The Gospel of John 20:19-20
John 20:19-20 · Vern Peterman · Oct 13, 2013
Gospel of John (2013), No. 39
Holly Hills Bible Church
https://www.hollyhillsbiblechurch.org/teaching/messages/4926446330

Transcribed from the recording by SermonAudio, so expect the occasional misheard word.

We started last week in John chapter 20, which begins John's resurrection account. So it began last Sunday with the first 18 verses and it ended with Mary Magdalene going to tell the disciples that Christ had been raised. Now, I find this interesting, maybe even a little bit humorous. the way the disciples responded, because in fact when you put all the resurrection accounts together, which we have here on the subsequent pages, when you put all the resurrection accounts together, by the time of this event here in John 20, they should have gotten multiple messages, Christ is risen, but they're not getting it. And what we find is they're very fearful still and they don't understand and people, you know, I've seen Christ risen and they kind of go brain dead. It's really rather astounding. So, John 20, 19-20 reads like this, So when it was evening on that day, the first day of the week, and when the doors were shut where the disciples were for fear of the Jews, Jesus came and stood in their midst and said to them, Peace be with you. and when he had said this, he showed them both his hands and his side. The disciples rejoiced when they saw the Lord.

So, this is the evening of the same day that Christ had been resurrected. Technically, the Jews would count sundown as the start of a new day, but John's point is Christ had been resurrected, it was still the same solar day, and so not 24 hours had passed. Not 24 hours had passed since Christ had been resurrected. In fact, more like about 18, something like that.

So now, but think about this, you've got 11 disciples, less Thomas, We'll get that picture here. We're all present in a room with the door shut since they feared the Jews Why were they afraid of the Jews? What's that? Disciples of Jesus who had been crucified right and and at the arrest of Jesus there in the Garden of Gethsemane right at the arrest of Jesus, you know said hey, you know, take me let these go but they were still you know worried about some kind of repercussions and And let's ask this question Were any of these disciples were any of them present there at the crucifixion John was right at least John. So here's John. He was present there at the crucifixion. Nobody grabbed him and But still he's afraid, along with the rest of them. And he's seen an empty tomb. As a matter of fact, let's ask this question. Peter and John had already seen an empty tomb here.

And so when they walked away, they went home, right? And then now they're gathered back here with the disciples and the doors are shut. And apparently they're afraid just like the rest of them. And Mary Magdalene has already come and told these guys she's seen the Lord resurrected. Did it seem to affect their mindset? No. So Peter and John have seen an empty tomb. Mary Magdalene has come to them and said Christ is raised. I've seen him. And they're not computing this. Right? They're not computing this.

What are some of the possibilities that these guys might be mulling over in their mind that might be making them afraid of the Jews? Maybe the Jews took them further in dignities. They went and did this nice wrapping and they closed the tomb up and everything. Maybe the Jews took them and they're doing further in dignities to Jesus' body. Maybe that's what they're thinking has happened. And if they're going to do further indignities to Jesus' body, they might want to do further indignities to the disciples.

So anyway, that's kind of the mindset of these disciples. Boy, they're interpreting everything in such a way that, boy, they ought to be afraid. Yes? I was going to say, I think it's the low half of their faith. Because when they were with Jesus, and they were seeing what He could do, and His teaching, and all those other things, they were on this high of faith. And now that He's gone, and they're wondering if what He taught them was actually true, and their faith is really at a low point. Yes, just incredible. And had Jesus told them that He would resurrect? What did they think that that meant? They apparently just tucked it away and had no thought as to what significance that had. Yeah, here, I raised Lazarus, you know, and that was only a week ago, right?

Don't you think fear rules? I mean, when you're really afraid, it's the dominant thing that controls you. And when you're really afraid, what happens is, Evidence and reality and reasonableness get set aside. Rationality, what did Jesus say? What did he mean by being raised? Here's Mary, comes and says, Jesus is resurrected, I've seen him. They had no place to put it. The fear had just taken over. It didn't matter what anybody said, didn't matter what the facts were. It didn't matter what Jesus had already told them was going to take place. Nope. I'm going to be afraid, and boy, I'm going to be really afraid.

