Loaded Benefits I

John 20:²¹ “Again he said, “Peace be with you. As the Father has sent me, so I am sending you”

John 20:¹⁷ “Don’t cling to me,” Jesus said, “for I haven’t yet ascended to the Father. But go find my brothers and tell them, ‘I am ascending to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God.’” Jesus made it possible for His Father to truly be our Father. Therefore, the Lord’s prayer that He taught us has more meaning because we can say, ‘Our Father…’. It is because of the sacrifice of Jesus on the cross that we can say, ‘Matt. 6:⁹ “In this manner, therefore, pray: Our Father in heaven, Hallowed be Your name.” (NKJV).

John 20:¹⁸ “Mary Magdalene found the disciples and told them, “I have seen the Lord!” Then she gave them his message.” It was not as straightforward as that because if you look at Luke 24:¹¹ “But the story sounded like nonsense to the men, so they didn’t believe it.” Even after Mary and the women had come and told them they saw the Lord; the disciples did not believe them. The Bible says they did not believe the women because their words were like nonsense. ‘You mean you saw Jesus and He showed up just to comfort you? You also saw angels? This is crazy!’

John 20:^19-20 “That Sunday evening the disciples were meeting behind locked doors because they were afraid of the Jewish leaders. Suddenly, Jesus was standing there among them! “Peace be with you,” he said. As he spoke, he showed them the wounds in his hands and his side. They were filled with joy when they saw the Lord!”. Please read John 20:24-29. Thomas is someone that has gotten a lot of bad press from the church; we call him doubting Thomas. Thomas was absent when Jesus first showed Himself to the disciples. The same way the disciples did not believe the women, Thomas did not believe the other disciples when they told him that they had seen Jesus. So, there is nothing wrong with him. They too did not believe until they saw Jesus with their own eyes, and that was the same condition Thomas gave. Thomas must have said, ‘I will not believe until I see Him with my own eyes. This Jesus told us many things, but we all saw Him crucified on the cross. And you people are saying you have seen Him, how?’ Then Jesus came and said to Thomas, ‘Touch…’ Thomas was the only one that shouted, ‘My Lord and my God!’ Not like the others did not have that same confession but he alone verbalized it.

When Jesus showed up to Mary, Jesus did not say to Mary, ‘see My hand, see My wounds.’ Jesus just called Mary and she turned and saw Jesus. But when Jesus was showing Himself to His disciples, He did not use voice recognition or facial recognition, He used the scars from His crucifixion, why? This is your homework. Why was it that when He was talking to Mary, He did not need to prove with His scars? But when He was talking to the disciples, He needed to prove it with the scars. Also read John 20:21-23, Gen.2:7, Eze. 37:5, John 20:29-31 as your homework.

Prayer: Jesus, I can never thank You enough for the cross and the loaded benefits, thank You, Lord, in Jesus’ Name. Amen!