June 10, 2021
Please use the comment section on this page to share insights from today’s reading OR your own personal Bible reading.
Reading along with us in John? Here’s today’s reading:
John 20 (NIV)
The Empty Tomb
1 Early on the first day of the week, while it was still dark, Mary Magdalene went to the tomb and saw that the stone had been removed from the entrance. 2 So she came running to Simon Peter and the other disciple, the one Jesus loved, and said, “They have taken the Lord out of the tomb, and we don’t know where they have put him!”........Continue Reading
I picture the disciples locked up in that room in fear of what might happen to them now that Jesus had been crucified and the amazement they must have experienced when Jesus shows up RISEN! For Jesus to speak to them and bring them peace and breathe the Holy Spirit onto them must have been so powerful in such a dark hour for them. And now they see the plan and it comes together and they realize all the things Jesus had been saying are now happening and it became so real!
29Then Jesus told him, “Because you have seen me, you have believed; blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed.”
We can read this and believe even though we were not there but we have experienced His power in our lives in so many other ways! Faith over fear everyday!
John 20
Aaaahhhhh. Easter morning!! All biographies would end in chapter 19. Only person in history to resurrect Proves he was The son of God. The disciples still didn’t get it. Neither did we until it was revealed to us. A risen physical Christ gives us new life. Spiritual. The stubbornness of the chief priest is beyond comprehension. His apostles must have stole the body. That tomb was guarded by Roman soldiers. You think any apostle of Christ is going to go near that tomb after his cruciifiction. There’s only one conclusion. He Is risen!!!!
Oh yeah. And three times PEACE BE WITH YOU!! Do We get it. Peace be with all of us. The Risen Christ is in control and abides in us. Beyond words!!!
John 20
John 20 – He Has Risen!!! In my early walk I always thought of myself as doubting Thomas, show me, was always how I felt I wasn’t very trusting but as you read Thomas allowed Jesus to bring him to belief, and the same for me Jesus led me to believe by his words and the Holy Spirit, and here in this chapter Jesus breathed on them and had them receive the Holy Spirit, so they could go on to give the good news and teach about forgiveness.
How familiar these accounts are to us and yet how absolutely amazing and wonderful that they are! It is funny that John says three times that he beat Peter to the tomb, but it struck me that even upon seeing Him missing, they don’t presume that He was raised. They only come to conclusions that they can understand….He is not here…so someone must have moved Him. It is only after they see Him alive that they get the point, He is risen! It is such an incredible aspect of the Christian life that God allows us to believe Him for and see the IMPOSSIBLE! Just imagine how incredible it was for them when they saw Him alive. How incredible for Thomas’ doubt to be turned to the obvious declaration My Lord and my God! May it be our declaration as well as we too believe that He is alive!
I saw some things here that I hadn’t seen before.
Jesus appears to Mary and tells her not to touch Him yet because He had not ascended yet. Had she caught Him at the very point where he exited the tomb but had not received an ascended body? Later he appears to the disciples and tells Thomas to touch His hands and side. Had he ascended and come back for a time before ascending to heaven in Acts 1?
Also, Jesus breaths on them to receive the Holy Spirit, but He had not ascended yet or told them to wait for the Holy Spirit as He did in Acts 1. Is this a special temporary dispensation of the HS to the disciples in the meantime?
“So Jesus said to them again, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” 22 And when He had said this, He breathed on them, and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit. 23 If you forgive the sins of any, they are forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they are retained.”
“And truly Jesus did many other signs in the presence of His disciples, which are not written in this book; 31 but these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in His name.” I would love to know all that Jesus did in the presence of the disciples, but there is already so much in His word for us to discover and know!
30Jesus performed many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not recorded in this book. 31But these are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in his name.