a boat and started across the sea to Capernaum. It was now dark and Jesus had not yet come to them. The sea became rough because of a strong wind blowing.

When they had wrote about three or four miles, they saw Jesus walking on the sea and coming near the boat and they were frightened. But he said to them, it is I do not be afraid. Then they were glad to take him into the boat and immediately the boat was at the land to which they were going.

And when we were in this, this was months ago now we were we were in John chapter six. But when we were in this section of the story, I mentioned that this demonstrated Jesus had power over creation and time at time and space itself, that he could miraculously transport the boat from the middle of the lake right to the other side.

So we have Jesus doing this vanishing act even with his disciples prior to his crucifixion. So why is it so unusual then to read this in John twenty nineteen and insist, well, the miracle is actually that Jesus was able to open the door, though it was locked.

That probably wasn't the miracle. The miracle was Jesus just appeared right there before them and he was able to do this in his own fleshly body because he's Jesus, just as he was able to do it with the boat back in John chapter six.

What is astonishing to the disciples is not necessarily that Jesus just appears there in the room, although that certainly would have just given them the heebie jeebies. I mean, just recognize Jesus greeting.

Peace be with you. Don't be afraid that I've just appeared here before you. But what they are most astonished at is the fact they're looking at a guy that they knew was previously dead. He's risen from the dead and now he's standing in the midst of us.

And so they think what they're seeing is a ghost. They think they're seeing a spirit, according to what John said, or I'm sorry, according to what Luke said in Luke twenty four. John doesn't necessarily say that.

But the way that Jesus allows them to touch his hands and his side is so that they would know, no, I'm really here. This really is my body risen from the dead. You can come and touch it. It's my own it's my own flesh and blood body.

Jesus was died. His body was laid in a tomb and now it is risen again. He is not a ghost. He is not some spirit. He's really Jesus, the same Jesus who's right there with them again. And so Jesus showed them his hands and his side.

And then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord. Jesus said to them again, peace be with you as the father has sent me. Even so, I am sending you. Now, this is kind of a John's version of the Great Commission to a certain degree, but not yet, because it was much later when Jesus would have given them that great commission, according to Matthew twenty eight.

It was on a mountain in Galilee where he said those things. And then you have it said to them again in Acts chapter one right before he ascends into heaven. So this is kind of a preemptive sort of a commission.

I'm going to be sending you out and instructions regarding that are going to be coming up later. So as the father has sent me to you. So now I am going to be sending you to the world to preach the gospel, to testify of all the things you've heard me teach.

You saw my death. You've witnessed my resurrection. And now you are going to share the testimony of these things. This is going to be the testimony of the gospel in verse twenty two. When he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit.

Now, someone might go, wait a second. I thought the Holy Spirit didn't come to them until Pentecost. Right. Remember, this is all preemptive here. Jesus is not actually giving them the Holy Spirit here.

That's going to come later. That's going to come after he is ascended. When he goes back to the father, then he sends the spirit. But his breathing on them is, again, sort of a preemptive sign. I'm going to commission you to go to the world.

You are going to receive the Holy Spirit. He's not giving them the spirit here. He's just saying to them prophetically, if you want to regard it that way, to receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them.

If you withhold forgiveness from any, it is withheld. Jesus is saying to his disciples, his apostles, since he is sending them out, apostle means sent one. So as Jesus is going to be sending the apostles, they are going to be his representatives, his ambassadors to the world.

What the apostles say will be the word of Christ. They will be teaching the very word of Christ. So the apostles, therefore, are given the authority to forgive any. They will be forgiven their sins by the word of Christ because it came from his apostles.

And they also have the authority to withhold forgiveness from anyone. Now, some have taken these instructions and applied them to the church. There is a sense in which what Jesus is saying to the disciples here does apply to the church.

There is a sense in which it does apply because of what Jesus said in Matthew chapter 18 related to church discipline. So wherever two or more are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them.

So if the church declares that a person is sinning and is not repentant of their sins, and they are acting in accordance with the word of Christ, then the church basically can say as a testimony, not that the church has an authority to say, yes, you're forgiven or no, you're not forgiven, but rather the church is affirming whether or not a person's sins have been forgiven or whether they haven't been forgiven and this by testing and this according to the word of Christ.

So the church itself does not have an authority to forgive or not forgive, but rather the church affirms that forgiveness has been given or has not been given. OK, I know I'm getting kind of redundant, but does that make sense?

So the apostles may have actually had that authority as being those who spoke the word of Christ. They wrote the New Testament. What we have in the New Testament comes from the testimony of the apostles who spoke the very words of Christ themselves.

