Jesus's Comforting Presence

John 20:19–31

Introduction:

This past week, I had a biopsy done on me. When the doctor called me back to the exam room, I asked if my wife, Carol, would be allowed to go back with me. She said, “Of course.” Having Carol near me as the doctor did the biopsy was a huge comfort. I could focus on Carol and not think about what the doctor was doing.

Carol is gracious to be there with me. She told me that she has to be pretty stoic and not let her face express what she may be seeing. She was afraid that if she reacted, I may become worried or tense. But as I watch her, I remain calm and peaceful. Her help in keeping me calm was vital several years ago when I had dental surgery.

I had scheduled to have my molars extracted. One was impacted into my lower jaw. The dentist struggled for quite some time to remove that tooth. Finally, I told the dentist that I was about to lose it. I was very nervous; the pain was becoming intense, and my anxiety was increasing. I asked the nurse to bring Carol to me. When she arrived, I grasped her hand. She said later that it felt like I was going to break her hand. But I held her hand tightly and focused on looking into her eyes. Looking at me, she could see what the dentist was doing in my mouth. Again, she had to be careful not to react to what she was seeing. She did a superb job, and her presence calmed me down. I was able to hang on until the dentist finished this difficult extraction.

Sometimes, having someone with us brings a sense of peace and calmness into our spirits. Such was the situation with Jesus’s followers after the crucifixion.

Main Idea: Jesus’s appearances assuage our doubts and affirm our beliefs.

Jesus was crucified a few days ago. Joseph and Nicodemus interred Jesus in a tomb. The Pharisees secured a Roman guard to ensure that no one would be able to steal Jesus’s body. I imagine that darkness settled into their hearts and souls from Friday afternoon until early on the first day of the week.

A few hours earlier, Mary Magdalene, Mary, the mother of James, and Salome had returned from the site of the tomb with the most incredulous story—Jesus was alive! Peter and John had run to the tomb and found that the tomb was empty. Jesus wasn’t there. They returned to Jerusalem to tell the others what they witnessed.

After Peter and John had left, Mary Magdalene lingered outside the tomb, crying. A stranger, she thought, appeared. Mary asked him where Jesus’s body was. She told this stranger that she would take care of the body. The stranger then uttered one word, “Mary.” Immediately, Mary realized that she was speaking to Jesus. After giving Mary a message for the disciples, she returned to Jerusalem and proclaimed, “I have seen the Lord.”

Later the same day, the disciples gathered in a room. They met behind a locked door because everyone was fearful. Uncertainty weighed heavily in the room.

I. Jesus’s First Appearance.

A. Jesus proclaims peace.

Jesus repeats his proclamation of peace. This greeting was Jesus’s principal consolation—peace. Repetition of an idea is significant.

B. Jesus’s perplexing pronouncements.

1. “I am sending you.”

This statement is the first of the five times Jesus speaks of God’s command for his followers to proclaim the gospel. In this case, Jesus provides us with a model for us to follow, “As the Father has sent me . . . .” Jesus lived his entire life following his Father’s mission. Twenty-nine times in the gospel of John, Jesus stated that he was fulfilling what God—the Father—had sent him to do (Newell 2010: 32). The relationship Jesus had with his Father was the foundational model that Jesus desires to have with his followers (Köstenberger and O’Brien 2001: 260).

2. “Receive the Holy Spirit”

Here, Jesus offers a prelude to the permanent indwelling of the Holy Spirit. On several occasions, Jesus told the disciples to remain in Jerusalem until the Holy Spirit came (LK 24:49; Acts 1:4-5). Before his arrest, Jesus promised the apostles that once he was gone, he would send his Comforter to them (JN 16:7) (Hart 2014:1661).

3. “Forgive the sins of others.”

