Happy Easter -The Empty Tomb, Jesus Has Risen (John 20:1-31)
Rev.Katherine Liu Bruce
Christian Arts
Ministries: Biblical precepts &Gospel music
The Empty Tomb (John
20:1-10)
1Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary
Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the
entrance. 2So she came running to Simon Peter and the
other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where
they have put him!” 3So Peter and the other disciple started for the tomb. 4Both were running, but the other disciple
outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5He bent over and looked in at the strips of linen lying there but
did not go in. 6Then Simon Peter came along
behind him and went straight into the tomb. He saw the strips of linen lying there, 7as well as the cloth that had been
wrapped around Jesus’ head. The cloth was still lying in its place, separate
from the linen. 8Finally the other disciple, who
had reached the tomb, first, also went inside. He saw and believed. 9(They still did not understand from Scripture
that Jesus had to rise from the dead.) 10Then the disciples went back to where they
were staying.
The order of Christ’s
appearances after His resurrection seems to be as follows: (1) to Mary
Magdalene and the other women (Matt.28:8-10;John 20:11-18; Mark 16:9-10; (2) to
Peter, probably in the afternoon (Luke 24:34);1Cor.15:5); (3) to the disciples
on the Emmaus road toward evening (Luke 24:13-32:Mark 16:12); (4) to the
disciples, except Thomas, in the upper room (Luke 24:36-43;John20:19-25);(5) to
the disciples, including Thomas, on the next Sunday night (Mark 16:14; John
20:26-29); (6) to seven disciples beside the Sea of Galilee (John 21:1-24); (7)
to the apostles and more than five hundred brethren and James, the Lord’s
half-brother (1Cor.15:6-7); (8) to those who witnessed the ascension
(Matt.28:18-20; Mark 16:19;Luke 24:44-53;Acts1:3-12).
Verse 1, the first day of the
week, or the day after the Sabbath, signifies a new beginning, a new age. In
Lev.23:10-11, 15 a sheaf of the first fruits of the harvest was offered to the
Lord as a wave offering on the day after the Sabbath. That sheaf of the first
fruits was a type of Christ as the first fruits in resurrection
(1Cor.15:20,23). Christ resurrection on precisely the day after the Sabbath. By
His all-inclusive death He terminated the old creation, which had been
completed in six days, after which was the Sabbath day. In His resurrection He
germinated the new creation with the divine life. Hence, the day of His
resurrection was the beginning of a new week – a new age. This day of His
resurrection was appointed by God (ps.118:24), was prophesied as “today” in
Ps.2:7, was predicted by Himself as the third day. (Matt.16:21; John2:19,22)
and later was called by the early Christian “the Lord’s day” (Rev.1:10). On
this day Christ was born in resurrection as the firstborn Son of God
(Acts.13:33; Heb.1:5) and the Firstborn from the dead to be the Head of the
Body, the church (Col.1:18)
The Lord’s resurrection had
been accomplished, but the discovery of it required the disciples’ seeking in
love toward the Lord. It was thus that Mary the Magdalene discovered it and
obtained the fresh manifestation of the Lord and the revelation of the issue of
His resurrection: that His Father is the Father of those who believe into Him,
and that those who believe into Him are His brothers (v.17), Peter and John
only knew of the discovery; but Mary obtained the experience. The brothers were
satisfied with having faith in the fact of the Lord’s resurrection, but the
sister went further and sought the resurrected Lord Himself, i.e., the personal
experience of the Lord. The Lord was there all the time, but He was not
manifested until verse 6.
Verse 5 all the things
that were cast off from the Lord’s resurrected body and left in His tomb
signify the old creation, which He wore into the tomb. He was crucified with
the old creation and buried with it. But He rose from within it, leaving it in
the tomb and becoming the first fruits of the new creation. All the things left
in the tomb were a testimony to the Lord’s resurrection. If these things had
not been left there in good order, it would have been difficult for Peter and
John to believe (v.8) that the Lord had not been taken away by someone but had
risen by Himself. These things had been offered to the Lord and wrapped around
Him by His two disciples. Joseph and Nicodemus (19:38-42) what they had done
toward the Lord in their love to Him became very useful in the Lord’s
testimony.
Verse 6 the
strips on linen lying there. If the body been stolen, the thieves
would have carried body with linen, not unwrap it; but even if they did,
wrappings would have been strewn around tomb, not lying in perfect order as
they saw. The strips would have been tossed.
Verse 9 the Lord is
not only life but also resurrection (11:25). Hence, death cannot bold Him (Acts
2:24). He went into death of His own accord to accomplish His work. When He
finished His mission, He came out of death and rose up from it.
Jesus Appears to Mary
Magdalene (John 20:11-18)
11Now Mary stood outside the tomb crying. As she
wept, she bent over to look into the tomb 12and saw two angels in white, seated where
Jesus’ body had been, one at the head and the other at the foot. 13They asked her, “Woman, why are you crying?”