The New Testament is the word of Christ. So if the apostles forgave somebody, it was as if Jesus had forgiven them. If they withheld forgiveness from somebody, well, then the grace of Christ had not come upon that person.

So that was within the apostles to be able to do that. The church doesn't authoritatively issue forgiveness or withhold forgiveness. We simply affirm that which has been done by the Holy Spirit or through Christ.

The church does not have an authority to place like a permanent anathema on somebody. So let's say you're following the instructions. Your church has to discipline somebody, and they're following the instructions given in Matthew 18, Titus 3, what Paul says in 1 Corinthians 5 and 6.

OK, so they are removing a person from the midst of them who refuses to be repentant for the sins that they have done. They've gone through the process of encountering the person one on one. They've taken two or three others along, and then they've brought the matter to the church.

And I'm one, by the way, that says this process should go slowly, I think, depending on the circumstances, case by case basis. But it's not something that, oh, a guy sins. So by next week, we're going to have him removed from the church.

OK, it should be a slow and gracious process because God has been patient with us. But let's say your church has had to go through that process to discipline one of its members and remove them from the church.

What the church is ultimately deciding when the membership votes on removing that person from their midst, all they're doing is testifying that from the church they do not see that this person is repentant for their sins and because they persist in sin unrepentantly, they therefore are not part of the body of Christ.

They're not being sanctified. In fact, they're going to be bringing down the rest of us unless they are disciplined. And so the church is going to affirm this person is not walking in grace. They're not walking in the forgiveness of Christ.

Rather, they're still enslaved to their sin. So we're going to remove them from our midst. And as Paul says to the Thessalonians, Second Thessalonians, Chapter three, do not regard him as an enemy, but warn him as a brother.

And then to the Corinthians and Second Corinthians, he says, forgive this guy. Don't let him go too long that he may fall into despair. But if you have forgiven him, then I have forgiven him. Also, the church, though they are removing somebody from their midst because of unrepentant sin, they're not declaring an anathema on him.

They're not saying, well, then you're permanently removed from the body. Even everything that we see regarding church discipline in the New Testament, everything that we have, you lay down all the instructions regarding discipline.

None of it in there says what you're declaring of that person is that they're permanently removed from the kingdom of heaven. The Catholic Church thinks that they can declare that on a person that they can declare a permanent anathema on somebody.

No, far be it. The church does not have that authority. Only Christ does that. And we don't know who the elect are. If a person falls away from the faith and they have to be removed from the body, but then this causes a grief in them by which they do repent and they come back to the body and apologize and the church forgives them.

The grace of God is displayed. They welcome them back into their midst. If that should so happen for that person, that actually demonstrates that the the salvation that they had first received in Christ was real.

They fell away. They had backslidden. They fell off the path of righteousness, but they did not fall out of their salvation that they had in Christ. He still held them fast, though they were faithless.

Christ remain faithful and they're coming back into the body as a demonstration of that. So, again, the church does not have the authority to declare that a person's sins are not forgiven or the authority to declare that a person's sins are forgiven, but rather they serve as witnesses to testify that the work of Christ is being done in that person's life.

When it comes to church membership, when it comes to a person committing themselves to a particular body and that church receives them as one of their own, the membership of the church, what the church is testifying is that this person is a Christian.

They are one of us and they want to grow in sanctification with us. It's kind of like the church's endorsement of that person's salvation. The church doesn't have the authority to save, but they are serving as a testament to one another, keeping each other on the path of righteousness as we walk, as we're marching to Zion, to borrow the phrase of the old hymn from Isaac Watts, we're marching to Zion, beautiful, beautiful Zion.

We're marching onward to Zion, the beautiful city of God. And may we do that together as the body of Christ, holding one another accountable until the day that we enter into glory. Amen. That's where we'll conclude for today.

And then next week, we'll pick up the rest of John chapter 20. Let's conclude with prayer. Our heavenly father, we thank you for the grace that you display that you demonstrate to us daily, though we are completely unworthy to be called your children.

We were rebellious sons of wrath like the rest of mankind, but you were gracious and merciful to us. You sent your son, Jesus, to die for our sins that we would not perish, but we would have everlasting life with you forever in glory.

Thank you, God, for this love that you have demonstrated through the cross of Christ. And may we not take that for granted, but pursue holiness daily with all that we are. Help us to be gracious to one another for you have shown immeasurable grace to us.

In Jesus name we pray.

Amen. Pastor Gabe keeps a regular blog, sharing personal thoughts, alerting readers to false teachers, and offering commentary on the church and social issues. You can find a link to the blog through our website, www .utt .com.

Thank you for listening and join us again tomorrow as we continue our study in God's Word when we understand the text.