Now, first of all, that text
in John 20 that I announced, verse 24 through 29, the Lord
had appeared to His disciples the evening of the resurrection,
and the next evening, or rather the next week, He appeared again. And in verse 24, Thomas, one
of the twelve, called Didymus, was not with them, when Jesus
came. And the other disciples therefore
said unto him, We have seen the Lord. But he said unto them,
Except I shall see in his hand the prints of the nails, and
put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand
into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days 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. Then said he to Thomas, Reach
hither thy finger, behold my hands. Reach hither thy hand,
thrust it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And Thomas answered and said,
unto him, My Lord and My God. Then Jesus said unto him, Thomas,
because thou hast seen, thou hast believed, blessed are they
that have not seen, and yet have believed." Now, right over to
Acts 1 and the first five verses. The former treatise have I made,
O Theophilus, of all that Jesus began to do and to teach, until
the day in which He was taken up after that He had, through
the Holy Spirit, given commandments unto the apostles whom He had
chosen, to whom also," watch this verse, "...to whom also
He showed Himself alive after His passion by many infallible
proofs being seen of them forty days, and speaking of the things
pertaining to the kingdom of God. And being assembled together
with them, commanded them that they should not depart from Jerusalem,
but wait for the promise of the Father, which ye have heard of
me. For John truly baptized with
water, but ye shall be baptized with the Holy Spirit not many
days hence." Now, look again at that third verse, for it will
come before us in the course of our study today, to whom also
He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs, being seen
of them forty days, and speaking to them pertaining the things
of the kingdom of God. Now, it might be true to say,
and safe to say, that the appearances of the Lord between the time
of His resurrection and His ascension is somewhat slighted and neglected
in preaching and in studying today. The great emphasis is
upon His death, His burial, and His resurrection, as it should
be, because this is the essence of the gospel. And great stress,
therefore, is laid upon His coming again, but while not so much
emphasis is put upon that time and His activity between the
morning of the resurrection and the session at the right hand
of God. Now, in this study, therefore,
we want to focus our attention upon the appearances of the Lord
after his resurrection, but before his formal ascension into the
heaven. And we want to consider the significance,
and we want to consider the importance of these appearances. Why were
they necessary, and what purpose Did they serve? Our Lord had
fully instructed His disciples, I will be killed, I will be buried,
I will rise again. So why then these appearances? And why were they necessary? And what purpose were they intended
to serve to those in that day? Why did the Lord Jesus not go
directly to heaven after His resurrection out of the grave
and his victory over death. Why wait forty days or so before
he went back to the right hand of the Father? Now, let's make
a point as we work our way into this, that the post-resurrection
appearances of our Lord are very prominently set forth in the
Scripture. They're not obscure. They stand
out there for us to see and to read and to hear. It should come
as no surprise the number of times that they are mentioned
in the Holy Scripture. And there must be a very good
purpose and reason why it is so. And they must serve a particular
purpose in the will of God and towards the disciples his servants
of that day. Now, I struggled as to the right
way to open this for discussion, and for the right words and thoughts
that might lead us out into it. We might set these appearances
in their proper light, and the best way for us to view, consider,
and study the subject. So, I would ask you a question. Do you wonder, I must tell you
that I do, what would have been the effect if the Lord had not
made all of these appearances and had simply gone yonder to
the right hand of God after the resurrection? I could see that
the movement might really be shaky with the Lord having been
put to death. Did the evil Jews think that
they had crushed out this movement so as to bring it unto an end
because they had put the Lord to death, and the disciples were
cowering behind closed doors and such like. For example, the
two on Emmaus Road seemed to have had their expectations dashed
because their leaders had put the prophet mighty in word and
in deed to death in Jerusalem." In Luke 24 and verse 21, for
they say to our Lord, we were hoping. That is, we had hope. We were hoping is the tense that
He should be the one that should deliver Israel. Now, according
to the prophecy in Zechariah 13 and 7, smite the shepherd
and the sheep will be scattered." And this is quoted by our Lord
in Matthew's Gospel, chapter 26, verse 31. Mark quotes it in chapter 14
and verse 27. On the eve of his death, just
before his arrest and death, the Lord foretold the scattering
