The purpose of John’s gospel – John 20: 30-31 – share specific signs pointing us toward believing Jesus is the Christ, the  Son of God, and by believing have eternal life. Signs presented so far: Water to Wine, Healing from a Distance, Healing a Handicapped Man, Feeding the 5000, Healing the Man Born Blind, Raising Lazarus from the Dead. Now we jump to the greatest sign – the resurrection of Jesus from the dead!

Preface – the burial of Jesus – John 19: 38-42

Encounter Jesus – John Week 20

Sign #7 – The Resurrection

John 20: 1-30

AUDIO

Lecture Handout

John Week 20 – Sign 7 – The Resurrection Handout

Lesson Notes

The Empty Tomb (John 20: 1-10)

  • Verse 1 – Very early Sunday morning, still dark
    • Stone has been taken away – the large stone covering the entrance rolled back
  • Verse 2- Mary ran to tell Peter and another disciple, “the one Jesus loved”
    • Presumed to be the author, generally understood as John for many reasons
    • I’m sure every disciple would say he was loved by Jesus
    • Personally I don’t think it speaks to superior status but rather how personally impacted John was by the love of Jesus (note the dominant theme of love in both John’s gospel and his epistles)
    • Note the “we” here – there was more than one woman, only Mary is named here
  • Verses 3-4 – Peter and John (presumably) ran to the tomb
  • Verse 5 – John – note the firsthand descriptive language of these verses, little details only an eyewitness would know about events and thoughts
    • Part of how we attribute this gospel to John
    • He looks in from outside and sees the linen cloths lying there without a body
    • These cloths and spices were valuable, well worth stealing – nobody would have stolen a body without stealing these items as well
    • “Lying there” -probably Jesus unwrapped Himself
  • Verses 6-7 – Peter went in (of course!)
    • Saw the face cloth – neatly folded by itself – as if Jesus lifted it off, folded it up, and set it aside as His first action
  • Verses 8-9 – The other disciple went in, saw, and believed
    • Believed that Jesus had risen from the dead, not been stolen
    • Though they didn’t yet understand the scriptural significance
  • Verse 10 – Then Peter and John went home

Jesus Appears to Mary Magdalene (John 20: 11-18)

  • Verse 11 – Mary just stood there weeping, until she too looked into the tomb
  • Verses 12-13 – Two angels ask why she’s weeping -> she thinks somebody took His body
  • Verse 14 – Jesus appears, but she doesn’t recognize Him – common in resurrection accounts
  • Verse 15 – Jesus asks the same thing as the angels, “Woman, why are you weeping?”
    • She mistakes Jesus for the gardener and asks for His body
  • Verses 16-17 – Jesus says her name and she recognizes Him -> John 10: 3-4 – the sheep know His voice and He calls them by name
    • Don’t cling to me physically – once ascended, cling to Him spiritually
    • God to the disciples and tell them He’ll be ascending to their common God and  Father
    • That’s the exalted reality of every believer – God is our Father, Jesus is our brother!
  • Verse 18 – Mary Magdalene told the disciples

Jesus Appears to the  Disciples (John 20: 19-29)

  • Verse 19 – That Sunday evening, the disciples locked themselves in a room to hide from Jewish leaders
  • Jesus suddenly stood among them and greeted them – He has the ability to come and go
  • Verse 20 – He showed them the wounds to His hands and side
    • Verifying His identity
    • Verifying that His resurrection is physical – you can’t touch a ghost
    • Demonstrates continuity of His body – His perfected body is the same one that suffered on the cross – made whole and strong, but indelibly marked by the cross
    • Our resurrection will be like  His – physical, perfected bodies, different, but continuity
  • Verse 21 – Sending
    • Jesus spoke often of being sent
    • Now He’s sending the disciples EXACTLY the same way
    • Just as God sent Jesus into the world to grow the Kingdom and spread Good News, so Jesus sent the disciples
  • Verse 22 – Jesus breathes and commands them to receive the Holy Spirit
    • The Greek text does not say “on them” – He probably wasn’t breathing the Spirit on them at that moment – there’s no evidence of changed life at this point
    • Perhaps the best way to understand it as an enacted parable of what is about to happen on Pentecost, because breath and Spirit are the same word
    • Jesus breathes, then He commands them to receive the Spirit, which will be what happens when God pours out the Spirit on Pentecost
  • Verse 23 – We don’t forgive – God forgives through Christ, but as we do our job, proclaiming the good news of forgiveness, people are forgiven in Christ
    • These words for forgive are passive perfects – the work of God – people stand forgiven by God with lasting effect, or they don’t, also with lasting effect
  • Verses 24-25 – They tell  Thomas and he doubts their testimony
    • He insists on touching the risen Christ himself – “I will never believe”
  • Verses 26-28 – 8 days later – they counted inclusively then, so it’s the following Sunday, which was the end of the Feast of Unleavened Bread
    • They’re still locked in, this time with Thomas present
    • Verse 27 – Thomas is invited to touch, just as he said
    • He’s challenged to believe
  • Verse 29 – “My Lord and My God” -> A very significant verse when dealing with Jehovah’s Witnesses, because they haven’t actually altered this text
    • They will claim it was just a taking of the Lord’s name in vain, but that’s a ridiculous contortion to avoid the implications of Thomas’s words
    • Thomas recognizes the identity, supremacy, and divinity of Christ in the resurrection
    • Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believed
    • That’s us! Sometimes I envy those disciples, but here I’m reminded we’re blessed because we believe by faith and not by sight!

Conclusion

  • What’s the significance of all this?
    • By His signs, Jesus IS the Christ. He IS the Son of God. He IS God Himself
    • He’s eternal, the Second Person of the Trinity
    • He’s trustworthy in everything He said
      • He promised He would rise again – John 10: 17-18
      • So we can trust WE will rise again – John 14: 1-6
      • And trust Him that He is the ONLY way to enter the presence of God

Prayer – That we would believe and be confident in our faith because of the signs and teachings of the gospel; that we would trust in the simplicity of the signs and story in John and feel comfortable sharing with others.

This concludes this “Encounter Jesus” Bible Study. We hope you have enjoyed this journey through the gospels with us.