Something to take a look at, because I think it's somewhat relevant as we go through this. Who's present, who's not? So let's take a look at the back of your handout. You've got a list. There's four lists between Matthew, Mark, Luke, and Acts. There are four lists of the disciples. One of the things we see here is, of course, Judas Iscariot has dropped out. So you've got 11.

And then you find this fellow Thomas. In fact, in the passage here, it says Thomas also called Didymus. Well, Didymus just means twin, right? So it really means also called twin. It apparently was. So Thomas is not present. You've got the rest of them that are present. Matthias had not yet replaced Judas. So even though they have the Acts list, Acts 1 list, Matthias had not replaced Judas. So you've got the ten of them that are present, less Thomas, less Judas.

So Jesus didn't knock on the door, tell them he's coming, or break it to them slowly. He just entered the room, apparently through a wall or closed doors, and stood in the midst of them. How might Jesus have broken it to them slowly? The typical thing, remember from Revelation 3, behold I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hear my voice? It was the custom in biblical times, you knock and talk. So that's why Jesus would say, you know, I stand at the door and knock, and if anyone hears my voice, because you would say, knock, knock, knock, it's Vern, it's Vern, I'm here, and so you would announce yourself and knock at the same time. He didn't do that. He just walks right in. And imagine, what if he knocked on the door, on the outside, and said, hello, it's Jesus, It's Jesus here, what's that gonna do? There isn't any way to break it to these guys easy, right?

So he just walks right in, and peace be with you. And that, he says again in verses 21 and 26, this was a common Jewish greeting, you know, Shalom, you've heard, but also Halakim. So, peace be with you, would be the standard greeting. Shalom is a shortened version of that. So if you look at it, peace be with you, he had already prepared them for this. Although they seemed to be slow on catching on.

Jesus is said in John 14.27 And remember, this is Sunday night, so Thursday night, John 14, peace I leave with you, my peace I give to you, not as the world gives do I give to you. Do not let your heart be troubled, nor let it be fearful. Did they listen? Not so much.

So in John 16.33, Jesus had said to them, These things I have spoken to you, so that in me you may have peace. In the world you have tribulation, but take courage, I have overcome the world. Did they take courage? No. Not so much.

So Jesus showed the ten disciples, left Thomas, his hands on his side, which bore the marks of the nails and the spear. The Latin term would be a pilum. At this point the disciples turn from fear to rejoicing. They are beginning to understand and they are convinced that it is indeed the Lord resurrected from the dead.

Can you imagine the wave of emotion? First of all, you're really scared. You're scared of the Jews, right? And then Jesus walks into the room with the doors still locked shut. and says, you know, peace be with you. Whoa. What do you think is their first response? When Jesus walks into the room and just stands in the midst and says, peace be with you.

Yeah, at first they've got extreme fear, and then it's like, wow, where do I put this, right? And then Jesus says, you know, hey, it's me, see, here's the marks. It's me. I'm there. And then they're rejoicing. So you imagine the extreme shift in emotions going on with these disciples right then. But there's one missing. Who's missing? Thomas is not there at the moment, right? So here they're going from this extreme shift in emotion and Thomas isn't a part of it. So he's got to go through a shift altogether.

So, Jesus showed the ten disciples Les Thomas, his hands on his side, which bore the marks of the nails and the spear. At this point, the disciples turned from fear to rejoicing in a short period of time and extreme shift in emotions. So, John 20, 21 and 23. So Jesus said to them, Peace be with you.

So now he says it again. As the Father has sent me, I also send you. He's been telling them all the way along, the Father sent me, the Father sent me, the Father sent me, the Father sent me. Now, he's saying, I send you. And I can imagine, wait a minute, you're sending me? You're sending me? And so, the puzzlement at this point, I just went from an extreme fear to rejoicing and I'm still half in shock and now you're sending me. So this is going to take a little bit to catch up with.

