Let us turn again to God's Word
in that portion of Scripture that we read in John, the Gospel
according to St. John chapter 20. And I want,
this morning with the Lord's help, to direct you for a while
to the verses 19 and 20. John 20, 19 and 20. Then the same day, that evening,
being the first day of the week, when the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst, and saith 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. I want to say something with
regards to the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ here in the
resurrection from the dead, Christ's authority in the resurrection. Last week we were considering
words in the previous chapters, in chapter 18 and there at verse
4 following, and then again in chapter 19 at verse 13, and we
considered as a theme the authority of the Lord Jesus Christ in relation
to His death, in relation to His crucifixion. Remember there,
at the beginning of chapter 18, as they come to arrest Him in
the Garden of Gethsemane, He announces Himself. He declares
the truth of His deity, where He says to them, on those three
occasions, umsikhi, and he says, they say Jesus of Nazareth, and
he says, I am he, but the he, as we observed, has been introduced
in the translation, literally he says to them, I am. He declares himself to be the
eternal son of God, the Lord himself. And then we considered
in the evening those words that he utters from the cross as he
yields up the ghost, as he commits his soul into the hands of God. He said it is finished. And he
bowed his head and gave up the ghost, we're told in verse 30
there in chapter 19. We see then that no man was able
to take that life from him. He was the one who had power,
he had authority from God to lay that life down and he had
power and authority to take that life again. And now we come to
this 20th chapter and here we see something of that authority
in the resurrection. He is risen again from the dead
as Mary Magdalene comes early to the sepulchre. She discovers
that the stone has been taken away and the sepulchre is empty. Christ's authority then in the
resurrection. The first thing I want to observe
is how He altogether overcomes death. He altogether overcomes
death. Mary, the disciples, they all
go to the sepulchre. Remember what Luke says concerning
the words of the angels. There in Luke 24 5. Why seek
ye the living among the dead? He is not here. He is risen. But then he does show to them
the marks of his death, the reality of that dying is shown to them. And we have that here in the
words that I've announced for our text in verse 20. He says,
"...he showed unto them his hands and his sides." "...he showed
unto them his hands and his sides." These are the very marks of the
reality of his crucifixion. And we're told that they crucified
Him. He is that Lamb slain from the
foundation of the world. That Lamb that John sees there
in the book of the Revelation, a Lamb as it had been slain. And when John first sees the
glorified Christ, remember in chapter 1 of the Revelation,
He falls at His feet as dead. And the Lord lays his hand upon
him and says, Fear not. I am the first and I am the last.
I am he that liveth and was dead. And behold, I am alive forevermore. Amen. And have the keys of hell
and of death. I am he that live as he says,
and was dead. He really experienced death. It was a real death that the
Lord Jesus died, but death was not able to hold him. Dying,
he then conquers death. He rises again from the dead. Now, we see in Scripture quite
clearly that there is a threefold aspect to death. there is what
we might say is a spiritual death, a physical death, and an eternal
death. And the Lord Jesus, in a sense,
experiences all of those deaths. What is that spiritual death?
Well, that spiritual death, of course, is separation from God. And this was what God made quite
plain to Adam there in the garden of Edom when he spoke concerning
any disobedience in respect to the tree of the knowledge of
good and evil. In the day that thou eatest thereof,
says God, thou shalt surely die. And we have the record, Genesis
chapter 3, of disobedience, the temptation by the serpents, the
instrument of Satan, coming to the woman, the woman falling,
partaking of that forbidden fruit, passing the fruit to Adam, and
Adam also with open eyes, eating of that forbidden fruit. And so there was a death that
was immediate in the day, that thou eatest thereof, thou shalt
surely die, says the Lord God. There was a death. It was a spiritual
death. And what was that spiritual death?
It was that awful separation between Adam and Eve and God. No more in fellowship with God.
And there at the beginning of Genesis 3, we see when God comes
into the garden at verse 8, they're aware of their nakedness, and
they try to hide themselves. They hide themselves from the
presence of God. They have no desire now for real fellowship
with God. And then, when we come to the
end of that third chapter, our God drives them out of the garden. They're dismissed from paradise.
What was that paradise? Well, that paradise was fellowship
with God. God would come into the garden.
