WHAT’S THE BIG DEAL ABOUT PROOF?
“Now, let me ask you something profound yet troubling. If you became believers because you trusted the proclamation that Christ is alive, risen from the dead, how can you let people say that there is no such thing as a resurrection? If there’s no resurrection, there’s no living Christ. And face it—if there’s no resurrection for Christ, everything we’ve told you is smoke and mirrors, and everything you’ve staked your life on is smoke and mirrors. Not only that, but we would be guilty of telling a string of barefaced lies about God, all these affidavits we passed on to you verifying that God raised up Christ—sheer fabrications, if there’s no resurrection. If corpses can’t be raised, then Christ wasn’t, because he was indeed dead. And if Christ wasn’t raised, then all you’re doing is wandering about in the dark, as lost as ever.” I Corinthians 15:12-17 The Message
A) The linen wrappings are empty…but not unraveled! The tomb is empty…but required an earthquake to remove the stone ‘door’ and reveal the emptiness. Christ is ‘gone’ but no one claims they moved him. The four Gospels, plus the entire New Testament and prophecies of the Old Testament declare the bodily resurrection of Jesus. Everything about the new covenant hinges on the resurrection being believed!
B) The 11 disciples were in a huge panic and were desperately afraid of the Jews coming after them. They had no confidence, much fear and no goal, purpose or idea of what to do next other than to survive and get out of Jerusalem alive.
C) John 20 & 21 reveals many details that the other Gospels didn’t reveal. Apparently Mary and some other women arrived first to the tomb to discover that the stone had been removed: ”taken out of the groove and lying flat on the ground.” She runs to Simon Peter and the other disciple, for whom Jesus had affection, and tells them the Lord is gone and doesn’t know where “they” [meaning the Jews] have taken him. Then Peter and John started for the tomb [walking] and meet the other women who came with the angels’ message and then they begin running! John beats Peter to the tomb…and looks inside.
D) What John sees from the entrance is enough to stop him…the linen bands lying wholly undisturbed in their proper place with the body of Jesus Christ gone out of them! Peter arrives and walks right in. [Some believe Peter’s slow run was due to his guilt, but the fact that he walks right in when he arrives negates that idea.] Peter beholds the same thing, including the face cloth…apart and folded up in a place by itself. Neither had been cut or stripped off. This detail reveals to the two that it was not someone who moved the body.
E) John according to John 20:6 “went in also, ….and he saw and believed.” John was not any different from Thomas. He believed, after he saw, but his faith was weak. He didn’t open his mouth to Peter and said nothing to the others after he reached home. None of the eleven believed the testimony of the women and Mary Magdalene. John failed to speak and confess. His faith could not rise above his doubts; he was only one step removed from unbelief. John explains in 20:9 why he had to see before he believed: “For not yet knew they the Scriptures that he must rise from the dead.”
F) Peter according to Luke 24:12 “went home, wondering at what has occurred.” The disciples followed their own thoughts, [view or perspective as lined up with their beliefs] even when Jesus spoke plainly to them … many times! See Luke 18:31-34.
G) This reveals the “minor value” of signs! They are only steppingstones to faith. The real basis of faith is “the Scripture,” the revealed and inspired word of God. Even the appearances of Jesus to the disciples are to convince them, not by their mere reality alone, but as fulfillment of the Scriptures. Lenski
H) These scriptures include Ps 16:10, Ps 2:7, Ps 110:1 & 4. In Luke 24:44 we see that Jesus used “the law of Moses”, the prophets, and the Psalms. John says here what Jesus told the Sadducees in Matthew 22:29 “Ye do err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God.”
I) What God promises he is morally bound to fulfill!! In Rom. 1:4; Eph. 1:19-20; Phil.3:10 this power is further emphasized. Beside the moral necessity, we place the power of God and the necessity of God’s own will which carries His purpose into effect so that no question about it can possibly arise. Lenski
J) The evidence left in the tomb was so great that John had a certain degree of faith, but verse 20:10 reveals that they “went away again to their own home.” Verses 11-18 discuss Jesus and his appearance to Mary Magdalene. [“The Shepherd calleth his sheep by name…” “Mary!” brought instant recognition]
K) To Mary, Jesus gives a higher message than he gave to the women whom he met on their return from the tomb. They were to announce the meeting of Jesus with the disciples in Galilee, she is to tell the disciples of the Father, the glorified Master ascending on high, and of all the disciples lifted to his side as brethren. Prior to his resurrection Jesus had called his disciples ‘friends’. 20:17: “But be going to my brethren and tell them…” reveals a new, higher and permanent relation now begins.
“If now Christ is our brother, I would like to know what we still lack? Brethren in the flesh have common possessions, have together one father, one inheritance, otherwise they would not be brethren; so we have common possessions with Christ and have together one Father and one inheritance, which does not grow less when divided, but whoever has one part of the spiritual inheritance has it all.” Martin Luther
Much was revealed on the morning, day and evening of Christ’s resurrection:
- Mary Magdalene and friends visited tomb and found stone removed!
- Mary turned and hurried back to tell the disciples.
