Shall we turn to John 20?
May the Lord give to us another vision
of the Risen Lord this morning.
John 20, verse
90.
Then the same day of the evening, being
the first day of the week, the word
week there is in the plural, When the
doors were shut, where the disciples were assembled
for fear of the Jews, came Jesus and
stood in the midst and said unto them,
Peace be unto you.
And when he had so said, he showed
unto them his hands and his side.
Then were the disciples glad when they saw
the Lord.
Then said Jesus to them again, Peace be
unto you.
As my Father hath sent me, even so
send I you.
And when he had said this, he breathed
on them and saith unto them, Receive ye
the Holy Ghost.
And whosoever sins ye remit, they are remitted
unto them.
And whosoever sins ye retain, they are retained.
But Thomas, one of the twelve called Didymus,
was not with them when Jesus came.
Now God will bless that short reading.
There are ten resurrection appearances and every appearance
had a transforming effect.
Do you remember the two on the road
to Emmaus?
Confused?
Confounded?
Was he risen or was he still dead?
And when the Lord revealed himself to them,
he changed all that confusion into wonderful enlightenment.
Do you remember the disciples?
They were fishing all night and caught nothing.
And one word from the risen Lord and
he changed barrenness into fruitfulness.
Their net was full of fish.
Here the disciples were assembled because of fear.
And now we are going to see him
changing fear into wonderful boldness and courage.
Note first of all the time, then the
same day of evening.
Matthew puts it beautifully, at the end of
the Sabbath as it began to dawn toward
the first day of the week.
The word Sabbath is in the plural and
the word weeks are in the plural.
What does it mean?
The end of the old economy with all
its tights and shadow.
Now everything is fulfilled in Christ.
And Christ is the head of the new
creation.
He is taking us away from the shadows.
He is bringing us into the substance.
He is taking us away from darkness.
He is bringing us into light.
You see the Sabbath day began in the
evening and closed in the evening.
But the resurrection day began as the sun
was just about to shine.
And that's the light in which we live
in.
Another interesting thing.
The first word that the Lord said on
the occasion of the resurrection was woman.
Woman.
Not man.
Woman.
Now what does the word woman mean?
It means out of man of a high
degree.
Think of that.
That's important.
Here was a woman nearing before him and
when the Lord first met her she had
seven devils and all signs of the dignity
of womanhood was lost.
She was ugly.
With seven demons.
He exercised that woman and now we see
the results of his death.
There's a woman out of whom he had
cast seven devils.
Won't it be a wonderful day when we
stand before the Beamer when after the Beamer
and all the blemishes are dealt with we
shall be presented to him as a bride
without spot, without wrinkle and without a blemish
and yes a woman out of man of
a high degree and it will all be
the fruit of Calvary.
Let's go on.
There was darkness when the Lord came in
that room but he was going to bring
light and all through that resurrection day he
was showing himself on five occasions to the
disciples and when the darkness was about to
fall now he meets them again.
Beloved, we are living in the last seconds
of the last day.
We can see the darkness of the tribulation
beginning to come but before it comes we
shall be taken and we shall live in
the light of his presence forever.
Notice now the place.
The tomb was empty and that's an epitome
of divine power.
The door was closed because of fear and
that's an analysis of weakness.
What a contra.
When the Lord Jesus was raised from among
the dead he was the first man to
be raised from the dead in resurrection power.
When he went back to heaven he went
back to heaven as the forerunner.
That meant hundreds would follow behind him.
And there's a man in the glory, that's
wonderful.
And because there's one man there there's going
to be millions there.
He is the first fruit and the first
beginning from among the dead or the first
born from among the dead.
And then secondly look at the disciples.
They were shut in for fear.
Now that's weakness, terrible weakness.
Here was an empty tomb that speaks of
the analysis of God's power because he was
raised by power, Romans 1.
Secondly God put all the glory of his
own nature in the resurrection.
He was raised by glory.
Now we see the disciples shut in because
of fear.
How is he going to release?
First of all he comes through a door
without the door being opened.
That's new.
He came out of the sepulcher without the
stone being rolled away.
But now he's going through a door without
the door being opened.
What does this tell us?
He is now irresistible.
Nothing can stop him.
All power belongs to him.
And so the irresistible Christ moves through a
closed door and not a word of rebuke.
He uses first of all the Jewish salutation.
