John Chapter 20:19-31 by Mark Dunagan

The Gospel Of John Chapter 20:19-31

‘Between the appearance to the women and the appearance to the ten disciples in the upper room in Jerusalem, Jesus appeared to two of His disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). These two disciples were despondent at the death of Jesus because all their glorious Messianic hopes had died, they thought, with Him there on Golgotha’s brow…Perhaps these disciples were going to Emmaus to rest, get away from all the uproar in Jerusalem, and to think over the events of the last few days. Emmaus was probably only 7 or 8 miles from Jerusalem.’ (Butler p. 429)

John 20:19 ‘When therefore 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.” ‘it was evening’-Note that John is reckoning time as we reckon time. It is evening, but it is still the first day of the week in God’s estimation. Which would mean that serving communion after sundown on Sunday would be appropriate, for it is still the first day of the week (Acts 20:7).

‘the first day of the week’-This has been a very busy and eventful day for the disciples. Before dawn on this day the women had started off to the tomb, Peter and John have seen the empty tomb, Jesus has appeared to Mary Magdalene and other women, and He has just recently appeared to two of the disciples. In addition, Jesus has also appeared to Peter at some point during the day (Luke 24:34). Point To Note: Luke makes it clear that the above first day of the week was the third day since Jesus had been put to death (Luke 24:1,13,21). It is clear that Jesus was crucified prior to the Sabbath day (John 19:31). Therefore, Jesus was put to death and buried on Friday prior to sundown, in the grave on Saturday and raised early Sunday morning. We must reject the idea that Jesus had to be in the grave a full 72 hours.

‘doors were shut where the disciples were, for fear of the Jews’ -

Points To Note: 1.

We must reject the idea that the disciples stole the body or even attempted to steal it, for: A. The text is clear that the disciples are not in any mood to take on the Jewish authorities and especially the guard that had been stationed at the tomb. B. The disciples apparently suspected that they might be the next on the list for death. ‘The disciples as a group were oppressed by the emotion of fear. Primarily they dreaded the Jewish rulers, who had sent Jesus to His death and might be waiting to deal with them in similar fashion. They had not left Jerusalem, perhaps because they felt that remaining quietly in the city would make them less conspicuous than sudden flight would, and they met behind closed doors lest their presence should be known.’ (Tenney p. 283)

‘Jesus came and stood in their midst’-This doesn’t mean that Jesus’ body was made of different “stuff” following His resurrection. Jesus could have miraculously appeared suddenly in a locked room prior to His resurrection as well as after (Luke 4:30). It appears that Jesus suddenly, while the doors remained locked stood in their midst. ‘”the doors being shut” supports the view that John intended that he should be understood as saying that the Lord’s appearance was miraculous.’ (Woods p. 426) This would be the same appearance that Luke records in Luke 24:36-41.

‘”Peace be with you”’-While Jesus will rebuke them for their slowness in believing the resurrection (Mark 16:14), Jesus immediately reassures the disciples.

John 20:20 ‘And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. The disciples therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord.’ ‘He showed them both His hands and His side’-‘The religion of our Lord is a reasonable one; it never requires one to be credulous….He showed them his hands with the nail prints in them and his side into which the soldier had thrust his spear. In so doing, he convinced them that he was not a ghost or apparition and that their eyes were not deceiving them; and additionally, he provided evidence that he was the same one they loved and with whom they had been associated for over three years.’ (Woods p. 427) Points To Note: 1.

The resurrection was a bodily resurrection, we must reject the idea that merely the spirit of Jesus or even worse that the ‘cause of Jesus’ was raised. 2. The body that was raised was exactly the same body that had been buried. 3. Remember, when John wrote, the false doctrine known as Gnosticism was prevalent, the idea that Deity can have nothing to do with the material creation. John makes it clear that Jesus was in a 2

human body (John 1:14), that He was in that body when it died, and that He was in that body when it was raised. 4. God isn’t afraid of scrutiny and examination (Acts 17:11; 1 Thess. 5:21-22). Jesus says, ‘Look, here are the facts, this is obviously a body that has undergone crucifixion!’ Butler notes, ‘This is one of the unique features of the revelation of Jehovah-God…the command, to test and prove the credibility and authenticity and divine nature of such a revelation. No other religion has ever been so insistent, that its claims be tested and verified and none has never offered such indisputable evidence….The disciples were not asked to place their trust in some mystic philosophy, nor in imaginative man-made gods---they were given empirically verifiable evidence for the supernaturalness of Christ.’ (p. 430)

‘therefore rejoiced when they saw the Lord’-Their fear had now turned to joy. They realized that they were indeed seeing Jesus.

