We ended last week with the resurrected Messiah’s appearance to Mary Magdalene. Toward the end of that same day, Yeshua makes His first appearance to His disciples. They are in hiding, afraid that the Jewish leaders will not be satisfied with just killing Yeshua, but arresting and executing them as well. Let’s begin with verse 19:
So when 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 – meaning the Jewish authorities, Yeshua came and stood in their midst – I love that. It’s so simple. It’s so clear. The disciples were somewhere by themselves, behind closed doors, and suddenly Yeshua came and stood in their midst! Mary Magdalene’s report was true. Yeshua was alive and risen from the dead!
And He said to them, “Shalom alechem – peace be with you.” It’s a good thing for the disciples that I am not the Lord. My first words to them would have been something like, “I am so disappointed in you! I warned you over and over again that I was going to be betrayed, arrested and executed, but you didn’t believe me. In my time of need you didn’t stand by me. You abandoned me, and denied me. What good are you? Get lost boys. It’s time I find some more reliable disciples.”
But I am not the Lord. And, I love Yeshua’s first gracious words to the disciples. The risen Messiah reassures them that He doesn’t hate them. He is not angry with them. He doesn’t want to destroy them or replace them for abandoning and denying Him. He greets them with the traditional “shalom alechem” – expressing that He wants them to experience the wholeness, completeness and the well-being that God wants them to have.
Then, the very next thing that the Son of Man and the Son of God does is give His disciples physical evidence of His physical, bodily resurrection. And when He had said this, He showed them both His hands and His side. It’s the same Yeshua, who was with them, who taught them, who did miracles, who was arrested, tried, beaten, nailed to a cross and pierced by a sword. It’s the same Yeshua who really suffered. It’s the same Yeshua who really died. It’s the same Yeshua who is now alive, in a glorified, resurrected, immortal body. But a body that forever will bear the marks of His suffering.
Throughout eternity the redeemed ones – Jews and Gentiles, you and I, will have perfect, glorified, immortal bodies (I’m certainly looking forward to mine – more and more each year!). Everyone will have a perfect body – except Messiah Yeshua, who will forever bear the marks of His earthly suffering, an eternal reminding us what it cost the Son of God to enable us to have our perfect bodies.
So, the disciples knew that it really was the Adon, the Lord Yeshua. The disciples then rejoiced when they saw the Lord. They rejoiced. Even though their circumstances hadn’t changed – their lives were still at risk; they were still in hiding; their lives were still uncertain, but now they rejoiced. They had joy. They were happy. What made the difference? Now they knew that Yeshua was really alive, victorious, and they would be victorious, and forever alive too! Do you have that same knowledge? Do you have that same happiness, no matter what your circumstances are?
Yeshua speaks to them a second time: So Yeshua said to them again, “Peace be with you;”
For the second time, Yeshua reassures them that they are at peace with Him and God the Father. For the second time, Yeshua blesses them with the traditional “shalom alechem” – He really wants them to experience the wholeness, completeness and the well-being that God intends them to have. Especially, since He is about to entrust them with a great task:
As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” God the Father sent God the Son into the world to reveal the true God to the world, and to redeem humanity – to save those human beings who were chosen before the world was created. Just as the Father sent the Son into the world, so Messiah in turn sends us out into the world, and with the same mission: to tell them about the only true God, and about the Messiah, the Savior; like Yeshua, to tell them the good news about salvation; like Yeshua, to warn people about Heaven and Hell, sin and death; like Yeshua, to call men and women everywhere to turn to God, to turn away from their sins, to change their minds about the Lord; like Yeshua, to seek and save those who are lost, doing works of mercy and kindness, which reveals God’s good name to them.
As the Father has sent Me, I also send you.” We have the same task that God gave to Yeshua. Is that your mission in life? Is this what is really important to you? If you get that better job, is it so that you can reach those people in that new place that you will be working with? If you are paid more, do you see it as God’s provision so that you can give more to help reach the world?
To help us, equip us, and empower us to fulfill this great task, we have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And when He had said this, He breathed on them and said to them, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
Just as in the beginning, the Lord God breathed on man the breath of life, and man became a living being, so Yeshua breathing on His disciples is a new Genesis, a fresh beginning in life for humanity. Thank God for this great new beginning, this fantastic fresh start, made possible by His Son! And, thanks be to God and His Son for the many new beginning in our own individuals lives. Just as mankind sinned, and needed a fresh start, so too we all sin, and desperately need a new beginning, and sometimes another new beginning, and another, and another. Though a righteous man falls seven times, the Almighty is there each time to help Him with a new beginning.
Notice that it is the risen Messiah who breathed on them and gave them His Holy Spirit. You can’t give someone the holy Spirit of God. I can’t. No religious leader can. Angels and archangels can’t. Only God can give the Spirit. So, if Yeshua gives the Holy Spirit, He can only be God, fully divine, filled to overflowing with the Holy Spirit, able to give the blessed Holy Spirit of God to all who believe in Him, and come to Him.
A new mission; a greater indwelling of the Holy Spirit; and now, a new measure authority: If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them; if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.
Only God can forgive sins – not us – no religious leader. But, the resurrected Messiah gives the true leaders of His Holy Community of Jews and Gentiles authority to represent Him with forgiveness or lack of forgiveness. Just like Yeshua is forgiving them, but not Judas, Yeshua gives them His authority to welcome someone into Messiah’s Holy Community, or to keep them out of the Community, if the leaders, operating in the power of the Holy Spirit, deem him to be a danger to the Community.