“They have taken my Lord away,” she said, “and I don’t know where
they have put him.” 14At this, she turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she
did not realize that it was Jesus. 15He asked her, “Woman, why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?” Thinking he was the gardener, she said, “Sir, if you have carried
him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.” 16 Jesus said to her, “Mary.” She turned toward him and cried out in
Aramaic, “Rabboni!” (which means “Teacher”). 17Jesus said, “Do not hold on to me, for I have not yet ascended to the Father.
Go instead to my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your
Father, to my God and your God.’ ” 18Mary
Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: “I have seen the Lord!” And she
told them that he had said these things to her.
Verse 17 on the day of His
resurrection the Lord ascended to the Father. This was a secret ascension, the
ultimate fulfillment of the going predicted in 16:7. It occurred forty days prior to His public ascension, which took place before the eyes of the
disciples (Acts 1:9-11). On the day of resurrection, early in the morning He
ascended to satisfy the Father, and late in the evening He returned to the disciples
(v.19) the freshness of His resurrection must be first for the Father’s
enjoyment, as in the type the first fruits of the harvest were brought first to
God.
Previously, the most intimate
term the Lord had used in reference to His disciples was “friends” (15:14-15).
But after His resurrection He began to call them “brothers,” for through His
resurrection His disciples were regenerated (1Pet.1:3) with the divine life,
which had been released by His life-imparting death, as indicated in 12:24. He
was the one grain of wheat that fell into the ground and died and grew up to
bring forth many grains for the producing of the one bread, which is His Body
(1Cor.10:17). He was the Father’s only Son, the Father’s individual expression.
Through His death and resurrection, the Father’s only Begotten became the
Firstborn among many brothers (Rom.8:29). His many brothers are the many sons
of God and are the church (Heb.2:10-12), a corporate expression of God the
Father in the Son. This is God’s ultimate intention. The many brothers are the propagation of the Father’s life and the
multiplication of the Son in the divine life. Hence, in the Lord’s resurrection God’s eternal purpose s
fulfilled.
Through His life-imparting
death and resurrection, the Lord made His disciples one with Him. Therefore,
His Father is the Father of His disciples, and His God is the God of His
disciples. In His resurrection they have the Father’s life and God’s divine
nature, just as He has. In Marking them His brothers, He has imparted the Father’s
life and God’s divine nature into them. By making His Father and His God
theirs, He has brought them into His position-the position of the Son- before
the Father and God. Thus, in life and nature inwardly and in position outwardly
they are the same as the Lord, with whom they have been united.
Jesus Appears to His
Disciples (John20:19-23)
19On the evening of that first day of the week, when the disciples
were together, with the doors locked for fear of the Jewish leaders, Jesus came
and stood among them and said, “Peace be with you!” 20After he said this, he showed them his hands
and side. The disciples were overjoyed when they saw the Lord. 21Again Jesus said, “Peace be with you!
As the Father has sent me, I am sending you.” 22And
with that he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23If you forgive anyone’s sins, their sins are forgiven; if
you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
Jesus Appears to Thomas (John 20:24-29)
24Now
Thomas (also known as Didymus), one of the Twelve, was not with the disciples
when Jesus came. 25So
the other disciples told him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them,
“Unless I see the nail marks in his hands and put my finger where the nails
were, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe.” 26A week later his disciples were
in the house again, and Thomas was with them. Though the doors were locked,
Jesus came and stood among them and said, “Peace
be with you!” 27Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here; see my hands. Reach out your hand and put
it into my side. Stop doubting and believe.”28Thomas said to him, “My Lord
and my God!”29Then
Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you
have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
The Purpose of John’s Gospel (John20:30-31)
30Jesus
performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not
recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you
may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by
believing you may have life in his name.
Verse 19 The
gathering of the disciples here may be considered the first meeting of the
church before Pentecost. This meeting took place to fulfill Ps.22:22, according to
Heb.2:10-12, so that the Son could declare the Father’s name to His brothers
and praise the Father in the church, which is composed of His brothers. Though the doors were
shut, the Lord came with His resurrected body (Luke24:37-40;1Cor.15:44) into
the room where the disciples were. How could He have entered, having bones
and flesh? Our limited mind cannot comprehend it, but it is a fact! We must
receive it according to the divine revelation. This was a fulfillment of
His promise in 16:16; 19:22.
Verse 20 this was a
fulfillment of the Lord’s promise in 16:22 Now they rejoiced because they saw
the newborn child (16:21), who was the resurrected Lord, born in His
resurrection as the Son of God (Acts13:33). The Lord fulfilled His promise and came back five
blessings 1) His presence, 2) His peace, 3) His sending, His commission (v.21),
4) the Holy Spirit (v.22) and 5) His authority with which they could
represent Him (v.23).