And when he had said this, he breathed on them and said to them, receive the Holy Spirit. If you forgive the sins of any, their sins have been forgiven them. And I make note, this is a perfect passive. And if you retain the sins of any, they have been retained.

Now, let's take that apart. You've got a perfect passive. The perfect means it's a completed action ongoing results in the future. The passive part means that these people are on the receiving end of the action. So it's the forgiveness is complete and total and permanent. and we're on the receiving end of the forgiveness. If you retain the sins of any, they have been retained completely. Ongoing results into the future, and God's the one who does it. So let's take a look at the second page here. These three verses have a lot packed into them, and they go together.

Jesus was preparing the disciples for the ministry they would have as apostles. Isn't it interesting? He first shows up, and right then and there, while they're still catching up to all the emotions and new ideas, He's telling them about, I'm going to send you. What? We're in here shivering with fear, we're scared to death, and you're going to send us? Right? So you can imagine what's going through their mind. So there are three things that are being said here.

One, in the world the disciples turned apostles would have tribulation, John 16.33 which we just read. There would be a basis for them to have peace and courage as they carry out their apostolic ministry. Jesus had overcome the world, and those who would come to believe would be overcomers. Also the Holy Spirit would be given. Part of the fruit of the Spirit was peace.

Verse 22 was not the point of receiving the Holy Spirit, but anticipating receiving the Holy Spirit. in Acts chapter 2. So again, it's pointing forward. Yes? I didn't look at the verse other than here, but it says he breathed on them. Doesn't that indicate that the breathing on them would get the Holy Spirit?

I think what he's talking about is something symbolic rather than it's given now. And there's a few different reasons for saying that. Tom, you had a thought? I think that he pictured in the past, in his ministry, as you don't know where the wind is going, it's the same way with the Holy Spirit. Yes, spirit and breath are two things, so the breathing would be a picture of the spirit.

A couple of different reasons for coming to that conclusion, that this was not the actual giving of the Holy Spirit, but simply, like the rest of those verses, a preparation for ministry. The Holy Spirit was given in Acts chapter 2, and that was clear. There was not a second giving of the Holy Spirit. You know, you shall receive power when the Holy Spirit has come upon you. This didn't do that.

There's one more thing, and we point out, both Thomas and Matthias would be present in Acts 2, but neither of them were present at this point. So it's for those that are there, preparing them for ministry, but I don't think from the evidence that it's the actual point of the giving of the Holy Spirit. Number three, if any believed the gospel, the apostles could tell these new believers that God had forgiven their sins. If they disbelieved, they could tell them that God has not forgiven but retained their sins.

Compare this to Matthew 16, 19, and 18, 18, which are stated similarly in a church discipline context. So this is, the grammar is very similar. But in those cases, it's for church discipline. In this context, it's more of an evangelistic, apostolic ministry context.

Yes? Wasn't only the apostles, the disciples that were in that room? Which room? Where Jesus appeared. It appears only here at just the tent. Just the tent, right? But Matthias, who would be one of them, is not included, and Thomas is not present. Christ died for the sins of the whole world but does that mean that everyone is forgiven yes you must believe in order for that payment to be applied so here's Jesus on the cross he says it's translated typically you know it is finished but it's actually an accounting term it's all paid So he calls out from the cross at the end of his time on the cross, and he says, it's all paid. And he uses the perfect tense there again. All the sins of the whole world, yours and mine and everyone else, all the sins of the whole world were paid for on the cross, but the payment is only applied to those who believe. So payment is one thing, the forgiveness is only applied to those who believe. See the distinction there?

