John Chapter 20
John 20:1-9
The first day of the week, that’s Sunday.
This is the best explanation I know for when the Sabbath Day changed!
The Sabbath was changed from Saturday to Sunday when Christ arose from the dead.
Christ was dead during the Sabbath Day; He became alive on Sunday, and from that time on, believers have been gathering together on Sunday to worship.
The Sabbath Day belongs to the old creation, and Sunday, the first day of the week, belongs to the new creation in Christ Jesus.
In Acts, Pentecost occurred on Sunday, the first day of the week.
Mary Magdalene was the one Jesus had cast out seven demons, and she was eternally grateful for her healing.
When she saw the body of Jesus was not in the tomb, she immediately ran to tell John and Peter.
The disciple “whom Jesus loved” is John, the writer of this Gospel.
John always refers to himself in this way.
Any of the disciples except Judas could have used that title, “the disciple whom Jesus loved.”
You can use that title for yourself because Jesus loves you.
In verse 2, we find Simon Peter and John together.
Perhaps John had taken Simon Peter in his home when after Peter’s denials of Jesus, Peter desperately needed a friend.
Mary Magdalene was certainly not expecting the resurrection!
Her thought was that someone had stolen away the body of Christ.
Simon Peter and John were not expecting the resurrection.
Peter and John rushed to the cemetery.
Folks, you don’t go to a cemetery to look for the living, and Peter and John were certainly not expecting to find Jesus alive.
John was younger than Peter, and John ran more quickly than Peter, and so we find that John outran Peter to the tomb.
What John saw convinced him that Jesus had risen from the dead (John 20:31).
John stooped down to look in through the entrance of the tomb, and he saw immediately the evidence that convinced him.
It’s amazing how God uses little things like these linen cloths to bring conviction to the hearts of men, women, boys, and girls.
John saw the linen sheets lying there, but the body of Jesus had gone out of it, and he was totally convinced of the resurrection.
Peter goes right into the tomb and he, too, sees the sheets lying there, and the kerchief that was on the head of Jesus, but was not with the sheets (Greek).
The kerchief was lying apart from the sheets of cloths, which, as I have said before, has to be sound basis to believe that the "Shroud of Turin" is a fake.
Jesus came up out of that tomb just like a seed comes out of the soil.
Do you remember when Jesus raised Lazarus from the dead, Lazarus came forth from the grave all wrapped in the grave clothes, and Jesus had to tell the people to unwrap Lazarus?
Lazarus came out of the grave in his old body, wrapped in the old grave clothes, and the body of Lazarus was still a physical body, and would continue to age and have to die again.
Jesus Christ came forth in a glorified body, which will never see death again.
This is the Resurrection!
In verse 9, John tells us something strange.
These men had not understood, even though Jesus had told them many times that He would rise from the dead.
They knew not the scripture concerning Jesus rising from the dead (Greek).
Today we have the New Testament as a sort of flashlight, to help us go back and interpret the Old Testament prophecies about Jesus.
Read John 20:10-18
Mary is the first one to whom Jesus appeared.
There are eleven appearances of Jesus before His ascension, and three appearances of Jesus after His ascension.
Mary does not know Jesus, because she does not believe that He is risen from the dead.
Unbelief is both blind and dumb.
Mary stood at the tomb outside weeping because she loves Christ, but also she stood there because she does not believe.
She does not expect to see Christ alive, and in her unbelief, she does not recognize Him.
When Jesus calls Mary by name, she recognizes the voice of Christ as only He could speak.
Jesus called Mary by name, just like he will call each one of us by our name, if our Lord Jesus should tarry and we go through the doorway of death before that great Second Coming.
He will call each of us by name, and “the dead in Christ will rise first” just like He called Lazarus by name when He raised him from the dead 2000 years ago.
In verse 17, Jesus told Mary not to touch Him because He had not yet ascended to His Father.
Christ did ascend to His Father before He appeared to the disciples in the house behind locked doors.
There is a traditonal theory about this:
Perhaps this is when Christ presented His blood at the throne of God in heaven, so His blood would turn the judgment seat into the mercy seat.
The blood of Christ will be there in heaven, as the traditional theory goes, throughout all eternity, as an eternal testimony of the price Jesus paid for us.