of the sheep. And Spurgeon wrote this on Matthew
26, And verse 31, even those who had been the longest with
him would stumble and fall away from him on that dreadful night. Peter mixed himself yonder with
the enemies of the Lord and he cursed and he denied vehemently
that he ever knew the Lord. Luke chapter 22, John 21 and
verse 3, We even read in the Scripture
that Peter went back into the fishing business after that event,
breaking out his vessel and his nets again, and others went with
him. Some seven in number there were
who went fishing. They met behind closed doors
when they met, fearing the Jews in John chapter 20 and verse
19. There is Thomas, in chapter 20
of the Gospel of John, not being present, and declaring to them
most vehemently, I will not believe what you have said unless I myself
see the wounds, touch them with my hand. For a time the apostles
were not active as ministers. Now get that in our mind, please. After the death and the resurrection
of the Lord, the apostles were not for a time actively pursuing
the ministry in the absence of their Lord and of their Master. They were, may I say it, in a
state of inertness there for a while, not fully understanding
and not fully believing in all that Jesus had taught them and
that they had heard from them, they were indeed like sheep scattered
without a shepherd. The Lord's death was a great
blow to the apostles and disciples as they seemed not yet to have
fully grasped what the Lord had taught them over and over and
over that I will be put to death. That he must die at the hand
of the Gentiles, he told them again and again. But that he
would rise again on the third day, or after the third day. Thus the Lord did not formally
and immediately ascend into heaven so soon as he was raised again
from the grave. But neither did He resume His
constant day in and day out association with them, as they must be weaned
from His physical presence with them in the world. This they
must be weaned away from. He will no longer be with them
day by day, as He had told them earlier. And another comforter
would come and take up the work of leading, inspiring, teaching,
and helping them. Now, on the other hand, neither
did that Spirit come as soon as Jesus was dead, buried, and
raised again. The Lord granted His apostles
and His disciples two great aids to their faith and to their Christian
lives. Two things to fortify them for
the ministry that was to be exercised through them. They needed these
two things to strengthen them. And the things that we have intention
of talking about this morning that they would suffer for the
gospel are these. Number one, the Lord made appearances
to them at certain intervals between the resurrection and
ascension. Personal appearances He made. And He made them in His body. A body that they could see, that
they could handle, and on one occasion, or two I can think
of, a body that actually ate food with them in their fellowship. Now the second thing He granted
them is to be eyewitnesses of His formal ascension yonder to
the right hand of God. And these two things fortified
the disciples and made them ready for the coming of the Spirit
and the dispersion of the gospel. Now, let's consider the first
using Acts 1 and 3, which says, as we've already read it, that
He showed Himself alive by many infallible proofs. Notice the
opening words of verse 3, to whom also are a reference to
the last words of the second verse, unto the apostles whom
he had chosen, as the nearest antecedent to whom, therefore,
are those chosen apostles. But first, let's consider a matter. That is, that in Acts 1 and verse
1, the author, who is Luke, refers to a, quote, former treatise,
unquote. Or some might render it a volume,
or others might call it an account. He refers to the book of Luke,
as both volumes are dedicated to one Theopolis that we know
little about. And he says in Acts 1, verses
1 and 2, that the former volume, O Theopolis, and he's referring
to the book of Luke, is an account of Jesus' teaching and of His
deeds up to the day that He was taken up. He includes in the
end of His gospel a short, brief account of the ascension of the
Lord. And here in Acts, he picks up
with a longer account, a better account of the ascension in Acts
1. And while Luke contains a history
of Jesus, Acts is a history of the apostles and their ministry
and the spread of the gospel beyond Jerusalem. Acts traces
it out of the bounds of Jerusalem and out into the nation. But
notice before he was taken up. It says that he did a wonderful
thing in behalf of his disciple. See how Luke interrupts the account
of the Lord's ascension to speak of the post-resurrection appearances
of the Lord. He's speaking of the Lord's ascension. He's giving an account of the
things that led up to it. But he interrupts that to give
an account of the appearances of the Lord. And look how very
expressive it is in verse 3. Number one, he showed himself
alive. This was after his passion, after
he had suffered, after he had died, after he had laid in the
grave and been resurrected. Secondly, it says he did so by
many infallible proofs. He showed Himself alive and that
by many infallible truths. Truths sure and irrefutable that
He is Jesus and is alive. Thirdly, He did this over a period
