04-16-2023 – “Resurrection Appearances of Jesus: Part One”
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April 16, 2023
“Resurrection Appearances of Jesus: Part One ”
Over these past weeks, we have studied the events surrounding Passion Week: Christ enters Jerusalem for the last time; He pours out His heart to the people about God’s love for them; He sets aside the old covenant of Passover to establish the new covenant of the Lord’s Supper; He is arrested and taken to stand before five mock trials in the early morning; after which, He is beaten and then crucified. On the cross Jesus speaks seven times, according to the Scriptures, He then dies, is buried, and on the third day He comes out of the tomb alive.
Jesus appeared to His followers over a 40 day period, before He ascended up into the clouds with His disciples watching. Today we’ll look at the biblical record concerning the Lord’s post-resurrection appearances.
Please turn to John 20:1-9… It is Sunday morning, the first day of the week. Mary Magdalene comes to the tomb while it is still dark, and she finds that the stone covering the entrance to the tomb has been moved aside, Jesus is gone!
Mary runs to find Peter and “the other disciple” [cf. John 18:16; 20:2, 3, 4, 8, 25] whom Jesus loved” [cf. John 13:23, 19:26; 20:2; 21:7, 20], and to tell them that the Lord’s body is gone. When Peter and John heard this they ran to the tomb.
John (verse 4, “the other disciple) gets to the tomb first and looks in to see the burial cloths, but he doesn’t go in (verse 5), he waits for Peter to arrive, and of course Peter goes right in the and finds that Jesus’ body is gone.
John now enters, and seeing the linen burial wrappings lying there, John recounts the moment (verse 8-9) saying that he now believed what he and Peter had previously not understood, that Jesus must rise from the dead on the third day.
Please turn to John 20:10-17… Peter and John left the tomb to go to where they were staying in Jerusalem, perhaps in the upper room where they had celebrated the Lord’s Supper, and perhaps where the Holy Sp[irit came at Pentecost.
Mary had evidently returned to the garden and was just outside the tomb weeping, when she saw two angels near where Jesus’ body had been laid (although she just saw them as men, not knowing that they were angels).
The angels ask (verse 13), “why are you weeping?” She shared her concern that the Lord had been taken away and she didn’t know where He was. Mary then turned around (we aren’t told why), perhaps she sensed someone was there? Jesus is now standing there, but Mary doesn’t recognize Him in His resurrected body.
Both Matthew 28:1-10; Luke 24:1-10 also record Jesus appearing to Mary Magdalene (and other women) at the tomb after they had seen the angels, and Jesus instructs them to go tell the disciples that they will see Him in Galilee.
Back to John 20:15… Jesus asks Mary why she is crying, and who she is looking for? Thinking that He is the gardener she asked Him if He knows where Jesus’ body has been taken, so that she might go and get it.
At this point (verse 16) Jesus calls her name, “Mary,” at that moment she recognizes Him, saying “Rabboni!” [Teacher, expressing honor and reverence.]
Jesus (verse 17) tells Mary not to cling to Him, but to go to His disciples and tell them she has seen Him.
We don’t know how much Mary was aware of, perhaps the apostles had told her what Jesus to them, that He was going to the Father (John 14:2-3), “In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you. If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also.” But until then, the Holy Spirit [Spirit of Christ] would come to live in them (cf. John 14:16-20; 16:7).
Please turn to Luke 24:13-35… Jesus appears to two disciples as they are walking on the road to Emmaus, about 7 miles away, on the day of His resurrection. They are not part of the eleven remaining disciples of the original Twelve (Judas now deceased).
We are given the name of one of them (verse 18) Cleopas; and although he is named nowhere else in the New Testament, he must have been known to the followers of Christ, or he wouldn’t be named here.
These two disciples (verses 13-16) don’t seem to have any idea that it is Jesus who approaches them and begins to walk with them, listening to them explain to Him about the things which have happened concerning Jesus the Nazarene (verses 17-24), how He was a prophet mighty in deed and word in the sight of God and all the people; and that He had been arrested by the Chief Priests and turned over to be crucified, that He was buried, and yet when some of His followers went to the tomb they found it empty, but there were angels there telling them that He was indeed alive!
Jesus reminds them (verses 25-26), how the prophets foretold Christ would suffer, die, and be buried, yet He would rise from the grave on the third day.
Then (verse 27), “beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures,” (cf Genesis 3:15). 1John 3:8, “The Son of God appeared… …to destroy the works of the devil.”
As Jesus and the two disciples approached Emmaus (verses 28-29), it is getting dark, so they invite Him to stay with them at their house. And go inside, sit at a table, and prepare to having something to eat.
Jesus takes the bread and blesses it, then breaking it, He begins to give it to them (verses 30-31), “their eyes are opened and they recognize Him; then He vanishes from their sight!”
These disciples (verses 32-35) now understand the stranger is Jesus, their hearts burned within them while Jesus explained the Scriptures. They immediately head for Jerusalem, where they find the eleven and those with them, gathered together saying, ‘The Lord has really risen and has appeared to Simon [Peter].’