I don’t think Jesus was granting a special authority to the twelve. Instead, the ability to forgive or not forgive sins rests solely with God. Jesus never granted any human the ability to forgive or withhold forgiveness of sins. Jesus is saying that based on a person’s response to the gospel, we can affirm whether a person’s sins have been forgiven by God or not. In other words, if a person realizes Jesus died to pay for his sins and asks God to forgive him, we can declare that God has forgiven him of his sins. Likewise, if a person rejects the salvation of Jesus and the gospel’s truth, we can tell the person that his sins are not forgiven. Our role is to declare the truth of God’s salvific offer, but we do not possess the power to forgive or deny forgiveness of anyone’s sins (Cook 2016: 287).

II. Thomas’s Disbelief

A. The Disciples’ Testimony

“We have seen the Lord!” At this point, three groups of people had witnessed Jesus alive: Mary Magdalene at the tomb, the two disciples on their way to Emmaus, and ten of the apostles (Judas was no longer an apostle, and Thomas wasn’t there).

B. The Doubter’s Turmoil

Thomas dug in his heels. He would not believe it despite the women’s personal eyewitness accounts, which he most likely heard. Thomas also rejected the other disciples’ testimony. Hearing was not enough for Thomas; he had to see and touch Jesus himself (Hart 2014: 1661).

I doubt that Thomas was facing a total denial that Jesus was God. He was with the disciples when Jesus asked them, “Who do the crowds say that I am?” After some of the disciples offered various people, Peter responded, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the Living God” (MT 16:13-20; cf. MK 8:27-30; LK 9:18-20). Instead, Thomas most likely had difficulty accepting the reality of Jesus’s resurrection.

As believers, we may have moments of doubting God when we don’t “see” Him at work or see His answers to our prayers. We aren’t denying that Jesus is the Son of God or even doubting whether God is real or not. Our struggles often are about holding firm to the truths of the Scriptures. We wonder if God knows what we may be going through or our suffering.

III. Jesus’s Second Appearance.

A. Jesus Challenges Thomas.

Jesus tells Thomas, “Go ahead, touch the nail marks in my hands, put your hand into my side. Don’t doubt, but believe!”

In the gospel of Mark, Jesus rebukes the disciples who stubbornly had not believed in Jesus’s resurrection (MK 16:14).

B. Thomas’s Confessional Response

There are several ways we may understand Thomas’s response. One is that Thomas acknowledges Jesus’s resurrection. He could be saying, “My Lord and my God has truly risen from the dead.” A second understanding could be Thomas recognizing who Jesus truly is and saying, “You are My Lord and my God.” The third, most probable way is a humble exaltation of who Jesus is, “My Lord and my God” (BSP 2006: JN 20:28 fn52). This meaning would be similar to what I said earlier about Peter’s confession that Jesus is the Messiah (MK 8:27-30).

C. Jesus’s Comforting Beatitude

With this simple statement, Jesus pronounces a blessing on two groups of people. The first group refers to those living at the time of Jesus’s resurrection who believed the testimony of the women and the disciples (20: 25) but who had not personally met Jesus face-to-face (BSP 2006: JN 20:29 fn54). I believe the second group Jesus referred to was us—we who live over 2,000 years later and believe that Jesus arose but have never seen him face-to-face. One day, we will, and our faith will be confirmed. But until that happens, we continue to believe that Jesus arose from the tomb and lives today.

IV. John’s Design

The author declares that Jesus gave many other manifestations of his divine power not included in his gospel. However, what John included is of foundational importance.

A. God’s Written Word

Not everything Jesus said or did is included in this book’s pages. Innumerable events and conversations occurred but were not recorded. Later, John would write an additional commentary at the end of Chapter 21.

JN 21:25: “Now there are also many other things that Jesus did. Were every one of them to be written, I suppose that the world itself could not contain the books that would be written.”

While this statement is likely an exaggeration (a hyperbole), John declares that Jesus said and did more than the Word of God contains. But the Scripture’s focus is not on what we do not know. John makes the point that what we know, what was written, what we can read, and what we can learn is there for a purpose. The conclusion of verse 31 gives us a two-fold purpose for our biblical record.

