Seeing is believing! However, more blessed are those who believe in Jesus without seeing — without proof. We have to trust the Gospel accounts, the eyewitness testimonies. We have to accept that they are the truth. What happened that Sunday morning is supernatural. Jesus defeated death! He rose from the dead!
Not only that, He had a new, glorified body. He appears and disappears. Yet, He eats with His disciples. This is the Good News! Because Jesus defeated death, then everyone, anyone who believes in Him will defeat death too! Let’s dig in…
John 20
Early on Sunday morning, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene came to the tomb and found that the stone had been rolled away from the entrance. 2 She ran and found Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one whom Jesus loved. She said, “They have taken the Lord’s body out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”
3 Peter and the other disciple started out for the tomb. 4 They were both running, but the other disciple outran Peter and reached the tomb first. 5 He stooped and looked in and saw the linen wrappings lying there, but he didn’t go in. 6 Then Simon Peter arrived and went inside. He also noticed the linen wrappings lying there, 7 while the cloth that had covered Jesus’ head was folded up and lying apart from the other wrappings. 8 Then the disciple who had reached the tomb first also went in, and he saw and believed— 9 for until then they still hadn’t understood the Scriptures that said Jesus must rise from the dead. 10 Then they went home.
“He saw and believed.”
Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene
11 Mary was standing outside the tomb crying, and as she wept, she stooped and looked in. 12 She saw two white-robed angels, one sitting at the head and the other at the foot of the place where the body of Jesus had been lying. 13 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” the angels asked her.
“Because they have taken away my Lord,” she replied, “and I don’t know where they have put him.”
14 She turned to leave and saw someone standing there. It was Jesus, but she didn’t recognize him. 15 “Dear woman, why are you crying?” Jesus asked her. “Who are you looking for?”
She thought he was the gardener. “Sir,” she said, “if you have taken him away, tell me where you have put him, and I will go and get him.”
16 “Mary!” Jesus said.
She turned to him and cried out, “Rabboni!” (which is Hebrew for “Teacher”).
17 “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’”
18 Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.
She saw and believed.
Jesus Appears to His Disciples
19 That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. 20 As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord! 21 Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you.” 22 Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive anyone’s sins, they are forgiven. If you do not forgive them, they are not forgiven.”
John 20:1-23 NLT
“Shalom” — peace be with you. Not just “peace”, but wholeness and completion. Jesus said it twice. This brings me back to a couple of my favorite passages from the Gospel of John…
27 “I am leaving you with a gift—peace of mind and heart. And the peace I give is a gift the world cannot give. So don’t be troubled or afraid.”
John 14:27 NLT
33 “I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”
John 16:33 NLT
Jesus overcame the cross. He overcame death. That’s something to be joyful about! We, too, are overcomers, when we believe in Jesus.
Jesus Appears to Thomas
24 One of the twelve disciples, Thomas (nicknamed the Twin), was not with the others when Jesus came. 25 They told him, “We have seen the Lord!”
But he replied, “I won’t believe it unless I see the nail wounds in his hands, put my fingers into them, and place my hand into the wound in his side.”
26 Eight days later the disciples were together again, and this time Thomas was with them. The doors were locked; but suddenly, as before, Jesus was standing among them. “Peace be with you,” he said. 27 Then he said to Thomas, “Put your finger here, and look at my hands. Put your hand into the wound in my side. Don’t be faithless any longer. Believe!”
28 “My Lord and my God!” Thomas exclaimed.
29 Then Jesus told him, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.”
Thomas calls Jesus, his God. He saw and believed. But, then, Jesus said, “You believe because you have seen me. Blessed are those who believe without seeing me.” Belief without seeing is true faith. John, then gives us an addendum…
Purpose of the Book
30 The disciples saw Jesus do many other miraculous signs in addition to the ones recorded in this book. 31 But these are written so that you may continue to believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing in him you will have life by the power of his name.
John 20:24-31 NLT
“By the Power of His Name!”
Eternal life is only available THROUGH JESUS! Not through a church, a pope, a priest, Mary, or the saints. Not through anything or anyone. Only THROUGH JESUS!
Do you believe?
If you’re not sure if you’re saved or not, if you truly want to be born again and have the assurance of salvation, receive the Holy Spirit, feel His Shalom — a peace that surpasses all understanding, and get a 1-way, non-stop ticket to Heaven after you die, or that you won’t be left behind at the Rapture, which can happen at any moment, this is what you have to do…
Invite Jesus into Your Heart and Receive the Gift of Grace, Joy, Peace, and the Confident Hope of Eternal Life…
The last of the movie clips kind of combine Chapters 19-21. You get a recap of the story. Hey, the more you hear it, the better it sticks in your head so you can relay it to someone else. It’s OK to paraphrase. You don’t need to memorize them. Until the first books of the Bible were written around 69 AD — the first Gospel was Mark’s and the first letter was Paul’s to the Galatians — believers told the stories over and over again. It was the ultimate word-of-mouth marketing. Moreover, it still works today! Many of the organizations I support use the same storytelling tactic to help spread the Good News all over the world.
The Life of Jesus Part 20
The Life of Jesus Part 21
There is Power in the Name of Jesus!
Soli Deo Gloria! To God Alone Be the Glory!
Top image by Good News Productions International from FreeBibleImages.com, (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)