We used the example previously, it is as if you have all mankind in this jail cell, all condemned, and the amount to get free is four trillion dollars, just to pick some ridiculously large amount. Everybody in the whole jail cell owes four trillion dollars. And of course everybody's throwing up their hands, I'd never pay that. And some guy walks in and he says, I have checks for every single one of you in the amount of four trillion dollars, the money is already in the account.

This check is good. The money is already in the account. It's there. It's not waiting. It's already in the account. All you have to do is turn this check over, go over there to the door, sign it, hand over the check, and you walk free. So some people will say, man, this is the best deal I could ever imagine. And they go and sign it and hand it in at the door and they walk free.

And somebody else takes it and says, ah, come on, give me a break. And they throw the check down on the floor. And somebody else says, well, this is garbage and rips the check up. And someone else says, you know, I think I'll think about it. And they just stick it in their pocket. So people have different responses, but the reality is only those who believe have that payment applied and are therefore forgiven.

So John 20, 24, and 25. But Thomas, one of the twelve, called Didymus, again that means twin, was not with them when Jesus came. So the other disciples were saying to him, we have seen the Lord. But he said to them, unless I see in his hands the imprint of the nails, and put my fingers into the place of the nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." I think one of the things that you have to look at here, some people will come up with this idea that the disciples were all just real gullible people and you could tell them anything and they go along with it, or somebody will come up with the idea that the disciples just kind of conjured up this story about Jesus' resurrection. But what you get here instead, the picture from earlier in the passage, and definitely right here, is extreme skepticism. Extreme skepticism. How many witnesses are telling Thomas, we've seen the Lord. How many? Ten of them, all saying, not like most of them or something, ten of them all saying, we've seen the Lord. Have you? Have you? Have you? Have you? And go down the line.

Ten of them, we've seen the Lord. Thomas is, oh okay, right? No. Thomas is instead, unless I see and touch, I'm not going to believe it. You guys just forget about it. Go away. I don't believe you. Extreme skepticism. The disciples were extremely skeptical. An empty tomb wasn't enough proof for them. Thomas.

Now, in the Jewish system, how many people is an adequate number of witnesses? Two or three, right? That's what the book of Deuteronomy lays out. Two or three witnesses is all it takes. Thomas has several times that. And he's still saying, uh-uh. I'm not taking anybody's word for it. I've got to see it and I've got to touch it. That's it. So, let's Let's take a look through some of the slides here. I think that will be helpful.

This is the still evening of this Sunday. And of course Mary Magdalene and the women had been there at the tomb. The tomb was empty except for the sheets. Peter and John had run and seen the empty tomb. That's what we saw in last week's passage. John came first, stopped at the door, looked in. came next and ran past him and went inside.

And then here is Mary Magdalene seeing Jesus resurrected, the first one from any record we have. So, John 20, 26-28. After eight days, his disciples were again inside and Thomas with them. Jesus came, the doors having been shut, and stood in their midst and said, Peace be with you." Is anything different so far? Everything is pretty much the same except now Thomas is here. Here's Thomas.

Then he said to Thomas, Reach here with your finger and see my hands and reach here your hand and put it into my side and do not be unbelieving but believing. Thomas answered and said to him, my Lord and my God. Jesus said to him, because you have seen me, have you believed? Blessed are they who do not see and yet believed.

So here's a couple of artistic presentations. Here's one putting his finger into the side. There's another. And then this one, which acknowledges that at this point, it's my Lord and my God. So Thomas seemed to immediately recognize Christ as having risen, saying, my Lord and my God. In those words, Thomas acknowledged Jesus' authority, deity, identity, and resurrection. Now, we talked earlier about the disciples going through a huge emotional wave change, right?

How about Thomas? Thomas is doing the same thing, except his skepticism is extreme. He doesn't believe ten male witnesses, guys that he's spent time with for several years now. He doesn't believe them. Now all of a sudden, what they told me was true. What they told me was true. Now, as we look at this, let's get over to page three here.