B. Two-fold Purpose

1. Believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Messiah, the Son of God.

One of the reasons that John wrote his gospel, and in a larger sense why the Word of God was written, was so we may join Peter and Thomas, along with all the saints through the ages, to believe that Jesus was who he claimed to be—the Son of God.

2. By believing, we have life in the name of Jesus.

The second reason for God’s written word was for our assurance that we have eternal life by the power of his name. The apostle John would write in his first letter,

1JN 5:13: “I write these things to you who believe in the name of the Son of God, that you may know that you have eternal life.” Our eternal life with God, the Father; God, the Son; and God, the Holy Spirit, rests in the truth of God’s inspired word.

Conclusion:

We find some of the last words of Jesus in Matthew 28:20: “Behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age.” Jesus’s presence is in the form of the Holy Spirit. The last night Jesus was with his disciples, he told them he would send the Comforter and Helper. And this person, the Holy Spirit, would never leave us.

JN 14:16-17: “ And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Helper, to be with you forever, even the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, for he dwells with you and will be in you.”

In those moments when you feel alone, when you can’t “see” what God is doing, or when you are unsure if He hears you; recite Thomas’s words, “My Lord and my God.” Read the passage from John 14:16-21. Ask God to allow the Holy Spirit to comfort your heart, soul, and mind. Ask God to enable you to sense the Spirit’s presence in a unique way. I believe God will answer your prayer.

Remember what Thomas and the disciples learned after Jesus arose from the grave: Jesus’s appearances assuage our doubts and affirm our beliefs.

Harmony of Christ from the Resurrection to the Ascension

1. Resurrection; appearance to the women at the tomb [in Jerusalem].

MT 28:1-10; MK 16:1-11; LK 23:56-24:12; JN 20:1-18

2. The Roman Guard Reports.

MT 28:11-15

3. The Journey to Emmaus.

LK 24:13-34

4. First Appearance to the Disciples—Sunday evening of the Resurrection (w/o Thomas) [in Jerusalem].

MK 16:14; LK 24:35-43; JN 20:19-25

First Utterance of the Great Commission: JN 20:21

5. Second Appearance to the Disciples-One week later [in Jerusalem] (Thomas present).

MK 16:14-18; JN 20:26-29

Second Utterance of the Great Commission: MK 16:15

6. Appearance to Seven Disciples [Shore of Lake Galilee].

JN 21:1-24

7. Appearance to eleven Disciples on a mountain (Time?). [Galilee]

MT 28:16-20

Third Utterance of the Great Commission: MT 28:18-20

8. Appearance near Jerusalem (Time: near to Jesus’s ascension) [Bethany].

LK 24:44-51

Fourth Utterance of the Great Commission: LK 24:45-49.

9. Jesus’s Ascension into heaven (forty days after the resurrection) [Mount of Olive(?), near Bethany].

LK 24:50-51; Acts 1:11

Fifth Utterance of the Great Commission: Acts 1:8.

Bibliography

Biblical Studies Press (BSP). 2006. The NET Bible. Nashville, TN: Bible Studies Press LLC (a subsidiary of Thomas Nelson Bibles).

Cook, William F. 2016. John: Jesus Christ is God. Fearn, Scotland: Christian Focus Publications.

Hart, John F. 2014. “John.” In Moody Bible Commentary, edited by Michael Rydelnik and Michael Vanlaningham, 1605-1664. Chicago, IL: Moody Press.

Hudson, Rickey A. 2015. My Harmony of the Life of Christ. Self-published.

Newell, Marvin J. 2021. Commissioned: What Jesus Wants You to Know As You Go. N. p.: ChurchSmart Resources.

Robertson, A. T. 2009. Harmony of the Gospels.Bellingham, WA: Logos Bible Software. Logos.

Stevens, William Arnold and Ernest De Witt Burton. 1932. A Harmony of the Gospels for Historical Study. New York, NY: Charles Scribner’s Sons.