The God Who Appears

Text: John 20:19-29

We left off last week, after reading about Peter’s sprint to the tomb, at Luke 24:12, which says this, “But Peter rose and ran to the tomb; stooping and looking in, he saw the linen cloth by themselves; and he went home marveling at what had happened.” After considering what it must have been like to be the three women coming to the tomb only to find it empty we asked, when Peter got there, what was Peter marveling at? His marveling helps capture our two point from last week:

1. He must have been marveling over the power of Jesus over death, and that the resurrection power that rose Jesus from the dead is the same power that has saved and is sanctifying you. If you are saying, “But yeah, can I overcome this obstacle in my character or conduct?” To answer this question you need to only ask, “Did God overcome death in Christ?” If he did, then he can overcome the death disobedience alive and at work in you!

2. As Peter backtracked and thought over the events of Good Friday he must have marveled over the God who was squeezed by our sin on Easter weekend (what a man says and does on his deathbed). Just as Peter marveled over the God-man in the most tenacious and trying of moments, will we marvel. Has King Jesus won you over in word and work? (John 21:25)

Will we recognize that we are empowered people and that Jesus has done more than we could ever ask or imagine? Let’s be a flock that has been won over by Him! He has won our loyalty, our allegiances, and our lives. In the words of the Moravians, a missions-minded flock in Herrnhut Germany in the mid 18th century, “our lamb has conquered, let us follow Him.”

The God who appeared

Now we will enter into the Easter Story, the evening of Resurrection Sunday — the evening of the day that Peter sprinted into this tomb and marveled. Let me bring us into the text:

“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…” (John 20:19 ESV) 

We have with this text the God who appears. Now, look in verse 26:

“Eight days later, disciples were inside again, doors locked (same scene) Jesus came and stood among them…” (John 20:26 ESV)

Appearance is crucial for belief 

Side note for verses 30-31: 

“Now Jesus did many other signs in the presence of his disciples, which are not written in this book; but these (especially the resurrection) are written that you may believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and that by believing you may have life in this name.” (John 20:30-31 ESV)

I think I have largely read these verses out of context and talk about this as the thesis on John and neglect seeing the surrounding context. Sure, “these” means everything in his gospel, but it also especially means the proof of him being alive after the Resurrection. If John says these are important enough to write about so that people can believe, then we ought to have the same posture: That the resurrection is not as much of a hold up for people as we might think. But the evidence is actually so great for it that it's hard to deny. My conversations before, during, and after Easter simply started by, “the Easter claim of Jesus rising from the dead is pretty bold, seems pretty far-fetched…what do you make of it?” He either did, or He didn’t. If he didn’t, nothing really changes for you. But if he did, would something change for you?

But let’s move from this aside and consider Jesus’ appearances before his disciples:

“After this Jesus revealed himself again to the disciples by the Sea of Tiberias, and He Revealed Himself in this way.” (John 21:1 ESV)

So, what do we make of this? We have this great God of appearances. I want to look at each of these appearances and ask: what does this tell us about our Christ and what He wants in us and for us? 

The Appearing God

The Bible uses the word “appeared” 92 times and, of the 52 referenced in the New Testament, all but a dozen refer to God or Jesus (John the baptist, Judas, uprisings in acts). Overwhelmingly, the appearances language in the Bible is consumed with us knowing that God has intersected with human history, our forefathers in the faith, and our very own lives. That Christianity is not some form of deism where God created but then backed away and said, “have at it…” No, HE is the PRESENT GOD, THE NEAR GOD, He is the INTIMATELY acquainted with all your ways God. He has moved your sins as far away as the east is from the west, but HE himself has not moved away from you. The smile of God, for the Christian is unbeatable, unbreakable, and is steadfast even in your suffering and sorrows. 

And even when it feels like life is hazy and foggy and dense with cloud-cover, and sun of the smile of God is hidden from your eye, and you feel the oppressiveness of an inversion and assume it’s the almighty smiting you, you need not conclude He must not be close or he is frowning at you. I was just on a plane coming back from Minneapolis, and it was a foggy and frowny morning in Boise. When we took off and got above the clouds, it was glorious. It was not foggy and dark because the sun wasn’t out, but because I just couldn’t see it. My hope is that what we behold, the Bible and our God who appears would carry us above your cloud-cover and get you at 30,000 feet so you can bask in our God of appearance. 

Why did God appear?