John 20:21 ‘Jesus therefore said to them again, “Peace be with you; as the Father has sent Me, I also send you.”’ “Peace be with you”-‘It may not be fanciful to think of this peace thus emphasized as the peace that comes as the result of His death and resurrection…After all He has just shown them His hands and side with their marks of the passion.’ (Morris p. 845)

‘as the Father has sent Me, I also send you’-Since Jesus lives, the purpose of the Apostles is alive, that is, to go into the world and spread the Gospel (Matthew 28:19-20). The Apostles purpose and mission in life proceeds from Jesus’ mission, without His death and resurrection Christianity would not exist (1 Corinthians 15:12ff).

John 20:22 ‘And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.”’ Points To Note: 1.

Since the Apostles will be told to wait in Jerusalem for the promise of the Holy Spirit (Luke 24:49), it is clear that the Holy Spirit didn’t come upon the Apostles at the instant that Jesus said the above words. Rather, Jesus is promising something that will happen in about 40 days. 2. The Holy Spirit would assist the Apostles in doing their work in spreading the Gospel (Acts 1:8; Hebrews 2:3-4). 3. Woods notes, ‘(1) Their commission to carry the gospel to all the world did not at that moment begin; on the contrary, they were expressly instructed to “tarry” in Jerusalem and there await the promise (of the Spirit) from the Father (Acts 1:1-5); (2) the message they were to proclaim would not be valid until the Day of Pentecost described in Acts 2:1ff;.’ (p. 428). This breathing on the disciples reminds us of the statements in Genesis where God simply breathed or spoke and something happened (Genesis 1:3; 2:7). Here Jesus

manifests one of the qualities of Deity, sheer omnipotence, He simply says the word and things happen.

John 20:23 ‘”If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.”’ “If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them” Points To Note: 1.

‘The Roman Catholic Church has used this verse to teach that the so-called successors of the apostles (the popes and priests) have the authority to forgive men of their sins. Such a doctrine is technically called “absolution”. Not even the apostles themselves had any authority of their own to grant absolution—the forgiveness of sins. One need only to turn to Acts 8:14-24 to find one example of an apostle being asked to grant absolution in the case of a man confessing his sin.’ (Butler p. 431) And yet in this case, Peter has Simon pray to God for such forgiveness. 2. It is clear that the Apostles would grant forgiveness or withhold it, not because of some personal power that they possessed, but rather because through them the terms of forgiveness were revealed. ‘In founding the church, declaring the will of God and preaching the gospel of repentance and remission of sins by the blood of Christ and men’s obedience to the gospel, the apostles merely declared on what terms, and to what people God extended forgiveness of sins. What ever they preached on earth had already been decided in heaven.’ (Butler pp. 431-432) This all means that forgiveness cannot be obtained if we reject the terms for forgiveness which were revealed through them. God has not given mankind the right to decide his own terms of being forgiven.

“have been forgiven…have been retained”-that is, the terms of forgiveness had already been decided by God in heaven (see Matthew 16:19; 18:18). The apostles were not given the power to invent terms of forgiveness, or what a person needed to do to be forgiven (so many hail Mary’s, good deeds, etc….). Literally translated verse 23 would read, ‘they have already been forgiven them….they have already been retained.’

John 20:24 ‘But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came.’ ‘called Didymus’-Thomas was his Hebrew name and Didymus was his Greek name, but both names mean the same thing, i.e. “twin”. ‘He was not with the others when Jesus came. No reason is given, and there is neither praise nor blame for his absence.’ (Morris p. 851)

John 20:25 ‘The other disciples therefore were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I shall 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.”’ Point To Note: Morris notes, ‘Some writers almost give the impression that at first there was no thought of a resurrection, but that bit by bit the apostles became familiar with the thought. Eventually they built up more and more circumstantial tales until eventually the whole church was convinced….The plain fact is that all told we read of five appearances on the one day (to Mary Magdalene, to the women, to the two on the way to Emmaus, to Peter, and to the ten). Then there are five more spread out over forty days, and after that no more with the exception of the appearance to Saul of Tarsus. This is no gradual building up of “appearances” but rather the reverse. They were progressively restricted, not built up. Moreover, as Thomas makes abundantly clear, the appearances were not at first welcomed. They were resisted as idle talk, and those who had not actually seen Christ for themselves refused point blank to accept the stories.’ (pp. 850-851)

“We have seen the Lord!”-the tense is present, they kept saying to him. The disciples kept trying to convince Thomas that Jesus had actually appeared to them. And yet, Thomas remained stubborn. Tenney notes, ‘He was naturally of a pessimistic temperament as his previous utterances showed (11:16; 14:5), and his doubt seems to have been the product of his pessimism…After all, he knew that Jesus had died, and he could say, “The worst has happened just as I said it would.”’ (p. 284) I believe it is right to say that the other disciples might have said the same thing, if they hadn’t been in the room when Jesus appeared. Clearly, the other disciples were just as skeptical, until Jesus appeared to them (Luke 24:11).

