Immediately following Jesus’ resurrection from the dead, after telling his disciples that as the Father had sent Him so was He sending them, the apostle John notes that Jesus “breathed on them, and said to them, ‘Receive the Holy Spirit’” (Joh 20:22). This was not his version of the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that…
Writing after the other gospels had long been in circulation, John in His gospel notes several things about Jesus’ first resurrection appearance to His apostles that in the intervening years the Lord reminded him of that were significant. It was John who records that the doors were shut for fear of the Jews, that Jesus’…
Jesus’ post-resurrection appearances began with Mary Magdalene and Mary the mother of James and Joseph, followed by an appearance to Peter, then to two disciples on the road to Emmaus. Eight days later He appeared to them again (Joh 20:26), and then a third time to a number of them at the Sea of Galilee…
Unlike their very tangible, of-this-world interactions with Jesus before His crucifixion (which, like those they had with any other person they never doubted but accepted at face value) the interactions His disciples had with Him after His resurrection were decidedly of a more spiritual nature. To be sure, they came to absolutely believe that what…
Although the light of the truth began to dawn with the morning light on that first day of the week when Jesus was resurrected from the dead, it wasn’t until later that evening when Jesus first appeared to most of His apostles that the intensity of that light began to break the bondage of darkness…
Jesus’ followers rightly understood that His brutal death left His body beyond the possibility of being raised to mortal life. Only after He had been resurrected from such a death to immortal life, of which He was the first, were they able to understand what the Scriptures had foretold. We gather that not even the…
Until the horrific events of Jesus’ crucifixion had taken place and His disciples understood there was no way mortal life could be restored to His body—but then, there He was, alive and well, and could be handled, and could eat and drink with them—until then they couldn’t understand the many words He had spoken to…
In spite of the many words Jesus had spoken to His disciples about His forthcoming death and resurrection, it still came as a complete shock to them—first that He whom they had come to believe in as the Messiah would be so brutally murdered, and second that a person whom they knew to be completely…
Following the discovery of the empty tomb very early on Sunday morning, Jesus made several appearances to others before appearing that evening to a gathering of His disciples that included all but Thomas of His remaining apostles. He appeared first to the same two Marys who had found the tomb empty, but not until later…
On Sunday, the first day of the week, and the third day after Jesus had been crucified, the news spread quickly that the tomb in which He was interred was discovered that morning to be empty, that some had experienced an angelic vision saying Jesus was alive, and that some had even seen Him, though…