His love, His affection, His care, and compassion is what led him to appear. He appeared for us! That’s the answer to the question, “why did God appear?” And why has he appeared for 6,000 some years? I can tell us something very clearly, he did not appear for Himself. God was not somehow lacking and needy and insufficient. He is not uncomfortable with his legitimacy within Himself or to us. He appeared for us!! For you, and for me, He is the God who said stick your hands in my side, and the holes in my hands, see me come through the locked door, do not disbelieve, but believe. This is for you!!! I want you to know, and for countless generations who read this record, “I have not left and I am alive and will be with you” and I will not give you a crevice of evidence, but I will give you a canyon of evidence and appear to you at my tomb, in your locked houses, by the seashore, by many proofs, not just for 4 hours, or 4 days, but 40 days of convincing appearance. I also broke upon tombs and many Bodies of the saints, long since dead and buried, will rise and go into the city and appear to many!! They appeared to show the result of what Jesus’ resurrection would do for us as it has done for them! 

God’s appearances are part of His accommodation to us. There is a doctrine of accommodation or condescension that is built into the mantle of our God. By accommodation I mean this: God has accommodated or lowered Himself, simplified Himself, humbled Himself to allow revelation of Himself to be received by lowly creatures: “Christians have historically endorsed the doctrine of divine accommodation. This doctrine holds that since God is transcendent, He cannot communicate to us as equals in the language of pure, unfiltered, heavenly discourse. He is the triune Creator, whereas we are mere creatures. So when God talks to us, He stoops to our level.” Another way to define accommodation is this by A.N.S. Lane, “God speaks to us in a form that is suited to the capacity of the hearer.” One of my seminary professors has said that God speaks to us in baby-talk but this does not mean that the talk is somehow untrue and insufficient for us to know God. Now, God is incomprehensible, but not unknowable. We do not have an exhaustive knowledge of God, but that doesn’t mean you don’t know them. So just because God is incompressible doesn’t mean He is unknowable. God is knowable. 

God is at least two things:

1. God is transcendent—wholly other; but not so far away that we cannot identify him. 

2. God is immanent—Close to us and personal, but not so close that he cannot be distinguished. He is not too impossible for us to understand and neither is He indistinguishable from Creation. In the incarnation, in Jesus, God has made his transcendence known without sacrificing his knowability and he has made his immanence felt without marking him indistinguishable from us. 

God appeared to accommodate

To tie this up, God’s appearing is a form of accommodation. God knows that sight for faith is important to his followers and so he makes many appearances. We also share that impulse and God is empathetic to it. When you ask an atheist,, “what evidence do you need to believe in God?” They say, “if he appeared…”. Well, here Jesus is appearing and accommodating His people. I just want you to be won over by your God who is leaning toward us and not leaning away from us in the resurrection. He is condescending, not just in the incarnation, but in resurrection appearances so he can connect with us and breed confidence in us about Himself and His commission. Again, I want to make sure we know that God is not doing this because he’s unbelievable and He needs more legitimacy. No, He doesn’t need help, nor is anything about Him problematic. We are the problem. We lack faith, have doubt, need proof sadly to really embrace Him. This is the God who prophesied this, the Christ who spoke continually of this. The angel asked Mary at the tomb: 

“Why are you looking for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while He was still in Galilee that the Son of Man must be delivered into the hands of sinful men and be crucified and on the third day rise?” (Luke 24:5-6 ESV) 

He doesn’t owe us anything after His resurrection. He’s the Creator God and it would have been righteous and appropriate for Him to simply rise and let us figure it out. 

Yet God humbles himself and appears for 40 more days to us, and it is almost appalling that He allows you to stick your hand in his side, and in the holes of his hands…and we don’t deserve it in the slightest. I see Christ saying, “here, here…come and touch. These wounds are for you. They were for you on the cross to give you freedom from condemnation and now they are for your confidence. Go ahead, feel away!” And if I am an angel (maybe the one who would be called to smite the world or the one who strengthens Jesus in Gethsemane), I'd say: get away, get away from Him. You don’t deserve Him! Get your dirty hands out of His holes. You caused those holes. Your sin got him butchered. This is the One I worship day and night and you got him beat like a dirty dog. You don't deserve those holes. Those holes are because of you - remember that, Thomas. You did this and those holes are because of you. But Jesus says, “No, these holes are for you. They were for you on Good Friday and they are for you now. Touch and Trust Thomas, Touch and Trust!” 

It is incredible accommodation that God would submit Himself to our needs and not his own. It is grace, incredible grace, that he would meet us on our terms and continually Lean toward us and give us more than we deserve. It's more than we could even ask or imagine. How is it that our Lord could lower Himself yet again and woo and win us when he ought to just be done with us?