- other women enter tomb and see angels & receive message “Go to Galilee” [Mat.27:7]
- Peter & John start for tomb, John runs ahead; sees linen wholly undisturbed & face cloth folded and set apart. [Joh. 20:7]
- Peter arrives and enters and then returns home-unbelieving. [Joh 20:10]
- Mary Magdalene stays at the tomb [v11]
- She enters tomb and sees two angels at head and foot of stone where Jesus was laid. They ask “why are you crying?” [v 12]
- next sees Jesus himself; “Why are you crying?” [v 15]
- She thinks he’s the gardener as she looks at him.
- Jesus calls her name: “Mary!” and she know him instantly- “Rabbuni” [v16]
- Jesus tells her “Go tell my brethren…” [v17 and Mat 28:10]
- two disciples going to Emmaus and Christ, [Luke 24:15]
- Christ: “beginning at Moses and all the prophets …& all the scriptures the things concerning himself.” [“And has appeared to Simon.” Luke 24:34]
- But still this did not produce faith among the disciples! [Luke 24:11 and 22]
- While they were telling this story, Christ stood in the midst of them -1st Time- and said “Peace be unto you” but they were terrified and affrighted. See Luke 24:34-41. [The appearance and the preposition imply no motion. He didn’t walk through the walls.] He revealed himself to 10 of the disciples and “he showed his hands and his side to them. The disciples therefore were glad because they saw the Lord.”
- Jesus appearing to Peter is mentioned 2x’s, but never discussed. See also I Cor. 15:5
- Eight days later -2nd Time- Thomas examines w/ eyes & hands. Believes! [John 20:24-29] Why was he absent the first time?
“Apparently it was because of his obstinate refusal to believe.” The ‘other disciples’ kept laboring to convince Thomas…beginning to act as Jesus’ witnesses, beginning the work of evangelizing and making the start with the unbeliever in their midst. “We have seen the Lord.” The tense used conveys more than the ‘fact’; it communicates the fact and the sight is a present and continuing effect.The disciples had to be convinced of Christ’s identity, which the wounds established; of the reality of his body, which was proved when they handled his body and he ate before them; and the Peace he proclaimed was a ‘forgiving’ of them fleeing when Christ was betrayed. They had given up their faith. Not all doubt was quickly overcome and Jesus appeared again and again, intensifying faith and joy until nothing could ever disturb the solid certainty." Lenski
Unbelief always was and always will be unreasonable and is glaringly plain in the case of Thomas. The unanimous testimony by people whose character he knew so well amounted to nothing. The fact that they had all been just as ignorant and surprised about Jesus’ resurrection and then been convinced by overwhelming evidence causes Thomas to become more stubborn and obstinate. He challenges the evidence…”they have only seen – seeing doesn’t count”. He demands two lines of evidence: seeing and feeling with his own finger and his own hand, in two different places. He demands what he thinks is a real test; what the other disciples claim to have is not nearly enough for him.
Here the silliness of unbelief comes into view. If sight can be deceived, which takes in so much, what assurance has Thomas that feeling, which takes in far less, will not also be deceived? Here is the pride, haughtiness and arrogance of unbelief: it sets up a criterion of its own. 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. It is actuated by an unreasoning and unreasonable will, a secret, stubborn determination, unacknowledged by the unbeliever himself, not to believe. Lenski
Verse 26 says that the doors are locked again, ‘outer and inner’, implying the same place and a continued fear of the Jews, and shows that the courage of the disciples didn’t grow so rapidly. They probably were not expecting another appearance of Jesus. It is for Thomas’ sake Jesus has come, but it’s for all to see and hear. Jesus three statements correspond to the exact three demands Thomas had made in verse 25. This alone is a testimony! Our wonderful Jesus meets the outrageous demands of this disciple to the letter.
He is offering to all these disciples “many infallible proofs” of his resurrection [Acts 1:3] as the foundation for the faith of the church of all future ages. They were made witnesses [Acts 2:32; 3:15] whose testimony was to stand as unassailable in all future ages. Jesus knew that Thomas would have many successors in all ages and if “one of the Twelve” had been left with any degree of doubt as regards the resurrection of Jesus, the effect would be bad for all time to come!
By compelling Thomas to use his finger and hand, Jesus is not punishing him. He had done the same thing for the other disciples a week earlier. I John 1:1 says: “and our hands have handled of the Word of life.” Thomas gave Christ full acceptance of his Lordship and resurrection, and Christ accepts it when he says “thou hast believed”.
18.
The 3rd appearance of Jesus to seven of the disciples is recorded as an addendum of John’s Gospel in chapter 21. “Meet me at the beach…at the sea of Tiberius.” [sea of Galilee] Remember the first time Jesus told Simon to row out and throw out his net after an all night “zero” catch? [Luke 5:6]
19.
John recognizes Jesus on shore and tells Peter
20.
Jesus is cooking them breakfast: live coals, fish and bread! [Joh. 21]
21.
I John 1:1; Rom. 4:24-25; Rom. 10:9; He’s Alive and I’m Forgiven!