Read John 20:19-23
Jesus’ disciples scattered when Jesus was crucified, but apparently they had re-gathered, and were hidden away in a room, because they were in fear of the Jewish religious leaders.
The doors leading into the room were shut, which actually means they were locked (Greek).
Jesus appeared in the midst of the locked room in His glorified body.
We learn from this that the glorified body we will one day receive will not be subject to the present day laws of the material universe.
So, when the Rapture comes, our bodies will be instantly changed, and we will have no problem meeting our Lord Jesus in the air.
Even though Jesus has a glorified body, there are the nail prints and the pierced side, and I believe these scars are on Jesus’ glorified body, even today, because they are scars He bore for us, so that you and I might be presented before God the Father without blemish.
Jesus took upon Himself our sins, and His scars will be the evidence of this for all eternity.
The “Peace” Jesus is talking about in verse 21 is the same peace described in Matthew 11:28: “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest.”
This is our peace of redemption!
It’s also the peace of all Christians who are in sweet fellowship with God and are doing His will.
Redemption is now complete, and Jesus sends His followers out as the Father had sent Him into the world.
Verse 22 is a wonderful verse: “And with that He breathed on them and said, `Receive the Holy Spirit.’”
This period in our history is a transition period between Law and Grace, and is certainly a very unique time in the history of our world.
Jesus had said previously that if they would ask for the power of the Holy Spirit, it would be given to them; and as nearly as we can tell, none of the disciples ever asked for this wonderful and supernatural power from God.
At the moment that Jesus breathed on them, these men were regenerated with the power of God.
So, before Jesus breathed on them they had not been indwelt by the Holy Spirit of God.
This expression “breathed on them” occurs only one other time in the Bible; in Genesis, where God breathed into Adam the breath of life.
Here, Jesus breathed into these men eternal life, by giving them the Holy Spirit of God, which would sustain them, and secure them for the interval between His ascension and the coming of the Holy Spirit on all true believers at Pentecost.
The church would come into existence on the day of Pentecost, and from that time until the present, the Holy Spirit is in our world, as He indwells the true Christian believer, baptizing the believer into the body of Christ.
Verse 23 is often misunderstood.
Jesus did not give any power to the disciples to forgive sin.
The forgiveness of sin belongs only to God the Father and God the Son, as it is presented to the believer through the blood of Jesus.
Back in the Old Testament, the forgiveness of sins was based upon the fact that Christ would one day come into our world.
So, God forgave sin on credit, so to speak.
In the New Testament, God forgives sins when we believe that Christ died for our sins.
What is a staggering responsibility for us is that when we give out the Word of God, and someone is born again, he or she becomes a new creature in Jesus Christ; but if we do not give people the Word of God, their sins will not be forgiven, and we somehow reap the penalty for not giving out the Word, because we have neglected our responsibility.
Then, there is also another twist to this that will cause you to think deeper.
If, for instance, someone is not being led by the Spirit of God into personal salvation, and God is not already dealing with them in a personal way, we are doing that person a disfavor to try to lead them into salvation, because that person will begin to believe that he or she is alright just the way they are, and their heart may become even more hardened to God’s Word.
So, we have to know when the time is ripe in a person’s life to even present the Word of God to him or her.
Read John 20:24-31
Thomas was a loner, and he was not in the locked room when Jesus appeared to the other disciples.
Thomas was a person who wanted everything to neatly add up and be exactly right before he would believe.
I think that one of the most wonderful characteristics of our faith is that our faith invites us to check it out, and then when you and I come and see for ourselves, we come to the same conclusion that Thomas reached, “My Lord and my God!”
You will never meet a higher testimony to our Lord Jesus than the one Thomas gave: “My Lord and my God”!
Now we come to the Key verse in the Gospel of John:
“But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in His name” (John 20:31).
John did not attempt to write another biography of the life of Christ.
John wrote his Gospel so that you might “believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God…”
Folks, it’s through believing that you become a child of God through faith in Jesus Christ.
Keep reading this Bible study series, you have only one more chapter to go!
Rev. Jimmy Davis
Bayview Baptist Church
5300 Two Notch Road
Columbia, SC 29204
Telephone: 803-754-8690
Email: BayviewBaptist@aol.com