Peace be unto you.
Then eventually he shows them his hands inside
and he says peace the second time.
But this is peace through the blood and
that means peace multiplied again and again and
again and it's all through the blood.
So we thank God for that.
Now he comes among the disciples and as
we watch him the movements really are profound.
They had never seen Christ like this before.
They had seen him in the midst and
there he is arguing with the Pharisees and
defeating them.
They had seen him in the midst healing
the people in their hundreds.
They had seen him in the midst when
he was speaking with power the sermon on
the mount.
They saw him on the center cross but
now look at him.
He stands among them in his risen power
and at the same time he propounds to
them the meaning of Calvary.
That's what the Lord's doing this morning.
He's not going to the cross, he's come
from the cross.
He stands among us in all his risen
power saying to us now as we sit
here I am he that lives and became
dead and behold I am alive forevermore and
have the keys of death and healing.
He stands there in his power and yet
at the same time we see his wounded
hands and his wounded side.
Those disciples must have all said with Isaiah
wounded for our transgression bruised for our iniquity
and then not only did they see that
they saw the travail of his soul.
Why?
They were all born of him for that's
the meaning of the word travail birth pain
and here is the remnant of the church
of God.
He stands in their midst showing them his
hands and so on.
You know what I believe brethren I believe
when the Spirit's really moving in mighty power
the Lord stands before us and we see
him by faith and we quietly say again
wounded for me.
Only the Spirit can reveal that.
And then we read when the disciples saw
him then they were glad.
Now I love my authorised but it's very
tame there.
It means they were jubilantly happy.
In fact some go deeper but I'm not
going to share that with you because it's
dangerous.
But they were jubilantly happy.
There was the risen Lord there he was
the one who had triumphed over death.
He had already dealt with sin and dealt
with Satan and there he stands among them
and they see the wound marks.
They were full of holy joy.
Beloved we've had a lovely time this morning
I don't want to spoil the meeting but
there should be more joy.
Where are the hallelujahs?
Where is the praise of the Lord?
You know it's wonderful when God's people see
the beloved one standing in their midst risen
from the dead having dealt with all the
enemies.
We should be full of holy joy.
Joy unspeakable.
Full of glory.
And then he did this remarkable thing and
when he had said this peace he went
up to them and he breathed.
That must have been profound.
Visualize it.
He breathes on them and properly went from
one to the other breathing.
What was he doing?
What does it mean?
Do you remember when he made Adam he
made him in good shape and form.
He was the masterpiece of his creation but
he was dead until what?
He breathed into his nostrils the breath of
life.
Not life.
Life.
What does that mean?
Adam was the federal head of the human
race and therefore he sees in Adam the
whole of the human race.
Unfortunately he disobeyed God therefore in Adam all
die.
But now here is the last Adam.
The new man.
And he breathes upon them.
And what does that mean?
Receive the Holy Spirit and they received the
Holy Spirit on the day of Pentecost.
But something more than that that breath was
saying something like this My death has become
your death.
My burial has become your burial.
My life has become your life.
So that we are one with him.
And brethren we are going to be so
one with him one day we are going
to be like him.
Isn't that beautiful?
Just like the Lord Jesus.
His breathed on us and said receive ye
the Holy Spirit.
So Paul puts it beautifully In Adam all
die.
In Christ all are made alive.
But there is a complication.
He gives them their marching orders to forgive
sin.
Not that they forgive it.
But they have the authority to say when
a man kneels down in penitence that your
sins are forgiven.
It's God alone that forgives.
We confirm the work that he has done.
But Thomas wasn't there.
Isn't that sad?
Think what he meant.
The word Didymus means a twin.
So what does that mean?
Probably Thomas had a twin brother.
Just like him.
But there were 500 that saw the Lord
on one occasion.
But when the Holy Spirit came in Acts
chapter 2 there were only 120.
Where were the 380?
They weren't there.
Beloved don't be just the bread breakers.
Be right in the meeting.
The bread breakers have brought more damage to
us than anything else.
In London we had 120 assemblies and nearly
every assembly had over a hundred in it.
And it was just coming Sunday morning that
closed it all to her.
Now let's be very careful.
When God calls the church together be there.
Look what he meant.
But thank God God in his love drew
him in.
And he could say my Lord and my
God.
May the Lord teach us all at his
feet to say sincerely my Lord and my
God.
Amen.