Thomas believed having seen Jesus with his own eyes, but Jesus turns from there to those who would believe the message of the apostles based on their testimony alone, not having seen Christ personally. That would soon be Thomas' ministry, calling those who have not seen to believe. Calling those who have not seen to believe. That would be his ministry.

Isn't that interesting? Take a guy who is extremely skeptical, even to the point of not believing ten witnesses. And Jesus is going to send him out to tell people who have not seen, but calling them to believe. Yes, he'd been there himself. And he's going to get some skepticism too, won't he? And he'll say, I was skeptical too, let me tell you that story. It's interesting looking at Thomas.

Thomas ended up going over to the Jews who were in the area around Persia and Babylon, the ones that remained there. And then he eventually ended up in India. And that's not from the biblical record, but other records outside of the Bible indicate that he went to India. And if you go to the Christians over in India, they'll tell you that too. I have met a fellow who was a missionary over there for a time. And he says, yep, they'll tell you, Thomas was the one who brought the gospel here. So, amazing. Okay, so it's that Thomas.

John 20, 30, and 31. Therefore many other signs Jesus also performed in the presence of the disciples, which are not written in this book. But these have been written, ones here in this book, have been written so that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that believing you may have life in his name. Now one of the things that John does that's rather unique, and he does it also in 1 John 1-4 and Revelation 119, is John gives the purpose for writing. He doesn't just write, but he gives in each of his major works the purpose for writing, and that's something rather unique to John. Jesus performed other signs, a few of which are recorded in the other three Gospels. We have these early and late records in John of the things that Jesus did.

Here's John 2.11, this is when Jesus had turned the water into wine at Cana. The beginning of the signs Jesus did in Cana of Galilee, and manifested his glory, but his disciples believed in him.

So John 21.25, and there are also many other things which Jesus did, which if they were written in detail, I suppose even the world itself would not contain the books that would be written. So, we conclude that Jesus did many things during his ministry which are not recorded at all in the four Gospels. A lot of other things. So we have four Gospels, we have these four books, Mark is the shortest one, but generally fairly lengthy books, and they don't record everything.

Well, if you think about the fact that his ministry was like three and a half years, and every day he went out to minister. And he probably performed maybe a miracle every day at least, if not two or three. He said things and did things every day. And even if he went out in the hills and prayed, that got recorded here for some of those events.

And yet what we have is actually just a sampling. What we have is a sampling. One more thing with the Gospel of John especially, half the book is focused on the time of this week before his crucifixion and then on into the time of his resurrection. So you find it's not an even coverage by time, but rather instead the book gives very quick coverage of the time up to the week before he was crucified. And then gives much more detail and even at that we find things in the other Gospels that aren't in John. So John particularly focuses on that week and the time following after he was resurrected, but still it's a sampling. Yeah, a great deal could be written. It's quite clear that John's purpose was that the reader or hearer of his book believe, and what I did is kind of with brackets and whatnot, sort of expanded and explained.

So, believe that Jesus, the Hebrew would be Yeshua, Savior, is the Christ, that's the Christos, or the Messiah, okay? We believe that Jesus is the Messiah, the Anointed One, the Son of God, so the second person of the Trinity, and that anyone who believes may have life in his name.

And what does the name mean? That's who he is. So if we pray in Jesus' name, we pray not just by dropping names, but we pray in fact on the basis of who he is. That's what we're doing when we pray in Jesus' name. So the clear sequence of the Gospel of John, and this last one here in John 20 verse 31 is, believe then be given life. believe then be given life.

So John 3.16, you believe and then you have life, right?

John 3.36, 5.24, 11.25 and now here at 20.31 is believe then you have life.

Yes? Didn't you once say that that's not the order of Calvinism? Calvinism says that you're out on a slab cold dead and you're elect and chosen and Therefore, because you're elected and chosen and you can't believe until you're made alive, so Calvinism says the first thing God does is to make you alive.

Actually make you alive, but what this says is you believe and then have life repeatedly there in the Gospel of John from early until late. This is the last time. there in 2031. But repeatedly you believe and then you get life. You believe and then you get life.