Only Paul (1Corinthians 15:5) and Luke (Luke 24:34) mention that the Lord appeared to Cephas first, before any of the other Disciples. Perhaps because Peter would be the first to preach the Gospel of Christ in Jerusalem, and he would be the first Pastor over of the church of God. Why is he called Cephas,. Peter, and Simon? Both Cephas [Aramaic] and Petros [Hebrew) mean “rock,” translated as Peter in English.
Jesus said (John 1:42), “‘You are Simon the son of John; you shall be called Cephas’ (which is translated Peter).”
Just moments after the events of Luke 24:33-35, Jesus shows up on the evening of that first Sunday. John 20:24 tells us that one of the disciples (Thomas, called Didymus) was not present when Jesus came that first Sunday.
Read Luke 24:36-43… Jesus passes right through the walls and/or locked doors of the house where the disciples are gathered. He appears right in front of them, even though (John 20:19) “…the doors were shut…” The word translated “door” means a large solid door. The word translated “shut” means locked or secured, often with a heavy bolt that slid through rings attached to the door and the door frame; this door would have been nearly impossible, to break down.
So, the disciples were hiding behind locked doors (John 20:19), “for fear of the Jews,” no doubt fearful of being arrested and hung on a cross, like Jesus.
Back to Luke 24:44-47… Jesus then reminded them of things He already had told them, and began to show them how the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about Him (verse 45), “He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
What did Jesus mean by “all things written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms” being fulfilled? Jesus had said this to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:25-27), speaking about His suffering, death and resurrection, recorded in, although not limited to, these: Genesis 3:15; Isaiah 53:1-12; Daniel 9:25-27; Psalm 16:10; Psalm 22:27-31.
Jesus spoke of these and other OT passages to His disciples, on several occasions (see Matthew 16:21; Matthew 17:22-23; Matthew 20:18-19), declaring His victory over Satan, Sin, Death, and Judgement; all of the prophecies about the Holy One [the Messiah, the Christ] fulfilling the plan, purpose and provision of God, were fulfilled by Him: God’s Son, Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior. Hebrews 1:1-3, “God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways, in these last days has spoken to us in His Son, whom He appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the world. And He is the radiance of His glory and the exact representation of His nature, and upholds all things by the word of His power. When He had made purification of sins, He sat down at the right hand of the Majesty on high.”
Please turn to John 20:26-29… We are told here that after a week, on the following Sunday, the Lord came to them again; but this time, Thomas was present. The Lord invited Thomas to touch His wounds, that he might believe, for previously Thomas had said (John 20:25), “Unless I see in His hands the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails, and put my hand into His side, I will not believe.”
We are not told if Thomas reached out and touched the wounds in Christ’s body (verse 27), but we have Thomas’s confession of faith and belief (verse 28), “Thomas answered and said to Him, ‘My Lord and my God!’” Jesus accepts his faith, while declaring that those who believed in Him without seeing Him (verse 29) will indeed be blessed. There were thousands of believers in Israel at the time of Jesus' resurrection from the grave, most of them hadn’t seen the risen Lord, and probably would never see the empty tomb; but they believed that Christ had risen and appeared to many of His followers; who were witnesses of this truth.
None of us here today have seen the risen Lord or looked into the empty tomb; and yet, many of us believe that He has risen from the dead, just like He said He would, and we have the indwelling assurance of the Holy Spirit that we have been born into God’s eternal family. Romans 10:9-10, “If you confess with your mouth Jesus as Lord, and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved; for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.” 17, “So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.
Ephesians 1:13-14, “In Him, you also, after listening to the message of truth, the gospel of your salvation—having also believed, you were sealed in Him with the Holy Spirit of promise, who is given as a pledge of our inheritance, with a view to the redemption of God’s own possession, to the praise of His glory.”
Acts 2:21, “‘And it shall be that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord will be saved.’” 4:12, “And there is salvation in no one else; for there is no other name under heaven that has been given among men by which we must be saved.””
1Timothy 2:3-6, “This is good and acceptable in the sight of God our Savior, who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth. For there is one God, and one mediator also between God and men, the man Christ Jesus, who gave Himself as a ransom for all, the testimony given at the proper time.”
Hebrews 10:10 “By this will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.” 14, “For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified,” 17-18, “‘And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.’ Now where there is forgiveness of these things, there is no longer any offering for sin.”
John 1:11-13, “He came to His own, and those who were His own did not receive Him. But as many as received Him, to them He gave the right to become children of God, even to those who believe in His name, who were born, not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor of the will of man, but of God.”
1John 5:1-5, "Whoever believes that Jesus is the Christ is born of God, and whoever loves the Father loves the child born of Him. By this we know that we love the children of God, when we love God and observe His commandments. For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments; and His commandments are not burdensome. For whatever is born of God overcomes the world; and this is the victory that has overcome the world—our faith. Who is the one who overcomes the world, but he who believes that Jesus is the Son of God?”-11-13, “And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son. He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life. These things I have written to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, so that you may know that you have eternal life.”
Pastor Mike
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