John tells us that only ten of the disciples were there that first day – one was missing. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them when Yeshua came. So the other disciples were saying to him, “We have seen the Lord!” But he said to them, “Unless I 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.”
Thomas is what we might call a realist, or an objectivist. The testimony of his ten friends is not enough. He only wants to believe in facts, in evidence he can see or touch. If he can’t see Yeshua, or touch Yeshua, he won’t believe that Messiah has come back to life. Can Thomas become a believer in Yeshua? Can a man like this ever become convinced that Yeshua of Nazareth overcame death, is alive now and forever?
Yeshua’s third appearance comes eight days later. After eight days His disciples were again inside, and Thomas with them. Yeshua came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, “Peace be with you.” King Messiah again, for the third time, reassures them of peace, that all is well between Him and them. For those of you who like patterns, and numbers, let me point out that there are three denials of Peter, three declarations of innocence by Pilate, three resurrection appearances to His disciples, three shalom alechems, and three declarations of Peter’s love.
Thomas is there, and sees Yeshua for the first time. Then Yeshua said to Thomas, “Reach here with your finger, and see My hands; and reach here your hand and put it into My side; and do not be unbelieving, but believing.” Thomas answered and said to Him, “My Lord and my God!”
Thomas sees Yeshua, beyond the reach of death, alive, glorious, and he comes to the right conclusion: that Yeshua is Lord and God! Just an expression? No. Blasphemy? Certainly not! It is the inspired truth, that the Spirit of God is trying to bring to every Jew, every Gentile, every man, and every woman for the past 2,000 years.
This is the high point of the path to faith in this book. Ironically, the greatest declaration of faith comes from “Doubting Thomas.” Let me add that tradition says that this same Thomas was the one of the apostles who took the Good News the furthest, taking the Message of the Message farther than any of the other Emissaries. Tradition tells us that Thomas went to Assyria, and their King Abgar repented for his people and in the First Century Assyria became one of the very first, if not the first nation, to turn to the Messiah. Then Thomas went even further east, and began Messiah’s Holy Community in India. To this day many Christians from India have Thomas as their first or last name in honor of this great apostle!
And this should be encouraging to each one of us who know a Doubting Thomas. If Yeshua could convince the first Doubting Thomas, and use him so greatly, He can convince the Doubting Thomases that you know! I don’t know what it will take, but I do know that He is capable of doing it!
I would have liked to have been there with Thomas, and seen Yeshua with my own eyes. Wouldn’t you? But not all will be blessed with the sight of the Messiah in this life. A few may – Yeshua later appeared to 500 others, and to James, and to Paul. And, I’ve heard some stories over the years from a few in our day who claim to have seen Yeshua. But, for the vast majority, He won’t appear to them, and it’s not necessary.
Yeshua said to him, “Because you have seen Me, have you believed? Blessed are they who did not see, and yet believed.”
It’s blessed, full of wonder and resulting is many good things, to see the risen Yeshua and then believe in Him. It’s even more blessed, even more full of grace and wonder and glory, resulting in many many good things, to believe in Him without seeing Him with your physical eyes. Do you?
In this great, great Book, John has recorded several miracles that Yeshua did:
Yeshua sees Nathan’el before He comes into His presence demonstrating His foreknowledge, and His power over distance.
Yeshua knows the Samaritan woman’s history, showing His supernatural knowledge, and that He is able to know our minds.
Yeshua turns water to wine, and walks on water, proving His power over nature, and that He is the Lord of Creation who is the Source of our joy.
Yeshua heal the official’s son, showing that Yeshua is our healer, and that He is not limited by distance.
Yeshua heals the paralyzed man, demonstrating once again that He can restore us from the ruin sin has brought to us.
Yeshua feeds the multitude with five loaves of bread, and two fish, proving that He is our provider.
Yeshua gives sight to the blind man, communicating that He is the One who can help us see God, see truth and spiritual realities.
Yeshua raises Lazarus from the dead, which tells us that this One is the Lord of life and death.
Yeshua’s resurrection is the greatest sign, communicating to the whole world that He is the Messiah, the Son of God, who is faithful and truth, righteous and innocent and just, the One whom God loves and approves of, victorious over sin and death, the Lord of all.
But John also want us to know that these miracles were only the tip of the iceberg: Therefore many other signs Yeshua also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book; but these are enough. They accomplish God’s purposes. They have been written so that you may believe that Yeshua is the Messiah – that great human being sent by God, that Son of King David destined to restore humanity; to bring us back to the true knowledge of God; to save us body, soul and spirit; to rule over Israel and the nations, to bring peace to the entire world; the Son of God – God’s Son, who is fully God, who shares God’s name and nature, deity and essence;
And that believing – that decision to learn about God and Messiah, and then put our faith, our trust, our confidence, our knowledge, our understanding, in God the Father, and in Yeshua. It is not enough to just believe in God. We must equally believe in Yeshua, that He died, and is alive, and is fully Man, and fully God, and the only Savior.
And if you do, you may have life – not the tepid kind, weakly, sickly kind of half-life people in this world have, a shadowy life, a life filled with sin and rebellion, a messed up life, a life that is displeasing to God, a temporary life, a life unconnected to God – Ha Makor, the Source our true life, eternal life, a life of eternal joy and bliss.
But true life, a life connected to God, a life that lasts forever, a life full of peace and joy and never-ending bliss, only comes about in His name – in the name of Yeshua, which means being connected to Yeshua, coming under His power and authority, acknowledging who He really is.
Life doesn’t come in the name of Judaism, or Buddha, or Krishna, or Mohammed, or in any other name, but only in the name of Yeshua. Do you believe in that name? Are you connected to that name?