So it says that Calvinism's assumption about what it means to be elected and chosen and especially what it means to be dead. Dead doesn't mean out on a slab, cold dead, unable to respond. Death means what? Separation. Your problem is not that you're unable, your problem is you're separated from God.

That's the primary problem. the primary problem. Calvinism also runs into trouble with the identification truths. Because Calvinism says the first thing God does is make you alive, right? What does the identification truth say God does first? You die. The first thing is you get crucified, okay? Not made alive. That's not until the third identification truth that you're made alive. The first thing that happens with the identification truths is you're crucified. First thing.

So the Gospel of John introduces some things that just run headlong against the Calvinist sequence. So Dan Byrne, you said you're dead in Calvinism, then you're elected and chosen, you're made alive, so then once you become alive, then you can believe. No, once you become alive, then you're given, in Calvinism, then you're given the gift of faith, because you can't believe unless you're given the gift of faith, and then you believe, and then you're saved. But the sequence is in sharp conflict with the identification truths and what John says repeatedly about you believe and then you have life.

Okay, let's take a step through on page four. Mary Magdalene returns to the tomb, she sees the angels, and then she sees Jesus resurrected. Does she recognize Jesus as resurrected at this point? Does she end up recognizing Jesus as resurrected? Yes. So then, let's go to the next page.

Later the same day, Jesus appears to Peter. Still on the same day, Jesus appears to Cleopas and another disciple on their way to Emmaus. And that evening, the two disciples report the event to the eleven in Jerusalem. Now, what it has here, Jesus appears to ten disciples, Jesus appears to all eleven disciples.

It's possible that some of the sequence here, because we're not given the exact sequence, some of the sequence here may be slightly different. But by the end of the day, by the end of the day, All the disciples except for Thomas have seen him. Thomas doesn't see Jesus until when?

What does this account tell us? A week later. A week later. So isn't it amazing? Here's Thomas. He's hearing for a week from these guys. Jesus is resurrected. I'm telling you, we've seen him. We've all seen him. All ten of us. And he's, uh-uh. He's not believing. He's not believing. Isn't that amazing? Astounding. So Thomas doesn't find out until a week later. And meanwhile, he's steadfast in his skepticism.

If you had been Thomas, put yourself in Thomas' shoes. If you had been Thomas, resistant to the testimony of all your fellow disciples for a week, And then you finally, yes it is the Lord, my Lord and my God. What would that do to you? It would probably make you more surprised than all the previous ten disciples put together.

Yeah, here's a guy who is steadfastly stubborn in his skepticism, and yet when he turns around he fully acknowledges my Lord and my God. Got one other question for us to ponder, and that is, when Thomas said, my Lord and my God, was he just kind of making an expression, or was he declaring Jesus to be deity? Pardon? Deity. Okay.

And do we, what do we have to tell us that Jesus, if he was not deity, would reject Thomas worship of Him. Yeah, and let's also think, remember John twice in the book of Revelation begins worshiping an angel just because he, you know, think of poor John, he has a tough time discerning what's, you know, What's deity and what's just reflected glory here? And so twice, towards the end of the book of Revelation, he begins worshiping angels. And the angels both times do what?

They say, don't worship me, worship God. Okay? Don't worship me, worship God. So if Jesus is not deity, would he not have done the exact same thing? He would have said, hey, wait a minute, don't worship me, worship God. Instead, he receives the worship. He receives the worship, yes.