“I will not believe”-Faith is a choice it is an act of the will. Faith is a decision, not a fate or predetermined destiny. This little statement really says something, that is, one will remain an unbeliever as long as they make the choice to reject the evidence.

John 20:26 ‘And after eight days again His disciples were inside, and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst, and said, “Peace be with you.”’ ‘after eight days again’-‘according to the inclusive method of counting signifies a week.’ (Morris p. 852). Thus, this would be the Sunday after the resurrection. The word “again” would seem to suggest that this meeting was at the same place and basically around the same time as the meeting described in 20:19. 5

John 20:27 ‘Then He said to Thomas, “Reach here your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand, and put it into My side; and be not unbelieving, but believing.”’ Points To Note: 1. Even though Jesus had not been physically present when Thomas had given His criteria for believing, Jesus knew exactly what Thomas had said. 2. To every objection that Thomas had given, Jesus responds: “Unless I see in His hands”—“see My hands”; “the imprint of the nails, and put my finger into the place of the nails”-“Reach here your finger”; “and put my hand into His side”-“reach here your hand, and put it into My side”. And then Jesus challenges him to make good on his promise. 3. Carefully note that God isn’t impressed by skepticism (Romans 1:20; Psalm 19:1), God isn’t impressed by the person who keeps needing more evidence until they can believe (James 1:6-8). While the following comments might not be true in Thomas’ case, they are very insightful concerning the motives of many unbelievers: ‘Here is pride, haughtiness, and arrogance of unbelief: it sets up a criterion of its own. It will have what it demands. The unbeliever makes himself a superior person, looking down on believers as credulous fools who cannot be trusted. The wisdom of the unbeliever exceeds that of all other men….But all this action of unbelief reveals that, while it pretends to obey reason and genuine intelligence alone, it does nothing of the kind.’ (Lenski p. 1381) At times people will complain, ‘But these people saw Jesus, they had an advantage which we don’t have. Their faith was stronger because they had actually saw Him.’ But these men who saw Jesus, many of them also died for preaching the gospel. There was tremendous responsibility in being a witness of the resurrection. Most of these witnesses died for their faith. These men may have seen Jesus and had miraculous powers but most of them also suffered much. Do you still feel deprived?

“be not unbelieving, but believing”-the statement “be not” has the idea of stop showing yourself an unbeliever, stop acting like an unbeliever, rather, start acting like a believer. Be impressed that unbelief and belief are in the moral realm! The resurrection is a moral fact that demands a decision. ‘There must be no doubters among the men upon whom Jesus is to thrust the responsibility of establishing the church and preaching the gospel in the face of a whole world against it. There must not be the slightest hesitancy, question, or problem about His victory over death and Satan.’ (Butler pp. 434-435) Point To Note:

It is clear that the disciples of Jesus didn’t manufacture the idea that Jesus had been resurrected. We must reject any idea that the apostles had a hallucination or invented a resurrection story.

John 20:28 ‘Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”’ ‘Thomas answered and said’-It is all right to question things—but up to a point. Here we see the different between the doubtful man who wants to find the truth and the person who wants to find an excuse for not believing the truth. When confronted with the evidence, Thomas immediately accepted the evidence. Thomas didn’t say, ‘Let me think about it.’ Barclay notes, ‘Thomas’ other great virtue was that when he was sure, he went the whole way….There was no halfway house about Thomas. Thomas was not airing his doubts just for the sake of mental acrobatics; Thomas doubted in order to become sure.’ (pp. 321-322)

“My Lord and my God!”-Thomas isn’t saying ‘my God’ in the vulgar sense, just like he isn’t using the phrase ‘my Lord’ as an expletive. ‘my God’ must be in the same sense as ‘my Lord’. That is, Thomas realizes that Jesus is the Lord and that Jesus is God. ‘Thus belief in a risen Christ made a mourner into a missionary, a penitent into a preacher, the bereaved friend into an apostle of love, a timid and shrinking coterie of disciples into the fearless heralds of a new movement, and a doubter into a confessor.’ (Tenney p. 284) Points To Note: 1. Especially, for one from a Jewish background, this is quite an admission, for the Jewish people were monotheists. But Thomas didn’t feel that his confession was a contradiction of the truth that the Lord is One (Deut. 6:4). 2. Thomas’ confession perfectly agrees with the first verse of this Gospel, ‘the Word was God’ (1:1).

