Luke 24:35-43
35 They began to relate their experiences on the road and how He was recognized by them in the breaking of the bread.
36 While they were telling these things, He Himself stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be to you.”
37 But they were startled and frightened and thought that they were seeing a spirit.
38 And He said to them, “Why are you troubled, and why do doubts arise in your hearts?
39 See My hands and My feet, that it is I Myself; touch Me and see, for a spirit does not have flesh and bones as you see that I have.”
40 And when He had said this, He showed them His hands and His feet.
41 While they still could not believe it because of their joy and amazement, He said to them, “Have you anything here to eat?”
42 They gave Him a piece of a broiled fish;
43 and He took it and ate it before them

The next appearance of Jesus is in the evening on that first Sunday. Jesus (in His resurrected body) passes right through the walls of a house where the disciples were gathered, like a spirit, yet He had a body and was even able to eat.

John 20:19-20
19 So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, “Peace be with you.”
20 And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

Jesus miraculously appears right in front of them, even though

(verse 19)
“…the doors were shut…”

The word translated “door” implies a large and solid door. The word translated “shut” means locked or secured, this was often done 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. The disciples were hiding behind locked doors

(verse 19)
“for fear of the Jews,”

they were probably afraid of being arrested and executed, like Jesus.

Matthew 28:1-15
1 Now after the Sabbath, as it began to dawn toward the first day of the week, Mary Magdalene and the other Mary came to look at the grave.
2 And behold, a severe earthquake had occurred, for an angel of the Lord descended from heaven and came and rolled away the stone and sat upon it.
3 And his appearance was like lightning, and his clothing as white as snow.
4 The guards shook for fear of him and became like dead men.
5 The angel said to the women, “Do not be afraid; for I know that you are looking for Jesus who has been crucified.
6 He is not here, for He has risen, just as He said. Come, see the place where He was lying.
7 Go quickly and tell His disciples that He has risen from the dead; and behold, He is going ahead of you into Galilee, there you will see Him; behold, I have told you.”
8 And they left the tomb quickly with fear and great joy and ran to report it to His disciples.
9 And behold, Jesus met them and greeted them. And they came up and took hold of His feet and worshiped Him.
10 Then Jesus said to them, “Do not be afraid; go and take word to My brethren to leave for Galilee, and there they will see Me.”
11 Now while they were on their way, some of the guard came into the city and reported to the chief priests all that had happened.
12 And when they had assembled with the elders and consulted together, they gave a large sum of money to the soldiers,
13 and said, “You are to say, ‘His disciples came by night and stole Him away while we were asleep.’
14 And if this should come to the governor’s ears, we will win him over and keep you out of trouble.”
15 And they took the money and did as they had been instructed; and this story was widely spread among the Jews, and is to this day.

The soldiers who guarded Jesus’ tomb were paid off by the Chief Priests and were told to tell everyone that Christ’s disciples had taken His body. This is another reason the disciples were hiding behind locked doors on resurrection Sunday evening, for they were fearful that they were next to be executed.

Luke 24:44-47
44 Now He said to them, “These are My words which I spoke to you while I was still with you, that all things which are written about Me in the Law of Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms must be fulfilled.”
45 Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures,
46 and He said to them, “Thus it is written, that the Christ would suffer and rise again from the dead the third day,
47 and that repentance for forgiveness of sins would be proclaimed in His name to all the nations, beginning from Jerusalem.

Jesus reminded them of things He already had told them, and He began to show them how the Old Testament Scriptures spoke about Him

(verse 45), “Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.”
“Then He opened their minds to understand the Scriptures.” But 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 something like this to the two disciples on the road to Emmaus also.

Luke 24:25-27,
25 And He said to them, “O foolish men and slow of heart to believe in all that the prophets have spoken!
26 Was it not necessary for the Christ to suffer these things and to enter into His glory?”
27 Then beginning with Moses and with all the prophets, He explained to them the things concerning Himself in all the Scriptures.