God would meet with them. But now there is that awful separation. there is spiritual death. And
there is that sense in which the Lord Jesus Christ also knew
an awful separation upon the cross. Nor He suffers much at
the hands of men. And yet, what are those sufferings
in comparison to what He must endure at the hand of His God,
His Father? my God, my God, he says, why
hast thou forsaken me? And yet, all this aspect of his
death is so necessary because he has come to reconcile the
sinner. The purpose of his dying is that
he might deal with that matter of their separation, their spiritual
death, and that he might reconcile sinners unto God. It's such a
vital part of the work of the Lord Jesus Christ, that of reconciliation. And see how Paul, writing to
the Colossians, speaks of it. There in Colossians chapter 1 at verse 20, speaks
of Christ making peace through the blood of his cross, by him
to reconcile all things unto himself, By him I say, whether
they be things in earth or things in heaven, and you that were
sometime alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works,
Yet now hath He reconciled in the body of His flesh through
death to present you holy and unblameable and unreprovable
in His sight. Oh, what does sin do? Sin separates. Your iniquities have separated
between you and your God. Your sins have hid His face from
you. But the Lord Jesus brings those
who are in that state of enmity and alienation back to God. He reconciles the sinner to God. This is the fruit of his sufferings. He knew then, in that sense,
that spiritual death, when he makes that dreadful cry from
the cross, feeling so derelict in his own soul, my God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me? The mystery, or the mystery of
the death of the Lord Jesus Christ. as there the experience is a
real separation. We cannot really begin to understand
that, because as he dies he is the God-man. We cannot separate those two
natures in the person of the Lord Jesus, and it's the person
of Christ who dies, And so he is never anything less than the
eternal Son of God. And we know there can be no separation
between the persons in the Godhead, because God is One. And yet,
the reality of the experience of spiritual death that we see
there in the experience of the Lord Jesus Christ. And all of
this, you see, that he might overcome. always overcome that
dreadful curse that came upon our first parents, in the day
that thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die. But now in
Christ there is that reconciliation, in Christ there is that new life,
that eternal life. But as the Lord Jesus experienced
that aspect of of death, so in the second place he also knew
a physical death. And what is physical death? It
is the separation of the soul from the body. When the Lord God makes the man,
we know how he forms him out of the dust of the earth, we
have the record there in Genesis chapter 2, he forms his body,
he breathes into him the breath of life, and he becomes a living
soul, body and soul together. And what happens at death? There
is that separation. Ecclesiastes 12.7, Then shall
the dust return to the earth as it was, and the spirit or
the soul to God who gave it. There's no such thing as soul-sleep,
there's separation. and ultimately there will be
the resurrection of the body and the reuniting of that body
to the soul. There will be a general resurrection.
Now the Lord Jesus experienced a real physical death. He says, Father, into thy hands
I commend my spirit. He dismisses his soul and he does it as a willing voluntary
sacrifice. Men were unable to take his life. He had that power and authority
to lay the life down. And this is what we sought to
emphasize somewhat last Lord's Day evening when we considered
the significance of those words in the previous chapter, 19 and
verse 30. It is finished, he said. He bowed
his head and gave up the ghost. He did it himself. But it was
a real death that he experienced. And in the resurrection here,
we see body and soul being reunited. And here's the first roots. Here
is the guarantee, as it were, that there will be that general
resurrection in the last day. All the Lord Jesus, you see,
he experienced death, but he overcame death. He overcame spiritual
death. he overcame physical death, and
then there is also that eternal death. And what is that death?