John 20:29 ‘Jesus said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”’ “Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed”Points To Note: 1. The above verse admits that men and women will be able to believe that Jesus is God without having to see Him. How will this be possible? This is where the gospel message comes in. 2. The above verse implies that there is more than sufficient evidence in the gospel message to convince honest hearts that Jesus is the Son of God. 3. Be impressed that God doesn’t have a problem with making the most important decision in your life on the basis of written testimony. ‘If men had to verify every basis of life or every statement of history to their own senses before they acted, virtually nothing would ever be accomplished! We could not all personally and minutely verify

everything we accept as fact…..We do not accept the fact that Washington was the first President of the United States of America on the basis of our own sight, but of the testimony of accredited witnesses.’ (Butler p. 435)

The Purpose Of This Gospel John 20:30 ‘Many other signs therefore Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book;’ ‘Many other signs’-Which means that the Gospels were never meant to be mere biographies of the life of Christ. This verse tells us why the Gospels are so brief and also why they omit various details concerning the life of Christ. ‘The narratives of the life of Christ are condensed in order to be the more effective. They are sufficient for the purpose of presenting adequate evidence, extensive enough to challenge a life-time of study, and yet not so voluminous as to over-whelm the reader with a mass of unnecessary records.’ (Butler p. 436)

‘Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples’-Carefully note that John wasn’t ignorant of these “other” signs, he knew about them, because he was there when they happened. In addition, he wasn’t the only witness of these miracles, many other witnesses also existed.

‘which are not written in this book’-Notice, this book has a definite purpose. ‘When John writes “in this book” he intimates that his readers know of other books, those of the other evangelists-----so that it was not necessary for John to duplicate those wellknown records.’ (Lenski p. 1395)

John 20:31 ‘but these have been written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God; and that believing you may have life in His name.’ ‘that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God’Points To Note: 1.

Once again note that the Bible wasn’t written to merely entertain. John isn’t writing a novel, he is writing something which has moral and eternal implications. 2. Faith is the result of hearing the Word of God (Romans 10:17). John doesn’t see the Holy Spirit as coming upon the unbeliever directly and convicting the individual, rather he sees people moving from the state of being unbelievers to being believers as the result of encountering the gospel message (Romans 1:16). 3. John isn’t

writing so that we could merely believe that Jesus lived, was a good man, or lived a life that should be remembered. Rather, the faith that results in salvation is the conviction that Jesus is the Son of God. And clearly in this context the statement ‘Son of God’ means the same thing as ‘God’. One must believe that Jesus is Divine to gain eternal life.

‘you may have life in His name’-Which means that spiritual life isn’t found outside of believing that Jesus is the Son of God. Notice the word ‘may’, God doesn’t force anyone to believe and neither does He force people to remain in unbelief. ‘it is worthy to note that John uses the present tense of the verb (believe) and so literally it means to believe and keep on believing..’ (Butler p. 437) These verses tell us that the person who approaches the Bible as simple history or merely as interesting reading material is approaching it with the wrong attitude. This book wasn’t written to put you to sleep at night, or give you something to look at when the fish aren’t biting, it was written to convict and convince.

Closing Observation ‘At the beginning of a class on the evaluation of court testimony, a law professor presented the following challenge to his students: “Prove that the woman whom you accept to be your natural mother actually gave birth to you.” The task seemed to be rather simple and within a few minutes almost all the students had constructed an apparently valid proof. In most cases the proof rested upon three lines of evidence: 1) a birth certificate bearing an official state seal, the name of the mother and birthdate, 2) the unanimous testimony of doctors, aquaintances and supposed relatives, and 3) common family traits. However, in the discussion of these proofs, the professor questioned each piece of evidence. Could not the birth certificate have been issued with errors or even falsified? Could there not be reasons why friends and relatives would desire to hide the truth about the birth and the real parents? With regard to common family traits, are there not people who look alike but who are not at all related? ……The professor wanted to demonstrate to his students that all “knowledge” of historical events which they had not personally experienced was based on the belief of testimony of witnesses.’ 1 The above illustration dramatically demonstrates how much “faith” we exercise on a daily basis, and that “faith” is not something just confined to the religious or spiritual realm. Everyday we accept as true things which we have never personally seen, in fact, everything that we believe concerning history is our faith in the testimony of witnesses. If a person can believe the events of secular history—based on the testimony of human, sometimes prejudicial and fallible witnesses. Then how much more is it is inexcusable for a man or woman to reject the testimony of inspired witnesses! Don’t tell me that you can’t believe what the Bible says----for you already believe a host of things supported by lesser evidence! 1

Is Modern Man A Believing Man? Lesson 1, p. 1 9