I believe Jesus began to open their minds concerning the many passages of the Old Testament that speak about His birth, His rejection by the people, His suffering, His sacrificial death as payment for our sins, and His sovereign resurrection from the dead; of which the following are examples
(see Isaiah 7:14; 9:6; Isaiah 53:1-12; Psalm 16:10; Psalm 22:27-31).

Isaiah 7:14; 9:6
14 Therefore the Lord Himself will give you a sign: Behold, a virgin will be with child and bear a son, and she will call His name Immanuel.

Isaiah 9:6
6 For a child will be born to us, a son will be given to us;
And the government will rest on His shoulders;
And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Eternal Father, Prince of Peace.

Isaiah 53:1-12
1 Who has believed our message?
And to whom has the arm of the LORD been revealed?
2 For He grew up before Him like a tender shoot,
And like a root out of parched ground;
He has no stately form or majesty
That we should look upon Him,
Nor appearance that we should be attracted to Him.
3 He was despised and forsaken of men,
A man of sorrows and acquainted with grief;
And like one from whom men hide their face
He was despised, and we did not esteem Him.
4 Surely our griefs He Himself bore,
And our sorrows He carried;
Yet we ourselves esteemed Him stricken,
Smitten of God, and afflicted.
5 But He was pierced through for our transgressions,
He was crushed for our iniquities;
The chastening for our well-being fell upon Him,
And by His scourging we are healed.
6 All of us like sheep have gone astray,
Each of us has turned to his own way;
But the LORD has caused the iniquity of us all
To fall on Him.
7 He was oppressed and He was afflicted,
Yet He did not open His mouth;
Like a lamb that is led to slaughter,
And like a sheep that is silent before its shearers,
So He did not open His mouth.
8 By oppression and judgment He was taken away;
And as for His generation, who considered
That He was cut off out of the land of the living
For the transgression of my people, to whom the stroke was due?
9 His grave was assigned with wicked men,
Yet He was with a rich man in His death,
Because He had done no violence,
Nor was there any deceit in His mouth.
10 But the LORD was pleased
To crush Him, putting Him to grief;
If He would render Himself as a guilt offering,
He will see His offspring,
He will prolong His days,
And the good pleasure of the LORD will prosper in His hand.
11 As a result of the anguish of His soul,
He will see it and be satisfied;
By His knowledge the Righteous One,
My Servant, will justify the many,
As He will bear their iniquities.
12 Therefore, I will allot Him a portion with the great,
And He will divide the booty with the strong;
Because He poured out Himself to death,
And was numbered with the transgressors;
Yet He Himself bore the sin of many,
And interceded for the transgressors.

Psalm 16:10
10 For You will not abandon my soul to Sheol;
Nor will You allow Your Holy One to undergo decay

Psalm 22:27-31
27 All the ends of the earth will remember and turn to the LORD,
And all the families of the nations will worship before You.
28 For the kingdom is the LORD’S
And He rules over the nations.
29 All the prosperous of the earth will eat and worship,
All those who go down to the dust will bow before Him,
Even he who cannot keep his soul alive.
30 Posterity will serve Him;
It will be told of the Lord to the coming generation.
31 They will come and will declare His righteousness
To a people who will be born, that He has performed it.

On several occasions Jesus spoke of these things (in part) to His disciples.

Matthew 16:21
21 From that time Jesus began to show His disciples that He must go to Jerusalem, and suffer many things from the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and be raised up on the third day.

Matthew 17:22-23
22 And while they were gathering together in Galilee, Jesus said to them, “The Son of Man is going to be delivered into the hands of men;
23 and they will kill Him, and He will be raised on the third day.” And they were deeply grieved.

Matthew 20:18-19
18 “Behold, we are going up to Jerusalem; and the Son of Man will be delivered to the chief priests and scribes, and they will condemn Him to death,
19 and will hand Him over to the Gentiles to mock and scourge and crucify Him, and on the third day He will be raised up.”

The Old Testament prophecies about God’s Anointed [Holy] One [the Messiah, the Christ] foretell the plan, purpose and provision of God through His Son, Jesus Christ, who was fully man and yet fully God, as the New Testament clearly declares (see Ephesians 1:18-21; Philippians 2:5-11; Hebrews 1:1-4).