I think it also shows the level of belief and how that word is sometimes totally misunderstood because obviously none of the disciples had any deep-seated belief in faith before they saw Jesus resurrected. Because even though they said that they believed him and they heard him say that he was God and they saw his actions and the miracles and all these other things, obviously it must have not been a belief that really inundated their own minds and souls soon as this event happened, it was tomorrow. I mean, that's kind of, to me, that's kind of scary in a way, because what's the level of belief to salvation? I don't know if that makes any sense, but to me it's like, if you're running a race and somebody says, you can do that, and you say, oh yeah, right. And you really don't believe it until after you finish the race, and then you say, oh, I did that. you know there's a different level of belief and to have somebody tell you something and to believe it is one thing but to actually see it happen is a totally different thing this level of belief is I think totally misunderstood at least for me and let's ask this question What did the disciples understand by the end of the day, that day of Christ's resurrection?

What did they understand? That all the things he said were true. Yeah, you can imagine things, I mean, because he had told them, I'm going to be raised on the third day. And they didn't believe it. He had given them in advance that he was going to be crucified, and they didn't seem to get that.

So a part of what's happening here, I mean, their minds are reeling. Oh, that's what you meant! Oh, that's what that means! Can you imagine? Up until that point, they have such extreme skepticism, they had not a clue what he was talking about, even though he said it in advance. Not a clue. They're having a major aha moment, but they're not done.

What we find as we go through the book of Acts, and we look at the timeline in Acts, and we start plotting out, okay, this book was written here, the first book written was probably James, written maybe a dozen years after the events we just read here.

So there's James, and then you start looking at the other books that were written, Even Romans tells you that you're identified with Christ in his death, burial, resurrection. That's it. Romans does not get the believer off the ground. Your identification with Christ in his ascension and his seating in the heavenlies is not revealed until thirty years later.

So you can imagine these disciples are going through aha moments and they just began that resurrection Sunday. They're going, aha! Wow! For years. For three decades. Until the end of the book of Acts. They're having these amazing realizations. Learning new things. Learning things about what Jesus had already told them. And so this Sunday, which was a real major eye-opener for them, and Thomas started a week later, this Sunday was the beginning of these years of aha moments.

I never knew that. I had no idea. Can you imagine? It was years later, as far as we can tell, 30 years later, before they realized that when Christ ascended, they ascended with Him. Up until then, they just think, well, He just left us, right? But no realization that they had ascended, spiritually speaking, with Him. So this was the first day of years and years of huge aha moments. So the disciples are going out preaching the faith at the same time. What is the faith? all the teachings of the apostles, is expanding as they learn.

Other comments, questions, thoughts? Do they realize their position with Christ in heaven? When? Well here's what's interesting is is we don't we find the heavenly message 30 years later That you're seated with Christ. We have a heavenly citizenship That we're to set our minds on things above the heavenly calling It's all three decades later that those are written about and And so it's an amazing thing. They are having those phenomenal aha moments for decades.

But, having said that, John had a brother, right? His name was James. And James was the one apostle whose death is recorded in the New Testament. James was killed, is recorded in Acts, killed by the sword. So, James went to meet the Lord face to face before he ever heard that, as far as we can tell. But, on the other hand, James learned a lot of things early, because he went home early.

Other questions, thoughts? Is Ephesians the first book then that resurrection and seeding is mentioned? Not the resurrection, but the ascension and seeding. Descension and Seeding, Ephesians and Colossians was probably written about the same time, which talks about, you know, set your mind on things above where Christ is.

So that's a heavenly perspective book. Philippians, written approximately the same time, says we have a heavenly citizenship. And the Book of Life, by the way, is the list of heavenly citizens. Because a Book of Life in biblical times, even on back in the New Testament, was the list of living citizens. That was what the Book of Life meant. So, if your name is in the Book of Life, like you see in Philippians chapter 4, it means you have a citizenship in heaven.

Let's pray. Thank you, Lord, for what you have shown here. It is amazing to see the disciples' skepticism, to see their discovery of what Jesus had told them. It is astounding to look at their first in a long series of aha moments where they are having realizations and beginning to get the significance of what is taking place, the significance of what Jesus did and would accomplish. And we're thankful that we get a glimpse into this very special aha moment, recognizing what the disciples are beginning to see, and in fact, an understanding that would grow for decades. So we thank you for this. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen.