Another Vision of the Risen Lord

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.