Ephesians 1:18-21
18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened, so that you will know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints,
19 and what is the surpassing greatness of His power toward us who believe. These are in accordance with the working of the strength of His might
20 which He brought about in Christ, when He raised Him from the dead and seated Him at His right hand in the heavenly places,
21 far above all rule and authority and power and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in the one to come.

Philippians 2:5-11
5 Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus,
6 who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped,
7 but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men.
8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death on a cross.
9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
10 so that at the name of Jesus EVERY KNEE WILL BOW, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Hebrews 1:1-4
1 God, after He spoke long ago to the fathers in the prophets in many portions and in many ways,
2 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.
3 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,
4 having become as much better than the angels, as He has inherited a more excellent name than they.

The next appearance of Jesus, according to the biblical record, occurs one week after His resurrection.

John 20:24-29
24 But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.
25 So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “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.”
26 After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.”
27 Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.”
28 Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
29 Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

We are told here that on the following Sunday, the Lord came to the Disciples while they were again hiding in a room with the doors locked; but this time, Thomas was present.

The Lord immediately invited Thomas to touch His wounds, so that he might believe. We are not told as to whether or not Thomas reached out to touch the wounds in Christ’s body, but more importantly, we have Thomas’s strong confession of faith and belief that this is the risen Christ, God’s Son (verse 28), “My Lord and my God!”

Jesus accepts Thomas’s confession of faith, and then declares that in the future, after He has returned to heaven, those who believe in Him without seeing Him (verse 29), will indeed be blessed. Jesus is not just talking about a feeling of happiness, but instead, an indwelling supernatural assurance of having been spiritually born into God’s eternal family, having been accepted by and brought into an intimate relationship with God, through Christ
(see John 17:1-8, 20-26).

John 17:1-8
1 Jesus spoke these things; and lifting up His eyes to heaven, He said, “Father, the hour has come; glorify Your Son, that the Son may glorify You,
2 even as You gave Him authority over all flesh, that to all whom You have given Him, He may give eternal life.
3 This is eternal life, that they may know You, the only true God, and Jesus Christ whom You have sent.
4 I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.
5 Now, Father, glorify Me together with Yourself, with the glory which I had with You before the world was.
6 “I have manifested Your name to the men whom You gave Me out of the world; they were Yours and You gave them to Me, and they have kept Your word.
7 Now they have come to know that everything You have given Me is from You;
8 for the words which You gave Me I have given to them; and they received them and truly understood that I came forth from You, and they believed that You sent Me.

John 17:20-26
20 “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word;
21 that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.
22 The glory which You have given Me I have given to them, that they may be one, just as We are one;
23 I in them and You in Me, that they may be perfected in unity, so that the world may know that You sent Me, and loved them, even as You have loved Me.
24 Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world.
25 “O righteous Father, although the world has not known You, yet I have known You; and these have known that You sent Me;
26 and I have made Your name known to them, and will make it known, so that the love with which You loved Me may be in them, and I in them.”

2Corinthians 5:21
He [God] made Him [Jesus Christ] who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, so that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”

Hebrews 9:22
22 And according to the Law, one may almost say, all things are cleansed with blood, and without shedding of blood there is no forgiveness.

Hebrews 9:27-28
27 And inasmuch as it is appointed for men to die once and after this comes judgment,
28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him.

Hebrews 10:3-7
But in those sacrifices there is a reminder of sins year by year. For it is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins. Therefore, when He [God’s Son, Savior] comes into the world, He says, ‘Sacrifice and offering You have not desired, but a body You have prepared for Me. Behold, I have come to do Your will, O God.’

Hebrews 10:10
By this will we have been sanctified [made holy] through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.

Hebrews 10:12
He, having offered one sacrifice for sins for all time, sat down at the right hand of God.

Hebrews 10:14
For by one offering He has perfected for all time those who are sanctified.” He then says,

Hebrews 10:17
And their sins and their lawless deeds I will remember no more.

