The Gospel of John Chapter 20
If Christianity were just another moral teaching,
A very wise man’s philosophy on how to live your life,
John should have ended his story with Jesus words—
“It is finished.”
But after those words in chapter 19 we move right into John’s testimony
concerning the resurrection of Jesus.
At Easter, in times past, I have presented evidence in support of the fact that
Jesus did indeed rise bodily from the grave.
A bodily resurrection is part of the message of Gospel.
Remove a bodily resurrection and the entire Gospel story becomes just one
more ancient myth to amuse oneself with.
From the first report of the resurrection there have been those who have sought to
discredit the testimony.
Matthew 28:11-15 (MSG)
Meanwhile, the guards had scattered, but a few of them went into the city and told the high priests everything that had happened. They called a meeting of the religious leaders and came up with a plan: They took a large sum of money and gave it to the soldiers, bribing them to say, "His disciples came in the night and stole the body while we were sleeping." They assured them, "If the governor hears about your sleeping on duty, we will make sure you don't get blamed." The soldiers took the bribe and did as they were told. That story, cooked up in the Jewish High Council, is still going around.
The bodily resurrection of Jesus,
Jesus alive and well after being crucified and entombed—
Is Divine Validation on everything Jesus taught and demonstrated.
The physical resurrection of Jesus is proof that Jesus is Immanuel
–God with us.
There has always been those who deny the physical resurrection of Jesus.
The Apostle Paul faced that very challenge with the new church start in Corinth.
He writes:
1 Corinthians 15:1-2 (MSG)
Friends, let me go over the Message with you one final time—this Message that I proclaimed and that you made your own; this Message on which you took your stand and by which your life has been saved.
1 Corinthians 15:3-4 (MSG)
The first thing I did was place before you what was placed so emphatically before me: that the Messiah died for our sins, exactly as Scripture tells it; that he was buried; that he was raised from death on the third day…
1 Corinthians 15:13-15 (MSG)
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.
1 Corinthians 15:20 (MSG)
But the truth is that Christ has been raised up, the first in a long legacy of those who are going to leave the cemeteries.
As disciples of Jesus we are to follow Him.
In my many studies of the book of the revelation of Jesus,
I have come to understand that the writer graphically paints word
pictures that inform Jesus disciples that the way Jesus went so
they are called to go.
Believers are martyred for their faith as you read the
Apocalypse.
And as you continue to read it you see the very words of Jesus
Take on a powerful and personal meaning.
John 12:25-26 (NCV)
Those who love their lives will lose them, but those who hate their lives in this world will keep true life forever. Whoever serves me must follow me. Then my servant will be with me everywhere I am.
John 11:25-26 (NIV)
"I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die.
John 6:54 (NCV)
Those who eat my flesh and drink my blood have eternal life, and I will raise them up on the last day.
To be raised up, is to experience a resurrection.
Not a disembodied experience, like a phantom or a ghost.
As you follow Jesus you will experience a bodily resurrection just like
your Master.
1 Thessalonians 4:13-17 (MSG)
And regarding the question, friends, that has come up about what happens to those already dead and buried, we don't want you in the dark any longer. First off, you must not carry on over them like people who have nothing to look forward to, as if the grave were the last word. Since Jesus died and broke loose from the grave, God will most certainly bring back to life those who died in Jesus. And then this: We can tell you with complete confidence—we have the Master's word on it—that when the Master comes again to get us, those of us who are still alive will not get a jump on the dead and leave them behind. In actual fact, they'll be ahead of us. The Master himself will give the command. Archangel thunder! God's trumpet blast! He'll come down from heaven and the dead in Christ will rise—they'll go first. Then the rest of us who are still alive at the time will be caught up with them into the clouds to meet the Master.
We talk about laying down our lives,
Sacrificing to meet the need of another—that’s what love is all about,
Not doing what we want but doing what love compels us to do.
Growing maturing to the point that loving others is what we
want to do.
We’ve talked about how hard it is to love,
How it is inconvenient to love.
How it is costly to love.
How love glorifies God, reveals God to those who are
loved.
But did you realize that when I have taught you about laying down your life,
I also mean bodily death for the cause of Christ?
The reason a disciple can face death is because he or she is convinced
of the bodily resurrection of Jesus and has faith in Jesus
promise to raise them up on the Last Day.
Revelation 20:4 (NIV)
“…And I saw the souls of those who had been beheaded because of their testimony for Jesus and because of the word of God. They had not worshiped the beast or his image and had not received his mark on their foreheads or their hands. They came to life and reigned with Christ…”
If you’re a disciple of Jesus turn to the person next to you and say:
“I will be raised up.”
1 Corinthians 15:58 (MSG)
With all this going for us, my dear, dear friends, stand your ground. And don't hold back. Throw yourselves into the work of the Master, confident that nothing you do for him is a waste of time or effort.
Video Presentation of The Gospel of John Chapter 20
Obviously the Big message of this chapter is the bodily resurrection of Jesus.
But there is something that is often glossed over when we are looking at just the
big picture in this Chapter.
John 20:21-22 (MSG)
Just as the Father sent me, I send you." Then he took a deep breath and breathed into them. "Receive the Holy Spirit," he said.
Jesus was sent of the Father to accomplish a mission in this world.
Now Jesus commissions his disciples to carry forth the work on the
foundation that has been laid.
It is a commission for not only the Apostles, the sent ones,”
But down through the centuries for you and I also.
2 Corinthians 5:18-20 (NIV)
All this is from God, who reconciled us to himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation: that God was reconciling the world to himself in Christ, not counting men's sins against them. And he has committed to us the message of reconciliation. We are therefore Christ's ambassadors, as though God were making his appeal through us.
You have been given a ministry of reconciliation—
How are you doing with that?
By your lifestyle and your words are you revealing God to others
through the use of your spiritual gifts?
Every year at District assembly time I have to give an account of my ministry to
the Church of the Nazarene.
Every year I am asked How many?
How many became believers?
How many confess to being filled with the Spirit?
How many attend the worship service?
How much money was donated?
There are a bunch more questions,
What I want you to see is the accountability.
I have to give an account of the ministry I have been given.
This accounting is a shadow of a much greater one.
Romans 14:12 (NIV)
So then, each of us will give an account of himself to God.
So let me ask you in advance of that date with God himself—
How are you doing with your ministry?
It’s not too late to put in the hard work to be able to give a good account.
John 20:22-23 (NLT)
Then he breathed on them and said, “Receive the Holy Spirit.
There is an old song
Breathe on me,
breath of God.
Fill me with life anew that I may love what thou dost love and do what thou
wouldst do.
Breath on me, breath of God until my heart is pure, until my will is one with
thine to do and to endure.
Maybe today you would like God to breathe that breath into you again.
I know I need times of God’s refilling, and refreshing.
I know I need times when I breathe the Breath of God a new and a fresh,
Maybe you need a time like that today.