To Encourage You

John 20:19-20 “On the evening of that day, the first day of the week, the doors being locked where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood among them and said to them, ‘Peace be with you.’ When he had said this, he showed them his hands and his side. Then the disciples were glad when they saw the Lord.”

The scene of the account in John 20 above begins with the disciples of Jesus huddling in fear behind locked doors immediately after the crucifixion.  And why were they afraid?  It says that they feared the Jews.  Although they themselves were also Jews, it was the Jewish authorities along with the Jewish populace that had just condemned Jesus to death. In their eyes, the disciples were no better than Jesus. They viewed them as traitors to the Jewish religion and just as worthy of death as Jesus.  In short, the disciples feared death. 

But then something utterly amazing happened. Jesus appeared in their midst. The One that had been crucified three short days before stood before them alive and well. Not only that, but He also amazed them in that the locked door was no obstacle to Him.  He went right through it.  No door could hold Him; not that door and not even the door of the sepulcher.  He had defeated death, the very death that all His followers now feared.  His message to them was “Peace.”  Here was One who had just won the greatest war in history; a war against the world, the devil, and the grave. And His message to the world, as well as to these disciples who had just abandoned Him was not “Revenge!” but “Peace.” 

So, what was the disciples’ response?  Joy!  Now they fully understood what Jesus had meant when He had earlier told them “Behold, the hour is coming, indeed it has come, when you will be scattered, each to his own home, and will leave me alone. Yet I am not alone, for the Father is with me. I have said these things to you, that in me you may have peace. In the world you will have tribulation. But take heart; I have overcome the world”(John 16:32-33).  In His appearance to the disciples, Jesus made a point of showing them his hands and side, marks of His suffering and death.  But it was those very things that He had defeated on the cross – and not just in His own body, but for all those who would put their trust in Him.  Now, the whole world, which is at war, i.e., enmity, with God (James 4:4), could, by faith, have peace with God (Romans 5:1).  These men who had feared death, would now be able to say with Paul “Death is swallowed up in victory. O death, where is your victory? O death, where is your sting” (1 Corinthians 15:54-55)? 

Victory over sin! Victory over death! Victory over the world that hated them! Victory over the devil!  All this because the believer has victory in Jesus, the One Who died for us.