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Book: John
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John 20:19
I. "Then the first day at evening, being the first day of the week."
A. Many things have transpired this day.
1. The tomb has been discovered to be empty.
2. Jesus appears first unto Mary Magdalene.
3. He then appeared to the other ladies.
4. He then appeared to the two disciples on the road to
Emmaus toward the end of the day.
5. These two rushed back to Jerusalem after their
experience of meeting Jesus to confirm with the other
disciples the fact of the resurrection. You can bet
that their journey back was much quicker than their
journey to Emmaus.
6. When they get back they are greeted with the story
that Jesus had appeared to Simon.
7. Now the disciples are gathered together in the evening,
no doubt trying to piece things together in their own
minds.
B. "When the disciples were assembled with the doors shut, the
Greek word indicates barred, for fear of the Jews."
1. The Jews were already creating the story that the
guards had fallen asleep and the disciples had come
and stolen the body of Jesus.
2. They were probably being hunted by the high priest.
Sometimes people begin to believe the lies that they
have created.
C. "Jesus came and stood in the midst of them."
1. He is in His glorified body that is no doubt made up
of a different molecular structure than our physical
bodies, thus impervious to material obstructions.
a. He had obviously passed through the grave
clothes that were once wrapped around His
physical body.
b. He probably passed through the stone that was
over the door of the sepulchre, I am of the
opinion that the stone was not rolled away to
let Jesus out, but to let the ladies in to see
that the grave was empty.
2. "And saith unto them, Peace be unto you."
a. Peace, shalom, was the typical Jewish
greeting and continues to be to the present
days.
b. The prophet declared that one of the names of
the Messiah would be "Prince of Peace."
c. When Jesus was born, the angels proclaimed,
"Peace on earth, good will towards men."
d. As Jesus was giving them their final briefing
before the crucifixion, He declared, "Peace,
I leave with you, My peace I give unto you."
3. "And when He had said that, He showed them His hands
and His side."
a. Colossians 2 reads, "And have made peace
through the blood of His cross." It is
significant that He shows His hands and side
in declaring peace to them. It is through the
blood shed on the cross that He made peace
with God possible for rebellious man.
b. In His resurrected body, He still bore the
marks of the crucifixion.
c. When we see Him in heaven in chapter 5 of
revelation, He still bares the marks of the
crucifixion, for John
sees Him as a lamb that has been slaughtered.
d. Isaiah declares that when we shall see Him
there is no beauty that we should desire Him.
f. Isaiah seems to indicate that we will be
surprised both in seeing Satan, and in seeing
Jesus.
1. Referring to Satan he said:
ISA 14:16 They that see thee shall narrowly look upon thee, [and]
consider thee, [saying, Is] this the man that made the earth
to tremble, that did shake kingdoms;
g. He will still bear these marks when He comes
again to the earth with His church to set up
the reign of the Kingdom of God upon the
earth, "They will look on Him whom they have
pierced." And they shall say unto Him, "What
are the meaning of these wounds in Your
hands?"
h. Ultimately the marks of His suffering will be
done away with, for the disciples with Him on
the mount of transfiguration, saw Him in His
glory and splendor. So also John in
Revelation 1.
D. "Then were the disciples glad when they saw the Lord."
1. No more doubts, no more speculation, Here He is the
risen Lord, standing in the midst of them.
2. John 16:20 He had told them that would be weeping and
lamenting while the world was rejoicing, but that their
sorrow would be turned into joy.
3. John 16:22 And you now therefore have sorrow, but I
will see you again, and your heart shall rejoice, and
no man can take your joy from you.
a. This is now being fulfilled as they were glad
when they saw the Lord.
b. One thing that always strikes us about death
is the finality of the experience.
c. This is true except in the case of the death
of Jesus.
II. "Then said Jesus unto them again, Peace be unto you, as My Father has
sent Me, even so send I you."
A. The repetition of the "Peace be unto you." This peace is
related to their being sent out by Him.
1. The first peace was peace with God now possible by the
blood of His sacrifice.
2. This second peace is the peace of God that accompanies
us on our missions for Him.
B. He was sent by the Father into this cold world of darkness,
to bring to it the light and the warmth of the love of God.
1. He is now sending His disciples out into the same
world with the same mission.
2. They are to go into all the world and preach the gospel
to every creature.
3. Even as He was sent by the Father that He might bear
witness of the truth of the Father, they are now sent
to bear witness of the Son.
III. "And When He had said this, He breathed on them and said, Receive the
Holy Spirit."
A. The Greek word translated breathed is used only this one time
in the New Testament. Umphasaayo. It was used by the scholars
who translated the Old Testament into Greek in what is
commonly known as the septuagint version in Genesis 2:6 where
God breathed into Adam's nostrils the breath of life and He
became a living soul.
1. What Adam lost in the fall as the result of His sin,
Jesus is now restoring.
2. Adam's spirit died as the result of His sin. God had
said, "In the day that you eat thereof, you shall
surely die."
3. His fellowship with God was severed when his spirit
died.
4. This is why the new birth was necessary. You must be
born again, were the words of Jesus to Nicodemus if
you want to enter the kingdom of heaven. There must
be a spiritual birth.
5. Through the fall of Adam, man had lost that breath of
God in his life. He became known as the natural man,
possessing a natural mind that was alienated from the
life of God.
6. Now as Jesus repeats the action of God in Genesis 2,
man again becomes a spirit being.
B. Jesus said, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." The usual word for
spirit in Greek is pneuma which is the Greek word for breath
or air.
1. Thus the imparting of the Holy Spirit to them by
breathing on them was very significant.
2. It is the holy life or holy breath of God filling me.
C. There are those that would declare that this was just a
symbolic act of Jesus, that they did not really receive the
Holy Spirit until the day of Pentecost.
1. John who is very careful to explain the words and
actions of Jesus to give us clarification was then
remiss here in that He should have told us that this
Jesus did symbolically for the Spirit was not yet
given.
2. In the absence of such an explanation, I believe that
when Jesus says, "Receive ye the Holy Spirit." That
you receive the Holy Spirit.
3. Without the perfect sacrifice of Jesus Christ, the
sins of man could not be put away. The sacrifice of
the animals only made a covering for sin as they
foreshadowed the coming sacrifice of Jesus Christ.
4. Now that they had been justified from their sins
through the blood of Jesus Christ, they could receive
the Holy Spirit to indwell them. They could be born of
the Spirit.
D. What happened on the day of Pentecost was the overflowing of
the Holy Spirit as a dynamic power from their lives as they
received the power to be witnesses.
IV. "Whose soever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them, and whose
soever sins you retain, they are retained."
A. Does that mean that I have the power to grant the forgiveness
of sins, or to hold back the forgiveness of sins?
1. When Jesus said to the person with he palsy, "Your
sins are forgiven." The Pharisee's immediately accused
Him of blasphemy for they said, "Who can forgive sins
except God."
2. What did He then mean?
3. I have the power to say to a repentant sinner who has
just asked Jesus to come into His life and take over
as Lord.
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