of some forty days. He showed Himself alive by many
infallible proofs over a period of four days. And fourthly, he
instructed them in these appearances concerning the kingdom of God
or the things of God. So let us treat all of this under
two columns, if we would. Number one, what he did. Number two, what purpose it served,
these appearances. Number one, what he did. He showed
himself alive. There are several places, there
are several appearances of the Lord to be found in the Scripture. And perhaps the most comprehensive
catalog of the appearances of our Lord is found in 1 Corinthians
chapter 15 from the hand or pen of the Apostle Paul. I'm turning
there if you'd like to okay. It is 1 Timothy... 1 Corinthians
15 and verse 3 through 8 that I'd like to read. Here is that
extensive list of the appearances of our Lord. Listen. I delivered unto you first of
all that which I also received, how that Christ died for our
sins according to the Scripture, that he was buried, that he rose
again the third day according to the Scripture. Now watch 5
through 8. And he was seen of Cephas, then
of the twelve. After that, he was seen of above
five hundred brethren at once, of whom the greater part remain
under this present, but some are fallen asleep. That is, they've
died. Verse 7, After that, he was seen
of James, then of all the apostles, and last of all, he was seen
of me also as one born out of due time." Paul even adds himself
onto that list and likens to him as one born like an abortion,
as you might see it in the margin, pushed out of the womb. Untimely
was he brought forth. Still we know that even this
is not a complete list of all the appearances of the Lord. On the Emmaus road, Luke 24,
to Mary Magdalene in John 20, verse 11 through 18, who saw
Him on the day of the resurrection and ran and reported it unto
the disciples. Now there are two post-resurrection
appearances of the Lord that combine both the fact and the
purpose together. One is that one to Thomas, and
the other is that one unto Simon Peter. So let's look at the appearance
unto Thomas. We can see its effect and therefore
its purpose. This is in John 20. verse 24
through verse 28. John, or rather Thomas, is also
called Didymus. And those with a Greek who are
wise say that actually the word means twin. Now we have a three-fold
glimpse of Thomas in John's Gospel. In chapter 11, in chapter 14,
and here in chapter 20. In chapter 11, He hears that Lazarus is dead,
and he urges his fellow disciples, let us rush there that we also
may die with him. In chapter 14, verse 4 and 5,
when Jesus said to His disciples that He would go and prepare
them a place, and He said unto them, and where I go you know,
and the way you know, it was Thomas who answered in verse
5, We don't know where you're going, and how can we know the
way? This exposes some of the ignorance
and the dumbness that yet dwell in Thomas. But in John 20 and
verse 25, he exposes his downright unbelief that when told by the
others, credible brethren they were, whom he had accompanied
with in the presence of the Lord for three years, Others said
to him, Thomas, Thomas, we saw the Lord. He appeared unto us. They might have told him that
they touched the wounds and they put their hand in the side of
the Lord Jesus Christ. Thomas, however, tells them,
I for myself, on my part, I won't believe. I don't believe unless
I can see and feel for myself. Mind you, brethren, this is one
of the inner circle of the apostles of our Lord. This is one who,
with the others, were to spearhead Christianity and the gospel. The Lord, however, is gracious
to Thomas. He does not angrily dismiss him. The Lord is gracious to doubting
Thomas, as he has been called. He appears again when Thomas
is present there in the assembly, and He cures the doubt and the
unbelief of this doubting man. He might have appeared to Thomas
when he was alone somewhere, even in his home. But the Lord
appears to him in the public gathering when all are gathered
and present, And he goes directly to Thomas and invites him to
touch, to see, and to feel. And he exhorts and he rebukes
Thomas saying, be believing and not unbelieving. In verse 28,
Thomas makes a great confession. that stands up there with the
great confessions of the Scripture. My Lord and my God, he says as
he saw and he heard. J. C. Ryle called this, and I'll
quote, the language of amazement, delight, repentance, faith, and
adoration all combined in one sentence, unquote, my Lord and
my God. It is surely A condensed form
of that confession of the Apostle Peter in Matthew 16 and 6, again
in John 6, 68 and 69, parallels that of Martha in John chapter
11 and verse 27. But while the Lord tells the
Apostle Peter, this is a divine revelation, it hath not been
shown you by flesh and blood. He gives Thomas, on the other
hand, a mild rebuke. He says to him, you believe,
and you believe only because you have seen me in body. You have seen the remaining evidence
of my wounds of the nail and of the sphere with your physical
eye. Or, as one wrote Thomas, would
have his faith to rest in his senses And that's a dangerous
thing for us to do or any to do. I will not believe except
I see with my eyes and feel with my hand. The Lord said, blessed