It is that separation which is hell. Separation in hell. It's spoken of in the book of
the Revelation as the second death. The second death. All the wages of sin is death. the soul that sinneth it shall
die." Now, with the Lord Jesus Christ we know that He was altogether
without sin. He was without sin in His birth,
in His conception. Remember what was conceived by
the Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary is referred to
as that holy thing. This is the miracle of the virgin
birth, the great mystery of the incarnation, how God contracted
to a span incomprehensibly made man, says the hymn. What a wonder
it is that what was conceived in the womb of a sinful woman,
though she was a virgin she was she was a daughter of Adam and
Eve she was a sinner just as any as we are but she was highly
favoured highly favoured to bear that human nature that was to
be joined to the eternal son of God he was without sin in
his birth no original sin there and then in his life there is
never any sin at all no actual sin never a sinful thought, never
a sinful word, never a sinful deed, holy, harmless, undefiled,
separate from sinners, made higher than the heavens. He never sinned. How is it then that a man who
is without sin should ever experience any sort of death? let alone
this eternal, what we call this eternal death, this second death,
this separation, which is hell, which is the punishment that
God meets out upon the sinner. Well, we're told, are we not,
he was wounded for our transgressions, he was bruised for our iniquities. The chastisement of our peace
was upon him and with his stripes. we are healed. The great truth
of His substitutionary atonement. He is dying, but He is dying
to atone for sins not His own. And what does He say in the language
of the Psalm, Psalm 16, verse 10, Thou wilt not lead my soul
in hell, neither wilt Thou suffer Thine Holy One to see corruption. Thou wilt not leave my soul in
hell, in the realm of the deceased. That's what it means. Or how the Lord Jesus Christ,
you see, in His very dying, He really is tasting that punishment
that comes to the unrepentant sinner as an eternal death. That's
what He is tasting. He is suffering the punishment
that God would mete out upon sinners forever, and ever, and
ever. And here in the resurrection,
do we not see him as that one who is overcome? He is overcome. And he is showing these disciples
that all that He has done is for them. Verse 20, He showed
unto them His hands and His feet. His death was for them as was
His resurrection. It's all for them. He says, I
also overcame and I'm set down with my Father in His throne.
He has overcome. And all this for His people.
Oh, He is the great Overcomer. He has such authority. And this
is all that the Lord Jesus has accomplished. O death, where
is thy sting? O great, where is thy victory? The sting of death is sin. The
strength of sin is the law. But thanks be to God who giveth
us the victory through our Lord Jesus Christ. He has overcome
death in all these aspects, spiritual death, physical death, eternal
death, all these things, the Lord Jesus Christ has so gloriously
triumphed over. Now that is the basic truth,
is it not, with regards to His resurrection. But here in the
verses that I've read as our text, we see the Lord Jesus as
that One who has overcome able to overcome every obstacle as
he would minister to his people as he has triumphed over sin,
over satan, over death, over the grave so there is no obstacle
that he cannot overcome we're told the same day at evening
being the first day of the week When the doors were shut, where
the disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews, came Jesus
and stood in the midst of them 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. Here we see him able to overcome
any physical object. He overcomes every physical object.
Now, it doesn't say here that the Lord passed through the doors
that were closed. This is not a spirit. This is a physical form. This
is a real body. It bears the marks of his crucifixion.
This is what can only be described as a miraculous appearance of
the Lord Jesus Christ. After his resurrection we know
that he is one who is there partaking of food. This isn't a spirit. This isn't some sort of phantom. In chapter 21, verse 12, Jesus
says unto them, Come and dine. None of the disciples doth ask
him who art thou, knowing that it was the Lord. Jesus then cometh,
and taketh bread, and giveth them, and fish likewise. He feeds
them, he sits, and he dines with them. He partakes of food. Now, that is made abundantly
clear in the account that we find at the end of Luke. There in Luke 24, 41, He said
unto them, Have you here any meat? and they gave him a piece
of a broiled fish and of a honeycomb, and he took it and he ate before
them." How significant are those last two words? He does all of
this before them. Just as he shows them his hands
and his feet, and the piercings of the nails here in our text,
All He is doing is evidently for His disciples. They must
see these things, they must observe these things. Again there in
chapter 24 of Luke, verse 39, He says, Behold My hands and
My feet, that it is I Myself. Handle Me and serve Me, for a
spirit hath not flesh and bones as ye see Me have. All these
disciples, they could be a testament to the reality of his human nature. They knew that this was a real
man who had been with them and ministered to them. And this
is that same man. But now his body is a glorified
body. And that's why, though the doors
are shut for fear of the Jews, yet he can come in a miraculous
fashion and appear to them. And how John, remember, in in his first epistle very much
emphasizes the reality of the Lord's human nature. He says
it's the spirit of Antichrist to deny that Jesus Christ has
come in the flesh. The very opening words there
in that first general epistle, that which was from the beginning,
which we have seen, which we have heard, which we have seen
with our eyes, which we have looked upon, which our hands
have handled, he says. of the word of life for the life
was manifested and we've seen it and bear witness the reality of the Lord's human
nature it's the same body all the doors are shut they're in
fear, they're afraid of the Jews those Jews who demanded the crucifixion
of their Lord and how the Roman governor Pontius Pilate had given
in to them, he'd granted their demands they wanted Christ crucified
and they're afraid now what might happen to them and yet now the
Lord suddenly unexpectedly comes and appears in the very midst
of them He had spoken of going before
them into Galilee. Matthew 26.32 After I am risen
again, I will go before you into Galilee, he says. And this is
the message that the angels also repeat to Mary there in Luke
28. Verse 5, the angel said unto
the women, Fear not ye, for I know that ye seek Jesus, which was
crucified. He is not here, for He is risen.
As He said, Come, see the place where the Lord lay. Go quickly,
and tell His disciples that He is risen from the dead, and behold,
He goeth before you into Galilee. There shall you see Him. Lo,
I have told you. He's going to meet with them
in Galilee. That's where much of his ministry
had occurred. But you see, they're not in Galilee
yet. They're still in Jerusalem. One of the old Scots writers,
George Hutcheson, says, His love will not stay so long, but He
will come to them that same day at evening. Well, the Lord delights
to be where His people are. He desires their company. And
here they are, they're meeting in that upper room and they're
full of fears. But the Lord will appear to them
to assure them, to comfort them. And when is all of this taking
place? It's on the very day of His resurrection. The first day
of the week. cometh Mary Magdalene early,
when it was yet dark, unto the sepulchre. Then the same day
at evening, being the first day of the week, we read here at
verse 19. It's the Lord's Day. It's this
first day of the week that we still desire to observe. Think of John, which is the day
that John is so favoured to have that revelation of the Lord Jesus
Christ it's the Lord's Day. There in Revelation 1.10 he tells
us, I was in the Spirit on the Lord's Day. And what does John
experience? He hears a voice behind him,
he turns and he sees the seven golden candlesticks. The seven
golden candlesticks are the seven churches. And all of this is
so highly symbolic. These are those things that are
being signified unto John. The number seven, the number
of perfection, the seven churches are representative of THE church,
the one true church of Jesus Christ. And John sees the seven
golden candlesticks, and there in the midst of the seven candlesticks,
he sees the glorified Christ. how the Lord Jesus Christ delights
to be where his people are. Oh, this is the day that the
Lord hath made, says the psalmist. We will rejoice and be glad in
it. And so we are to cherish the
day, the Lord's day. What is spoken of here as that
first day of the week. We look forward to the day. It
is not just in that literal sense the first day of the week, the
commencement of another week, but it is that best day of the
week, the first and the best of all days. And there were to
be those who would delight in the day, because the day itself
surely is a means of grace to us. We know that the Lord Jesus Christ
is the Lord of the Sabbath, He says as much. We know that in
the Old Testament the children of Israel were commanded to observe
the seventh day, because that was a commemoration of God's
great work of creation, how He rested on the seventh day from
all His labours. And they were to keep the day
that God Himself had set apart and sanctified. But even there,
as we've said on previous occasions, in the Old Testament there's
something else besides the remembrance of God's work of creation. Because
in the recounting of the commandments in Deuteronomy chapter 5, where
the commandments are all repeated, remember what He said concerning
that commandment, that they're also to remember that they were
in bondage in Egypt, and that to remember their great deliverance.
And that deliverance out of Egypt, is it not typical of that that
the Lord Jesus Christ has done for his people in delivering
them from all the bondage of their sins? Not surprising then
that when we come to the New Testament and the Lord accomplishes
that great work of redemption there is then this move over
from the seventh day to the first day of the week. And here we
see, on the following first day, the Lord appears to these disciples
again. And that time, Thomas, who was
absent the first time, is present. Verse 26, after 8 days. That
would be the following first day of the week. Again his disciples
were within, and Thomas with them. Then came Jesus, the doors
being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto
you. And then he addresses doubting
Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, behold my hands, reach hither
thy hand, thrust it into my side. Be not faithless, but believing. And what does Thomas say? My
Lord, and my God how the Lord delights to come in into the
midst of his people and so we are to gather together for worship
this is why we do what we do is it not we're not to forsake
the assembling of ourselves together as the manner of some is or we
cherish to die and why do we cherish it because the Lord himself
owns that day can we not say with the psalmist I was glad
when they said unto me let us go to the house of the Lord or when we come together what
do we decide that the Lord himself would come and manifest himself
and reveal himself this is what he is doing he shows himself
to those disciples he will minister to them and he is the one who
overcomes every obstacle Every obstacle. We don't know what might happen
with regards to events at the moment, with this terrible scourge
that seems to be upon the nations of the earth, this coronavirus. We hear of so many nations being
locked down, as they say. What will happen with us, we
don't know. We acknowledge that the powers that be are ordained
of God and we want to respect whatever legislation might be
brought to bear, but thank God we can look higher, we look to
the Lord himself, we acknowledge his hand in these things and
we hope in his mercy that we might be able to continue in
this fashion to meet on the Lord's day in anticipation of the Lord
himself coming. and revealing himself in our
midst. He overcomes every obstacle and
he can overcome these obstacles. This hasn't happened by chance.