Oh, our great God of appearance!

God’s three appearances 

(The fourth one recorded we will cover in John in a couple of weeks)

Let us now look in detail at Christ’s three appearances from our text. We didn’t read it, but his first appearance in terms of the resurrection is with Mary at the tomb: 

“Jesus said to her, ‘Do not cling to Me, for I have not ascended to the Father, but go to my brothers and say to them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.” (John 20:17 ESV) 

Did Jesus just say what I think He said? 

Point #1–Jesus has appeared to tell you that you are legally in the family. Jesus has appeared to complete our adoption into His family and to tell you that the adoption papers are now signed and sealed and funded in full. You will carry his name and He will never disobey or disown you!

• As it says in Hebrews 2:11, “he is not ashamed to call you brother…” and he can’t nor never want to un-brother you!

• Remember, the disciples have transitioned from followers—to friends—to forsakers—and now to family. The change is unparalleled. 

• Point of clarification: It could sound a little upside down for Jesus to say, “My God is your God.” Jesus doesn’t have a God, but is God. It's completely normal for us to have a God. On the other hand, for Jesus to have his Trinitarian Father is completely appropriate, but it sounds too good to be true for us. But Jesus says, go tell them I am ascending to My Father and your Father and My God and your God. 

• To make sense of this, it helps to remember Jesus is our representative head. He is now representing us to the Father and via our union with Him through adoption we are connected to Him and one with Him. So essentially, God is Jesus’ father, not ours—but in connection with Jesus, God is fully our Father too. God is our God, not a god over and above Jesus—but in Jesus’ connection with us and identification with us, Jesus says, “okay fellas, My God too.” We see Jesus’ representation, identification, and accommodation towards us. Remember, He is not ashamed to call us brothers even considering all the results that ripple from it. So, we remember that Jesus appeared to tell you that you are legally in His family, and He’s not ashamed to be family with you!

Now let’s proceed to the next appearing, John 20:19-23.

Point #2–Jesus appeared to give you peace and make you a peacemaker, but is not promising world peace. 

• Let’s not miss that the primary and most pervasive and powerful peace given is the one that now exists between you and God by the blood of Jesus’ Cross (Colossians 1:20). And lest you never forget it, that that peace, the peace that transformed you from enemy to family, is now the spoken greeting of almost every New Testament book of the Bible. Grace to you and Peace from God our Father, and His Son Jesus Christ… This is the primary peace that must never grow old or dull! (More on the types of peace in a moment.)

• Let’s make sure we see the kindness of Jesus in building confidence. There is not a hint or a “look what you’ve done”, or a “man, Friday was a real slog..I never thought that day would end”. He was showing them so they would be glad and believe. 

• Next, Jesus commissions the newly believing very confidently. How does He do it? It’s this adoption language. We have the same father, the same family, and are inclined to sell out for the family business. We are all rowing in the same direction together because we are one, and are brothers. Jesus is not commissioned on the basis of their performance, but on His pledge of brotherhood and in their family obligation to submit and take after their Fathers. It's just what sons do. They imitate and take up the family trade. 

• We go all the way back to Ryan’s sermon on the Beatitudes, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be Called the sons of God!”

• And then finally, what is Jesus giving? He is giving peace to us, but is not promising peace around us. “Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you. Not as the world gives…” So, what are the peace presents of God?

• A quick word on John 20:22-23–more to come in a couple of weeks because they transition really well to chapter 21, I want to hold off for now. But, safe to say, Jesus is giving them the first fruits of a fuller filling that is to come and is giving them responsibility but not necessarily authority. 

What we know from the context is that Thomas was not around at Jesus’ earlier appearance and makes quite a fuss and a list of demands if Jesus is to earn his allegiance and belief- John 20:26-29. 

Point #3–Jesus appeared to infuse His new and future family with a comforting confidence leading to conversion. Let’s take each one of these last words and attach them to the story:

• Comforting: Jesus was saying in such kindness, “see and feel for yourself.”

• Confidence: We see Jesus building confidence in saying, “Don’t disbelieve, but Believe!” 

• Conversion: And then we see the clarity of Thomas' testimony: “My Lord and God’ and then the clear converting purposes of the book of John itself in John 20:30-31.

So might we remember our Great God who has appeared to us, for us! He offers us incredibly comforting peace—vertical and horizontal. It is a fixed and final definitive peace, and a peace that progressively grows and flourishes in faith. Our Christ’s compassion and kindness in His commission of us as He invites us into the family business.