are they not seeing. You have believed, Thomas, as
a result of your seeing. Blessed are they not seeing and
yet believing. Many would believe through the
words of the Apostle, John 17, 20. They would not see the Lord. We have not seen the Lord with
our eyes or beheld His wounds. Without seeing Jesus in the days
of His flesh, millions have believed upon Him. We have not seen Him
after His resurrection and prior unto His ascension, because this
blessing would be temporary and it would be esoteric, that is,
only to a few. So that Paul would write in 2
Corinthians 5 and verse 7, we walk by faith and not by sight. Anybody says today, I'm not going
to believe unless I see a miracle or a sign or a wonder. Again
in 1 Peter 1, 5-8, the elect are kept by the power of God
through faith unto salvation and the receiving of the inheritance
in verse 5, which faith, verse 7, is refined unto the praise
and the honor and the glory to be reflected in and through Christ. Verse 8, to whom having not seen
ye love, in whom thou knowest ye see not, yet believing ye
rejoice with unspeakable glory." But I am digressing. But there
are those who have not seen, and they have believed. Coming
to the second great post-resurrection appearance of the Lord, which
is perhaps more important even than that one under Thomas, And
of course, I refer to the apostle Peter. When Paul writes in 1
Corinthians 15 and 5, that he was seen of Cephas, he is not
speaking of a group appearance, for he isolates this appearance
as separate and distinct from the appearances to the whole
body of the apostle. But Paul writes, he was seen
of Cephas. whom he names first, and then
he adds this, then of the twelve. Besides, we read in Luke 24 and
verse 34, of the men from Emmaus who said, the Lord is risen indeed
and has appeared unto Simeon. When this occurred, it's hard
to say. How can we know? But in Mark
16 and verse 7, Some women, having gone to the tomb with sweet spices
that they might anoint the body of the Lord Jesus Christ, when
they arrived instead, wondering who will roll the stone away,
they found the stone already rolled away. And in the tomb,
instead of the body of the Lord Jesus, an angel sat there which
said unto them, Go tell his disciples and Peter, that he will go before
them into Galilee even as he said." Now, switch to John 21. There is an appearance to the
Apostle Peter, or we have here one, I believe, of the most important
appearances of the Lord to his disciples during this period. There being two, in John chapter
20, eight days apart. The first two in closed doors
meeting the one on the sea of Tiberias. And they practiced
the only trade that some of them knew, and that was fishing. So let us both quickly and briefly
sum it up here in chapter 21 to get to our point. The Bible
says Peter said, I go fishing. Others said, we go with you.
They toiled all night and caught nothing. In the morning, Jesus
stands there visible to them on the seashore. He tells them
they had caught nothing. He tells them, put the net on
the other side of the boat and you shall find. And they put
the net on the other side of the boat And the net was so full
of fishes that they could scarcely draw it under the shore. And
when they came ashore, there was a fire. There were fishes
cooked, laid upon the fire, and they ate with Jesus. And John
said, This is Jesus. He recognized Him. Then, in verse
15 through verse 18, there is a most interesting exchange between
the Lord Jesus and the apostle Simon Peter. After they had eaten
and things had calmed down a bit, the Lord asked Simon three times,
Simon, do you love Me? One time after another. The first time, in verse 15,
He adds these words, more than these. Do you love Me more than
these? I don't think he's talking about
the fishes. I don't think he's talking about the men. But talking
about, do you love me more than they love me? Three times Peter
answers, yea, Lord, you know I love you. And each time the
Lord repeats the same thing, feed my lambs, feed my sheep. Three times to him. But the passage
comes alive. when we see here that there are
different words used in this particular place, different words
used by the Lord for love and by Peter for love in this passage. The Lord used the word agapeo,
a superior, a excellent, a deep, an abiding love. Peter uses the
word in his answer Phileo. Affection. Love of a friend. A deep affection. Now, there
are some very helpful footnotes on this in the New Geneva Study
Bible, the King James Version. We'll not get into it now. Why
did Peter act as he did in the 7th verse? And why was he grieved
in verse 17? That the Lord ask him the same
question three times. Peter was getting out of patience.
Or better yet, why did the Lord confront Peter out of all of
these that were there? Why do it in the presence of
all of his brethren? It is clear that this special
appearance of the Lord was intended for the sake of Simon Peter. For consider two things. Number one, Peter led the way.
before in confessing the Lord. It was He who said, Thou art
the Christ, the Son of the living God. It was He who said, You
have the words of eternal life, and we believe and are sure that
Thou art that Christ, the Son of the living God. None made
a greater confession in an earlier period than did Simon Peter.