John 20:30-31
30 Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;
31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

These accounts of the life and ministry of Jesus Christ are written here in John’s Gospel (and in the Synoptic Gospels: Matthew, Mark and Luke), as first person narratives of the sovereign revelation of God, through Christ the Lord, in order to provide forgiveness for sins, and eternal life, to those who are being saved.

And although none of us were there to hear the words or witness the works of Jesus Christ, or to see the risen Lord, we have this first person report, so that we might believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and by believing we may have eternal life in His name, for everyone who calls on the name of the Lord (for the forgiveness of sins), will be saved.

Remember what Jesus said to Thomas in John 20:29,
“Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”

In John 17:20-21,
Jesus prayed to the Father saying, “I do not ask on behalf of these alone, but for those also who believe in Me through their word; that they may all be one; even as You, Father, are in Me and I in You, that they also may be in Us, so that the world may believe that You sent Me.”

Take another look at John 20:30,
“Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book.”

John 21:25
25 And there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose that even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written.

John 20:31
31 but these have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.

God’s desire in providing general revelation of Himself in creation and special revelation of Himself through the spoken and written Word of God (the Bible), is so that we might hear the message of Christ and believe it (Romans 10:17).

Romans 10:17
17 So faith comes from hearing, and hearing by the word of Christ.

Hebrews 11:6
6 And without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he who comes to God must believe that He is and that He is a rewarder of those who seek Him

Jeremiah 29:11-13
11 For I know the plans that I have for you,’ declares the LORD, ‘plans for welfare and not for calamity to give you a future and a hope.
12 Then you will call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you.
13 You will seek Me and find Me when you search for Me with all your heart.

Have you trusted in Jesus Christ’s death to set you free from the penalty of sin and His resurrection to provide you with eternal life?

If not, why not?

1Timothy 2:3-4,
“God our Savior …desires all men [women and children of age] to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.”

2Peter 3:9,
“The Lord… …is patient toward you, not wishing for any to perish but for all to come to repentance.”

God turns no one away! He loves you so much (John 3:16),

John 3:16
16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whoever believes in Him shall not perish, but have eternal life.

Maybe you are hearing this today, and you aren’t sure. Listen, we are all sinners, every one of us, and the penalty for sin is death, but through Jesus Christ, who is the only way, the only truth, and the only life from God, we can be eternally set free from sin’s penalty.

Three times we are told (Joel 2:32; Acts 2:21; Romans 10:13) “that everyone who calls on the name of the Lord [for the forgiveness of sin] will be saved,” (Acts 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,” only that of Jesus Christ, Lord and Savior.

Joel 2:32
32 “And it will come about that whoever calls on the name of the LORD
Will be delivered;
For on Mount Zion and in Jerusalem
There will be those who escape,
As the LORD has said,
Even among the survivors whom the LORD calls.

Acts 2:21
21 ‘AND IT SHALL BE THAT EVERYONE WHO CALLS ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.’

Romans 10:13
13 for “WHOEVER WILL CALL ON THE NAME OF THE LORD WILL BE SAVED.”

Acts 4:12
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.”

In 1John 1:1-3 the aged Apostle John writes:

1John 1:1-3
1 What was from the beginning, what we have heard, what we have seen with our eyes, what we have looked at and touched with our hands, concerning the Word of Life--
2 and the life was manifested, and we have seen and testify and proclaim to you the eternal life, which was with the Father and was manifested to us--
3 what we have seen and heard we proclaim to you also, so that you too may have fellowship with us; and indeed our fellowship is with the Father, and with His Son Jesus Christ.

In 1John 5:11-13 the Apostle sums it up,

1John 5:11-13
11 And the testimony is this, that God has given us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.
12 He who has the Son has the life; he who does not have the Son of God does not have the life.
13 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.

Do you know for sure that you have received forgiveness for sin and eternal life?

If you have any doubt, If your heart is speaking to you today, don’t put it off, don’t delay.

Right now, right where you are (Romans 10:9-10):

Romans 10:9-10
9 that 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;
10 for with the heart a person believes, resulting in righteousness, and with the mouth he confesses, resulting in salvation.

Pastor Mike Hale
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Topics: Resurrection, Resurrection Appearances of Jesus