Verse 21 The Lord sent
His disciples with Himself as life and everything to them. This is why,
immediately after He said, “I also send you” He breathed the Holy Spirit into
them. By His breathing into them He entered as the Spirit into the disciples to
abide in them forever (14:16-17). Hence, wherever His disciples were sent, H was
always with them. He was one with them.
Verse 22 This was the Spirit
expected in7:39 and promised in 14:16-17, 26; 15:26 and 16:7-8,13 Hence, the
Lord’s breathing of the Holy Spirit into the disciples was the fulfillment of
His promise of the Holy Spirit as the Comforter. This fulfillment differs
from the one in Acts 2:1-4, which was the fulfillment of the Father’s promise
in Luke 24:49. In Acts 2 the Spirit as a rushing, violent wind came as power
upon the disciples for their work (Acts.1:8). Here the Spirit as breath was
breathed as life into the disciples for their life. By breathing the Spirit
into the disciples, the Lord imparted Himself into them as life and everything.
Thus, all that He had spoken in chs.14-16 could be fulfilled.
As falling into the ground
to die and growing out of the ground transform the grain of wheat into another
form, one that is new and living, so the death and resurrection of the Lord
transfigured Him from the flesh into the Spirit. As the last Adam in the
flesh, through the process of death and resurrection He became a life –giving
Spirit (1Cor.15:45). As He is the embodiment of the Father, so the Spirit is the
realization, the reality, of Him. It is as the Spirit that He was breathed into
the disciples. It
is as the Spirit that He is received into His believers and
flows out of them as rivers of living water (7:38-39). It
is as the Spirit that through His death and resurrection He
came back to the disciples, entered into them as their Comforter,
and began to abide in them (14:16-17). It is as the Spirit that
He can send His disciples for His commission, with Himself s
life and everything to them, in the same way that the Father sent Him (v.21)
They are thus qualified to represent Him with His authority in
the fellowship of His body (v.23) for the carrying out of His commission.
The Lord was the Word, and
the Word is the eternal God (1:1). For the accomplishing of God’s eternal
purpose, He took two steps.
First, He took the step of
incarnation to become a man in the flesh (1:14), to be the Lamb of God to
accomplish redemption for man (1:29), to declare God to man (1:18), and to
manifest the Father to His believers (14:9-11).
Second, He took the step
of death and resurrection to be transfigured into the Spirit that He might
impart Himself into His believers as their life and their everything., and that
He might bring for the many sons of God, His many brothers, for the building of
His body, the church, the habitation of God, to express the Triune God for
eternity. Hence, originally, He was
the eternal Word; then, through His incarnation He became flesh to accomplish
God’s redemption and through His death and resurrection He became the Sprit to
be everything and do everything for the completion of God’s
building.
Verse 24 After His resurrection
the Lord came to meet with His disciples, beginning from the evening of this
first day. Thus, in the Lord’s resurrection the matter of meeting with the
saints is crucial. Mary the Magdalene met the Lord personally in the morning
and obtained the blessing (vv.16-18), but she still needed to be in the meeting
with the saints in the evening to meet the Lord in a corporate way to obtain
more and greater blessings (vv.19-23). Thomas missed the first meeting that the
Lord held with His disciples after His resurrection, and he missed all the
blessings as well. However, he compensated for it by attending the second
meeting (vv.25-28).
Verse 26 This was on the
second first day of the week, the second Lord’s Day after the Lord’s
resurrection. The gathering of the disciples here may be considered the second
meeting of the church held with the Lord’s presence before Pentecost.
After the Lord came in
v.19, eight days before, there is no plain word or hint in John’s record that
the Lord left the disciples. Actually, He stayed with them, though they were
not conscious of His presence. Hence, His coming in v.26 was actually His
manifestation, His appearing. Before His death the Lord was in the flesh, and
His presence was visible. After His resurrection the Lord became the Spirit and
His presence was invisible. His manifestations, or appearing, after His
resurrection were to train the disciples to realize, to enjoy, and to practice
His invisible presence, which is more available, prevailing, precious rich, and
real than His visible presence. In His resurrection this dear presence of His
was just the Spirit whom He had breathed into them and who would be with them
all the time.
Verse 28 This Gospel
proves strongly and purposely that the man Jesus if is the very God (1:1-2;5:17-18;10:30-33;14:9-11).
Verse 31 The Christ is the title of the Lord according to
His office, His mission. The Son of God
is His title according to His person. His
person is a matter of God’s life, and His mission is a matter of God’s work.
He is the Son of God to be the Christ of God. He works for God by the life of
God that man, by believing in Him, may have God’s life to become God’s many
sons and work by God’s life to build the corporate Christ (1Cor.12:12), thus
fulfilling God’s purpose concerning His eternal building.
Bibliography,
Lee, Witness. The New Testament (R.V.) Anaheim,
CA: Living Stream Ministry, 1985.
Ryrie, Charles C. The Ryrie Study Bible (NIV).Chicago,
IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1986.
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