But it was also Peter who boasted of his strength. If all shall
be offended because of thee this night, yet will not I be offended. The Lord had said unto his own,
all of you will be offended because of me this night. Matthew 26,
verse 33. And in Matthew 26, verse 35,
Peter said this, I would die with you before I would deny
you. Mark 14.31, I will not deny you
in any wise or by any means. That's the contention of Peter. When the Lord foretold his death,
Peter said in Matthew 16 and verse 22, No, Lord, this shall
not happen unto you. The Lord said, I must be delivered
into the hands of the Gentiles and be killed. The third day
rise again, Peter, openly in front of all. No, Lord, this
shall not in any wise happen unto you. John 18 and 10, when
they came to arrest the Lord Jesus Christ and take Him. It
was Peter who drew out his sword and sliced off the ear of Malchus. a servant of the high priest. And the Lord said, put it up,
Peter, put it up. They that live by the sword die
by the sword. But secondly, it was also Peter
who denied the Lord, who stood among the enemies of the Lord,
cursing and denying the Lord three times. And a young maiden
came to him in Matthew 26-69. You were with Jesus of Galilee. You were. I saw you." He says,
I don't know what you're talking about, Peter. That was his answer. I tell you, I do not know the
man. So the purpose and design of
the appearance was to recover and restore the apostle Peter,
to reinstate him in his honor of the office of an apostle,
and to erase all doubts in his mind concerning the resurrection,
to cleanse away from him the stains of his blatant conduct,
also to cure him of his pride and his vain conceit and his
self-confidence, and give him honor again in the eyes of the
other apostles. Calvin wrote, quote, such a restoration
was necessary, unquote, and that the shame of his denial be put
away and forgotten, that he might be assured again of his office,
and that he might be assured of his calling. Christ said to
him, feed my sheep. Peter is not going to be a cast
off. The Lord is recovering him. Feed my sheep. And that will
be his ministry. Do any wonder? Why was not the
empty tomb enough for the disciples? Why could they not see an empty
tomb and be satisfied and content? The Lord is alive. The Lord is
alive. Several witnessed the empty tomb,
such as the two Marys in Matthew 28. Even Peter and John in John
20. Angels even said to them, He
is not here. He is risen. Why seek ye the
living among the dead? Still, Mary Magdalene, after
finding the tomb empty when she came, said in John 20 and verse
2, They have taken away my Lord out of the supplicar, and I know
not where they have laid Him. Also, John 20 and 15. As unbelievable as their actions
may seem, let us admit We would have fared no better. Our faith
would have been no stronger. For the resurrection of Christ
is an incredible, extraordinary part of the Christian faith and
of the gospel. Even the apostles were slow to
grasp the reality of the resurrection. You can see that in John chapter
20 and verse 9. Thus, as our text in Acts 1 states
to us, he showed himself alive after his passion by many infallible
proofs, and especially to the apostles who were to be witnesses
of him and ministers of the gospel, and whose preaching was strong
and heavy on the subject of the resurrection. If you read the
sermons of the apostle in the book of Acts, Hardly did they
preach without mentioning the resurrection of the Lord. He mightily convinced them, His
apostles, giving them undeniable evidence of His having taken
up His life again. As He said in John 10, I have
power to lay it down. I have power to take it up again.
This commandment have I received in my Father. And to their great
consternation, The rearing up again of the temple when He said,
destroy this temple and in three days I will raise it up again. John 2, 19-21. And He spoke of the temple of
His body. And the promise of our Lord to
meet them in Galilee after He was risen from the dead. Matthew
26 and verse 32. On an occasion, He appeared to
them and they thought that they had seen a spirit or a ghost,
and they were afraid. And in Luke 24, 35-43, He bid
them to handle and see. And He took meat and He ate it
with them. And how could we contemplate
then what sort of a body it was that our Lord had up until that
time, or the ascension? And we close with two other passages
concerning post-resurrection appearances of the Lord, and
they're found in the book of Acts, and I shall but read them,
entering them into the record. The first one is found in the
tenth chapter of the book of Acts, and the second one in verse
13. In Acts chapter 10 and verse
39 and following, we are witnesses of all things which He did, in
the land of the Jews and in Jerusalem, whom they slew and hanged on
a tree, Him God raised up the third day and showed Him openly,
not to all the people, but unto witnesses chosen before of God,
even to us, who did eat and drink with Him after He rose from the
dead." Then in chapter 13, this time verse 29 through verse Thirty-one. Twenty-nine through thirty-one. And when they had fulfilled all
that was written of Him, they took Him down from the tree,
laid Him in a supplicar, but God raised Him up from the dead,
and He was seen many days of them which came up with Him from
Galilee to Jerusalem, who are His witnesses unto the people. Now these appearances were a
vital part of the work of Christ towards His apostles and toward
the church. And they were, I'm going to call
them, a great and a sure boost to the faith of His disciples
and servants. To see the Lord be madly convinced
by many infallible proofs, this is Jesus. He is alive from the
dead. All right, let's stand please
for a word of prayer.