Is he not a scourge that God has visited upon a world that
lies in wickedness? How God is constantly, as it
were, restraining himself. How the sins of men cry out for
judgment Well, we look to this God who is able to overcome.
He overcomes physical objects and he also overcomes spiritual
objects. Here they are and they're afraid. As I say, not surprisingly, in
view of what had recently occurred, just three days previously, the
crucifixion of the Lord Jesus. The doors were shut where the
disciples were assembled for fear of the Jews. Then came Jesus and stood in
the midst and said unto them, Peace be unto you. Oh, they thought there would
be persecution. They thought the Jews would come
and take them as they had taken their Lord. But there's not persecution. Rather, does the Lord come and
speak the word of peace. Peace, he says. Peace be unto
you. Remember the language that we
have in those discourses, chapters 14, 15, 16, the preachings of the Lord Jesus.
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give unto you, not
as the world give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled,
neither let it be afraid. The Lord can overcome all our
fears, all our doubts, all our anxieties. He is that One who
is truly the Great Overcomer. This is a legacy of the Lord
Jesus Christ. This is that that He is pleased
to leave unto His people. peace I leave with you he says
and here of course verse 21 then said Jesus to them
again peace be unto you and he repeats the word they need to
be reassured and we see this in the ministry
of the Lord Jesus Christ his presence always speaks peace
to his people Back in chapter 6 we have the record, John's
record of the Lord Jesus Christ when He comes to them. They're
in the boats. The Lord has stayed behind upon
the land and then there they are and a storm brews up and
they're afraid. And the Lord comes walking upon
the waters. And what does He say there in
chapter 6 verse 20? It is I. be not afraid all that's
the word of the Lord Jesus it is I and when the Lord says that
there's no fear when the Lord is pleased to come and manifest
himself isn't that the purpose of our coming together that the
Lord himself might draw near and come to us and be amongst
us where two or three are met together in my name he says there
am I in the midst And does He not come and manifest Himself
here as He doesn't manifest Himself in the world? This is why we
come together. We come together to meet with
the Lord Himself. He bids the saints be glad. He makes the sinner sad and humble
souls rejoice with fear. We sing in the hymn. Oh, this
is the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ in this day of grace. This is Christ coming in the
gospel of the grace of God. And so what do we read at the
end of verse 20? Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. Oh, when we see the Lord, when
we see Him with the eye of faith, does it really fill our hearts
with joy and with gladness. Oh yes, that joy, that gladness,
it is mixed with fear. It's mixed with reverence. We're to serve the Lord with
fear. We're to rejoice with trembling. We do want to come together and
we want to worship in a manner that is pleasing and acceptable. We don't come in any presumptuous
fashion, I trust. We don't presume with God. We know that so many today in
their assemblings are so chummy. There's very little of real reverence. Where is that sense of the otherness
of God? Where is that realization that
we should come and approach with the spirit of real awe? Or we're
to fear Him? Fear Him, ye saints, and you
will then have nothing else to fear. There's the antidote to
all our fears if we fear the Lord, if we reverence His name. This One who has all power and
all authority, this One who is truly the Great, overcomer all
he has overcome sin he has triumphed over it he has vanquished satan
he has defeated death and he has defeated the grave and what
does john say in the revelation revelation 12 11 they overcame
him that is satan by the blood of the lamb all which what christ
has done and here in these scars we see the evidence of his great
victory. Why his dying is the death of
death, because dying he is now risen again from the dead. And what does he say to him that
overcometh, will I give to sit with me in my throne? even as
I overcame and am set with my Father in His throne." Oh God
grant then that we might be those who would be looking to the Lord
Jesus and knowing something of real fellowship and communion
with Him even to die. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord. May the Lord be pleased to bless
this word to us. Amen. Let us now sing our concluding
praise, the hymn 1080, the tune is Rimmington 395. To Jesus,
our victorious Lord, the praises of our lives belong, forever
be his name adored, sweet theme of every thankful song. The hymn 1080.